My Question of the Day: The birth of a child is usually a joyous occasion no matter the circumstances of conception. New life is usually considered a welcomed miracle. Imagine a person with whom you’ve been friendly for many years has a baby. You don’t necessarily consider this person a close friend, but you have gotten to know a little about him/her over the years, and you’ve even spent a few hours here and there with this person. You’re happy for your acquaintance, and you send a gift for the baby and you include a card of congratulations for the new parent(s). A few days later, you get an email from your acquaintance asking you to be the godmother/father of his/her newborn. What do you do?

My 2 cents: If an acquaintance asked me to be the godmother of his/her child, I would have to tactfully and respectfully decline.

The ultimate responsibility of a godparent is someone who agrees to raise a child in the event that the parent(s) die before the child is able to take care of and/or provide for him/herself. That’s a major responsibility to agree to when you’re not even close enough to the parent(s) to be able to keep his/her/their memory alive for the child. I wouldn’t be able to say to the child, “I knew your mother/father/parents extremely well, and I know they would want this or that of you/for you.” If the child came to me and said, “What was my mom/dad like?,” I wouldn’t have a good enough answer because I would have to admit I didn’t know him/her/them very well. I’d hate for the child to think, “Man, did my mom/dad/parents care anything about me? He/she/they left me with someone who is only one step above a stranger.”

Check out My Question of the Day With A Twist to this question.

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Take a few moments to check out the tweets from Twitter on this subject:

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JoshDamage I accept the offer

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