First Birthday Approaches

On 17 February, little Scott will be one. It seems to have gone by in a flash and I can't seem to remember what life was like before him. Now the discussion turns to two subjects - 1) what do we do for his first birthday and 2) when do we get him christened?

We have had an invite already to one of the NCT class first birthdays. Phil and Pauli's baby, Dylan, was born on 2 March and his party will be on 5 March. When they told us about the party, I had to admit we hadn't even started to think about Scott's birthday and immediately we started to think if we were bad parents for not doing so. The other subject of christening was another point for debate.

We will get round to organising a party for Scott's birthday, I'm sure. Probably family and maybe a select band of close friends, NCT perhaps on the Saturday closest.

The christening? Well that's a different matter. We are godparents to several children - one of whom I have not seen for about 16 years which is dreadful on my part (he's 19 now). The problem is not so much which church do we do the christening at but who do we select as godparents?

If we were to repay the compliment on selection then we would have to have several children to accommodate the situation. But reality bites, Scott will have probably 3 godparents and we have to filter down the possibilities and that means some people may get their noses put out of joint.

Age is a factor here. After all, being a 50 year old means that most of my friends and family are the same age and part of the point of being a godparent is being around during the child's formative years and possibly more. Wouldn't younger people be better equipped for such a job? Then again, the easiest pick would be my wife's sister. We are godparents to all three of her boys and proud to be so. We have also been a big part of their lives as they grow up, the eldest now being 17. My wife's sister is slightly younger then my wife so the age factor is not so acute.

In contrast, my elder sister, who would be a great choice, is two years older than me and lives some 200+ miles away. However, there would be no doubting that she would be a wonderful godparent. Then comes the potential disappointments - my brother, who is 13 years older than me and is, in fact, one of my godparents, would likely be disappointed, even feel snubbed, if he did not make the selection list. My younger sister is not baptised herself and I understand is eliminated on that technicality, even though she would make a wonderful godparent.

There are more to choose from my wife's side which means it is unlikely that any more than one of our friends would be a potential godparent. We know this will cause some issues but I guess it's one of those things that can't be helped. Knowing how to deal with it and what you say to people will be something we will have to learn along the way.

As for timing, well this could be dangerous. It's a bit nippy and rainy at the moment so now is not a great time although a christening beyond Scott's first birthday sounds a bit unusual. The fact is we are now in the prime 6 Nations zone and there are games played on a Sunday.

Oops, slipping into pre-dad thinking there. Any Sunday would be perfect but it would be nice to have a ray of sunshine and a little warmth for the photos if nothing else. Springtime - that's the ticket.


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