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My friends just had a baby girl last night and I've been asked to be the godfather. I'm pretty happy about it since I don't see myself having any kids in the near future. I'd post pictures but I don't know how they would feel about me putting pictures of their daughter on the internet, even somewhere as safe as this board. Plus I'm in all the ones I have and I don't think anyone needs to be subjected to pictures of me Posts: 835 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Feb 2004
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How old will she be before you start teaching her your family business?
-------------------- My mom, about my nervousness with Jeopardy!: "Don't worry about it. Just get drunk and you'll do fine." Blog Just call me Mickey 2 Posts: 3295 | From: Radford, VA/Herndon, VA/Orlando, FL | Registered: Jan 2006
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And someday, and that day may never come, you'll call upon them to do a service for you.
Congratulations to you and your friends.
-------------------- "Tis too much proved that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself." - Hamlet Posts: 344 | From: Pittsburgh, PA | Registered: Jun 2006
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Forgotten Fay
I'll Be Home for After Christmas Sales
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Congratulations Hubert!!! Many happy vibe being sent to the family and you!
Forgotten"YAY!!"Fay
-------------------- "Smile for me when I cannot Smile anymore..." ~ Myself Posts: 174 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Mickey is a Hanukkah Bush: Congratulations, Hubert!
How old will she be before you start teaching her your family business?
Never ask him about his business.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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Question, are you married? and if so, did mrs. hubert get to be the godmother?
I'm just thinking of a debate mrs. callee and I had in the summer. One day she told me she had to go to the baptism of a child of a family member on her side, and I asked why, and she explained she had been asked to be the godmother. Incredulously, I inquired as to why I wasn't informed of this before, and when was said family member going to talk to me about it? Confused, mrs. callee responded that she was telling me right then, the family member probably wasn't going to ever talk to me about it, and why did it matter to me? Now I was confused, and so I responded, "well if you're the godmother, doesn't that de facto make us the godparents? if I'm going to get stuck with their kids in the event of their death, shouldn't I atleast be asked?" Mrs. callee said, no, no, no, I was getting confused with Guardians, who usually constituted a married couple to whom the kids would go in the event of a parents death. Godfather or Godmother, she continued, were simply honourifics and if they had any real meaning, it was that on a historical level the godparent was responsible for the spiritual direction of the child. The Godmother and the Godfather, she continued, were usually not married, but rather were usually each a friend of the mother and the father, respectively. Further, each child usually got an entirely different set of godparents than their sibblings.
So, in other words, every time mrs. callee and I have a kid, I get to go pick out one of my mates and say "hey, you're the godfather," and it really means nothing more than that, at that point in my life, I think he's a good mate and want to use the birth of my child as an opportunity to honour him.
While this all had a certain degree of internal coherence, it was nevertheless not at all what I was used to thinking of as "godparents." "If the godmother and the godfather are two separate people," I argued back, "then why do we have the joint term Godparents, which surely infers a couple?" Nay, mrs. callee retorted, I was importing too much to a single word form; "god parents" was simply a gender neutral refernce if the sentence needed ambiguity.
It still made no sense to me. I mean, why bother taking the time to appoint both godparents and guardians? Why not get a twofer and make the same couple do both?
I searched the internet, always a good place to start, and found references to both godparents and guardians that seemed to presume both mrs. callee's and my way of thinking.
So, I guess, bottom line, what the heck is a godfather? What do you believe your responsibilties are?
-------------------- a moment for old friends now estranged, victims of the flux of alliances and changing perceptions. There was something there once, and that something is worth honoring as well. - John Carroll Posts: 3375 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Mar 2004
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No, I'm not married or dating anyone. She's asking one of her friends to be the godmother. But even if I were married or dating I don't think they would have asked my wife/girlfriend to be the godmother. I really think the whole godparent thing (in this case at least) is more of a symbolic thing anyway since none of us go to church and in the event anything happens to them, they have two sets of grandparents who would be more than willing to take over. The way I see it, my job is to help make sure this girl grows up to be as good a person as I can.
Although I understand what you mean about assuming the spouse would be the other godparent. Everyone I know has godparents who are married and I never even thought it was done any other way until this came up. Who knows, maybe this is a sign that I'll end up with her friend? That would give another reason to love this kid Posts: 835 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Feb 2004
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To my knowledge, mrs. callee has it mostly right. Godparents are just an honorary title at this point in time. In more religious families, it is possible that they are more responsible for the "spiritual" aspect of the child's upbringing.
I am the Godmother of my sister's youngest son; my BIL's brother is the Godfather.
DH and I are the Godparents of our best friends' daughter and his sister's youngest.
DS#1 has one of my brothers as his Godfather and DH's sister as his Godmother.
DS#2 has DH's brother & SIL (my fave) as his Godparents and DH's sister's husband as a Godfather. We named him as a Godfather because he has only girls, with the prospect of no sons. This was done in a Catholic church, and he is not Catholic. Now, granted, my priest (who has since passed away, God rest his soul) was very lenient.
So, at least in my family, it is more an honorary title.
Come to think of it, by the time I was born, the 6th of 6 kids, my parent were down to neighbors as Godparents.
The guardians of my children are DH's sister & husband. They would raise them right and have the money to do it. We are the guardians of our best friends' two kids because neither of them trust their families to do it right.
-------------------- "Maybe getting in the last word doesn't really mean you win." - The Clarks Posts: 486 | From: Pittsburgh, PA | Registered: Sep 2005
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Ladycrissdean
I'll Be Home for After Christmas Sales
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From my understanding it has a lot to do with family culture and tradition.
In my family the Godparents are selected from two different families, and do assume guardianship should something happen to the actual parents.
That way should one of the Godparents pre-decease the parents there is the other to fall back on. Or if one Godparent is unable to take both children then there is another place they could go.
Both my sons share the same Godparents mainly because we (my ex-husband and I) never wanted there to be an option of splitting them up should it ever come down to it. We have named the Godparents in our repective wills as the preferred guardians should anything happen to us.
We did talk to our choices both as individuals and with their significant others before the boys were born and we announced them as the Godparents. Eventhough we are divorced now, we still have the same Godparents for the boys. The boys get gifts from them at their birthdays and at Christmas. Since we addressed all their questions from the beginning there has never been a question on what we were asking and what they were agreeing to.
-------------------- Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. Posts: 138 | From: Lawrence, Kansas | Registered: May 2006
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Congrats! Sounds like YOU were made an offer you couldn't refuse.
-------------------- Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction - Antoine de Saint-Exupery Posts: 1961 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2004
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Good for you! I'm an aunt to two great girls and a godmother to a wonderful boy.
-------------------- "My name is the symbol for my identity and must not be lost." Motto of the Lucy Stone League. Posts: 1815 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Jul 2004
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