So this child has been baptized, but probably not in the Catholic church. I know you don't get re-baptized, but isn't there some other step he'd need to complete before receiving Communion? Some step to becoming Catholic? I don't know. Like right now it sounds like two non Catholic parents are complaining that their non Catholic child can't go to Communion. Umm what??

Can two non Catholics approach the church and ask for a Catholic baptism? Because that in itself sounds odd to me. Is this child Catholic?

No, and you shouldn't feel badly about it, but we're just saying that the children may have opinions like those stated in the thread. My parents wanted a third but didn't have luck until they had stopped trying. I'm the third. My mom didn't plan to have me at age 41 so I'm sure she didn't plan on having that 8 year gap between my sister and I.

Based on responses from a similar thread, I think this is going to have a lot to do with personalities. Some of it will be affected by situational things (will they all be homeschooled together? Go to different brick and mortar schools? Will one be off at college and hardly be around?) My siblings and I are all 4 years apart, making my oldest and I have an 8 year gap. I didn't feel close to my sisters growing up. I thought of my oldest sister more like a second mom figure, though I don't think Mom left her in charge of me an extreme amount. When I got pregnant my mom actually said she thought I would have talked to my sisters about birth control. I wanted to laugh. We didn't have sisterly talks like that. And I didn't talk to my mom about that stuff, either. Dd is 2. Ds will be turning 9 soon. We weren't ready to have a second kid sooner, so that's just how it is. Honestly, ds isn't very independent. I couldn't imagine if they had been closer in age. I already feel like they demand a lot of me but I guess not having both in diapers at once was kind of a relief.

Yeah. I didn't know at the beginning of the thread that the parents weren't even Catholic. Either way it's not the child's fault, but I see a problem with the teaching a child the importance of attending Mass only to not take him.

Neither of the parents is Catholic. I don't know what religion they are. It's implied in this thread he was baptized Catholic but I'm not even certain of that. He might have been baptized another faith and thus not have Catholic godparents.

:iagree: And like I said upthread, what if the parents don't even send him to Catholic school in the future? And what if they never get around to their RCIA classes?

My 2 yr old is now strong enough to open the fridge. We discovered this about a week ago when she opened the fridge and opened ds' lunchable to eat the cookies out of it :lol:

Oh I'm sure they're nice. Just not motivated enough to try. How do you do it? Do you use the ironing board upright or iron it on the bed or..?

I've never liked ironing on beds. I really want the flat hard surface of an ironing board. Some people do fold up the tiny ironing boards and place them on the bed. I guess you could do that. It just seems like a lot of work! I think if you get them out of the dryer early enough they aren't too bad.

To eliminate a butt crack/underwear viewing when someone bends over? ;)

Ah. Tall people problems lol. We have some issues with the big and tall items as well. They aren't long enough because they don't take into consideration that he has a very long torso and the "extra long" ties are not long enough. I say can't you just shift the tie and he says no because the width of the tie is not the same everywhere and then you'd have the wrong part in the wrong place and/or the knot looks funny or the back of the tie won't stay down with the tie clip or whatever. OP, I hope you can find something!

Oh mine has no interest in them, either lol. That or skinny jeans.

Wow, those are big groups!! The church we drove to to join CCD classes this year had their largest FHC group yet and it was 28 kids. Had we not gone to classes with them I probably would have just had ds do FHC by himself in our nearest parish which has only about 20 members and only one weekend Mass. The priests take turns driving to that parish from a bigger city. There is no rectory at the church and it was not that uncommon to show up for Mass and instead have a Communion service because a priest was unable to come.

Florals are nice. Dd has the cutest floral leggings. She's two so she can get away with any length top and leggins :laugh: At least for a man the romper might be easier to use the bathroom... they can just unzip the crotch area I guess. I can't imagine wearing a romper as it would be a bathroom nightmare to me.

I hadn't ever given the Sacrament prep any thought til this thread, actually. And we have looked into Catholic school but it's just not in our reach now. One church around here only has CCD for the Spanish speaking community so a family we know is out of luck as their children don't speak Spanish. But now that you mention the prep in school, maybe their children will receive that in their Catholic school when they are ready for First Communion.

I'm not familiar with those, I will have to look. My dh has a long torso and is tall. I get shirts at King Size Direct and Casual Male XL.

I'm sorry :( But I don't think it means your choices are lame!

I could go either way on this. It was just weird to me because I guess I felt like it must be incredibly awkward for the students in the room that are not Catholic and that the parish classrooms might be sparse if say, lots of the parish children that age are already doing their prep at school. Then what, they have the parish classroom with 3 kids and they do all their prep separately but meet once with the Catholic school kids for rehearsal before the big day or what? Can the church justify a First Communion class if only one child in second grade at that church doesn't attend the Catholic school? Yeah, it is fine to put the prep in the classroom, but some of these thoughts come to mind. I get where you are coming from, though. When I was growing up my CCD classes met on weeknights. When I moved out of state they met on Sundays between Masses. I know either way it can be inconvenient for parents doing the transportation.

I'm pretty upfront with my family. I'd blurt out that I'm so sorry I can't make it but I have plans that are too difficult to change and wish they had given me more notice. I'm sure you can say it more eloquently lol.

Never been in that situation but I would hope that they dropped some hints over time as to places they like. Coffee drinker? Book reader? etc. Maybe a gift card geared toward a place you know they'll go and/or cash??

I hope they find the right person to talk to about RCIA accommodations. I have talked to locals about situations similar to this and yes we have had to come up with alternatives. Like, my ds was going to prepare for FHC alone with me, but a church we often attend encouraged me to bring him to their classes. This was a pain as it's 40 min. from my house and the classes meet between the morning Masses (we usually went to the evening service when we went there). Because our registered parish doesn't have a Sunday school program (no kids) and is linked to another parish that does FHC in 3rd grade, ds was one of the oldest children in the group. Most were second graders, he was in third when we joined their program. Now other families I know said they had a similar problem years ago. Their children were in band and were told if they missed any Confirmation classes they would not make confirmation. But because they met on weekends and the kids sometimes had concerts to perform at, it was not going to work. They spoke to a priest and he worked with them to do Confirmation prep separately. If the family wants to get their ducks in a row it might be better for them to go through RCIA and have him do FHC in third. Honestly it's weird to me that they do the prep in school. Weird because not everyone that goes to Catholic school is Catholic. Now at the beginning of the thread I thought the child was finishing second and they were about to receive Holy Communion right away, but it sounds like he'll be entering second? In that case there's still time to figure this out. What if the parents go through RCIA and decide they don't want to become Catholic? Then what? Do they still want their child to? I just feel like the cart is before the horse here.

Because they can't seem to ever make it to the church on Sundays. Maybe they think that First Communion will also take place during school Mass or on a Saturday. And maybe their reasoning is just that they don't want their son excluded from what everyone else in class is doing, rather than the importance of the Sacrament. From what little I know it's hard for me to figure out. Are you Catholic? Was the child baptized in the Catholic church or elsewhere? Because if they were baptized in the Catholic church then that confuses me that they haven't made the time to go through RCIA yet but took the time to set up a baptism there. How long has the child been baptized? If they were baptized in the Catholic church they should have Catholic godparents, hopefully someone to help guide the child spiritually. If they were baptized in a non Catholic church then the role of godparents is not the same. In my experience godparents in other faiths are more like who the kid will live with if something happens to the parents. YMMV Anyway, I don't think it matters if people can reference exceptions for comparison. "My friend's kid made FHC and didn't have to do that." Maybe that church dropped the ball by preparing a child without the support system at home.

Sorry, I didn't realize you meant the class he goes to at school. I was thinking you were just pointing out that the second graders prep for FHC. The actually FHC service might be on a Sunday. Will they even attend?? Ours was on a Saturday but as a kid I believe mine was on a Sunday.

Exactly. To have him receive with the class, then maybe not even go to Catholic school in the future, the child will become a lapsed Catholic before he was even a practicing one. It's not his fault, but I think they should do things correctly. Make time for the classes or do the study at home (mycatholicfaithdelivered.com) and other resources. But if you're going to do it at home, the parents should know what they are teaching and it sounds like they don't. So yes, a godparent or someone else should step in.