Are You Christening Your Child for the Right Reasons?

Before I get into the crux of this story, I should probably clarify where I stand on religion and all things associated with it. I believe that maybe there is someone out there, I just can’t relate to organised religions. Churches creep me out and the way they’re ran like businesses just doesn’t seem right. I have nothing against those that do follow organised religion and I respect their choices. It just isn’t for me.

The only Christening I’ve ever been to was when I was 19 and it was my first experience in a church. There was something about promising a whole bunch of stuff on behalf of a child who could barely even hold their head up which was quite unsettling to me. I left that place with a sour taste in my mouth and I vowed that no child of mine would ever have to go through that.

Last week my husband received an invite from one of his close friends to attend their newborn daughter’s Baptism this Sunday. These people are not religious at all, and the only reason why they are doing this is so that she has a clear passage into a private school just like her older siblings. They think religion and everything associated with it is a crock of shit, and yet they have made promises in a Church on behalf of their children that they will fear God and love thy neighbour. Its a small thing to do to ensure that your child has the best possible education though, right?

I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, its meaningless and so they have no issue with it, but on the other hand they have made a promise that their kids will follow the Christian way and are happy to have them raised with the Bible. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t considered getting Liam dunked in some water in order to get him into a decent school, but the fact remains that a good part of his school time would be spent learning about a belief system that I may not necessarily like or agree with. That, and I don’t like making promises I can’t keep.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a debate if public schools weren’t being shafted when it came to resources. A survey done by The Australian Education Union showed that 78 per cent of participants agreed that public schools were doing a good job but were under-resourced. Some parents are even so desperate to get their kids out of the public education system that they resort to trading cash for classes. Is getting your child Baptised or Christened for a chance to enrol at a better school the same as bribing someone?

I know that Liam is a long way off from school age, but his education is something very important to me. I just don’t know how far I’m willing to go to ensure that he gets the best education possible.