Strollerderby : baptism

One Hundred Forty Eight Years Later, Family Still Using Christening Gown

JeanneSager — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:32:00 GMT

This being the month of Christ's birth and all (depending on your beliefs of course!), the following story seemed like a must cover for the 'Derby:

A Michigan family truly has the gift that keeps on giving. For one hundred forty-eight years, they've been handing down a christening gown for each generation of babies to wear. Another family gown has been making the rounds of religious ceremonies for one hundred twenty-four.

The younger of the two gowns is the more popular - shorter, with delicate lace, Dick and Hedy Rewalt say the eyelet is fragile but original. Hedy is proud of her role as unofficial "keeper of the gowns." When a new baby is welcomed to the family, she's the one they call to pull the gowns from her Michigan attic and get them ready for the big day. She'll wrap them in a box and send them via UPS if they have to go out of town, making sure she puts a trace on the box and sending careful instructions to avoid ironing if at all possible. After being worn, the gowns are washed in Woolite and wrapped in acid-free tissue, set aside until the next baby makes his or her way into the world.

They've survived forty-eight kids so far, and six generations of Rewalts from Ohio to Florida.

I think this story spoke to me because my own daughter wore my christening gown, a soft white garment crocheted by my godmother. Although I've heard of families where tradition dictates the godmother-to-be buys the baby a new christening outfit, I told my friend that wouldn't be necessary. My mom pulled my old gown out of storage, and we slipped it over my daughter's head on her baptism day. A few adjustments were made - I was baptized in August, while my daughter's ceremony in October forced me to slip a long-sleeved onesie on under the short-sleeved dress. Four months by the time we finally made arrangements for her baptism, my daughter was slightly larger than the one-month-old me who my parents placed in a baptismal font - forcing my mother-in-law to move some buttons on the back of the gown. For someone who's fairly un-sentimental, I teared up at the sight, and my godmother? Forget it. I got one of those teary smiles where you can't tell if they want to cry or grin. Now the gown is wrapped in a zippered plastic bag in hopes that my daughter will one day choose to dress her little one in the same gown.

What surprised me was how many people couldn't believe I let my daughter wear the gown. They said it was sweet - but while their parents have saved some of their childhood mementos, they wouldn't dream of reusing them for their kids. Let them have their own memories, they say.

What about your family?

Image: Rolling Pin Productions

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Baptism by Hockey

Amy Kuras — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:29:00 GMT

One of the cooler things about hockey is this: Each player on the team which wins the sport's championship trophy, the Stanley Cup, gets to take it home for a day.
And yes, there is a parenting angle here. "Stanley sightings" are a big deal around here in years the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup, including this year (and 1997, 1998, and 2002 in recent years). My friend and her husband had a little anniversary no-kids getaway earlier this summer and witnessed players Kris Draper and Darren McCarty with their kids, spouses, and the Cup, including a baby posing in it.
Turns out that may have been Draper's little newborn daughter Kamryn, who, oh dear, pooped in it. (It's been cleaned).NHL officials have since instituted a "no babies in diapers" rule in for the Cup, according to this Vancouver Sun article. Two guards from the Hockey Hall of Fame travel with the Cup wherever it goes, to avoid too much damage or someone hocking it for bail money or whatever.
Right now, the Cup is in Sweden, where seven members of the team are from. And it served as a baptismal font for team captain Tomas Holmstrom's cousin's 6-week-old daughter. And even odder, this is the second time that’s happened with the 115-year-old trophy.
It's also been dropped several times, dented once, used as a feed bag for a racehorse, gone to a strip club repeatedly (including at least once being incorporated into the act, which makes my head hurt to even think about) and lost once.
Makes baby pooping not seem so bad

No, They're Not Trying to Drown Their Kids

Madeline Holler — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:01:00 GMT

If that video of villagers dropping their babies from the roof of a temple in India disturbed you, you'll want to pass on this one. Parents at a mountain spring in Bulgaria force their kids underwater, you know, for their own good.

Wha ...?? The country's Alevi Muslims celebrate the coming of spring during "Hadrelez" by bathing in holy water. According to Reuters, they believe that the spring heals mute or stuttering children, but only for five minutes after midnight on the morning of 'Hadrelez'.

Huh. They're screaming, so I guess it works!

Video: Reuters

How to Get Into a Good School: Dunk the Babies

Amy Kuras — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:30:00 GMT

How far would you go to get your kid in the right school? Would you espouse a religion you don’t actually believe in?

Apparently, it's happening in the UK, where lapsed Catholic parents are rushing to get their children baptized so they can enroll in overcrowded state-run Catholic school.

As a formerly-lapsed and now practicing Catholic, I'm of a couple minds about this. On the one hand, I don’t think you should join a church, or anything, if you don’t intend to really participate and make it a part of your life. Catholics consider baptism a sacrament.

On the other hand, what brought me back to the church of my childhood and, a few years later, caused my husband to convert was another life change -- that we were looking to get married in a church.

In my city, Catholic schools are closing all over the place and there is only one Catholic high school left and not very many grade schools. And since parents pay the tuition and bring the students that keep the schools going, local schools don’t ask much of them with regard to their faith other than refraining from jumping up and down yelling "ALL LIES" during religion class. Even ages ago, my best friend from my Catholic school high school wasn't Catholic. So it seems funny that there exists a Catholic school system that tries to screen non-Catholics out.

We serve on our church's baptism preparation team, made up of young families, to help people feel more welcome, make a connection, and maybe decide they want to participate fully in our community. It hasn’t worked as well as we'd hoped, but I'd rather be approaching people in welcoming when they brign their children for baptism, however old they are, and giving them a good impression of the church than holding the door shut until they prove themselves.

The church in the UK is declining, much as it is here, and if it's going to survive we need to be much more open to sort of our founding idea, that we're all equally deserving of love and redemption. Whether you can get your butt out of bed on Sunday morning or not.

Bless this baby

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:06:00 GMT

Some folks in my family are lighting candles in the hopes that my husband and I will see the light and baptize our two kids. While we appreciate the concerns about our kids' spiritual well-being, no plans are even being vaguely considered to save our kids from the fires of eternal damnation, mostly because we don't believe in them.

There are options, however, for those who feel the need to have some sort of spiritual ceremony in honor of a new baby's birth. Baby blessings are an increasingly popular option for mixed-faith parents. Dad's Jewish and Mom's Lutheran? There's probably a pastor in your area who can draw from both of your religious traditions and help you create a christening that will have all of the spiritual weight everyone desires.

As for us, we're still looking for the officiant who can hold our kids of off the edge of a cliff a la The Lion King and announce their names. It would be even better if he looked like a baboon and had the voice of Robert Guillaume. Our search continues.

Pope Decides Unbaptized Babies Aren't Stuck in Limbo After All

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:17:00 GMT

Well now that's a relief! Unbaptized babies and other undecided sordids once stuck in limbo (aka: Purgatory, aka: Mall of America) on their way to Heaven/Hell can breathe (drool?) a collective sigh of relief. A recent papal investigation determined (via research?) that unbaptized babies will no longer be stuck in limbo. They can finally crawl on up to Heaven.

Phew!

Slate's Michelle Tsai asks the question of the year: So now what happens to all those babies who've been stuck in limbo all this time? Are they given a gold-expressway-stroller to Heaven? I mean, God's gonna get his ass kicked by a bunch of angry babies unless he grandfathers (Fathers?) them in.

And God may not be afraid of a pack of angry teethers, but sure as shit he should be.