The Catholic Message Board

Hi all,

I wanted to get some thoughts or advice on being a Godparent. I am Godparent to a young girl (8) in my extended family.

The thing is, she is often misbehaved and has a very short attention span. Calling this out either makes her laugh or gets a smart aleck remark.
Parents will occasionally tell her something but either give up, give her some kind of mobile device to distract her or even laugh at her antics.

So trying to talk about the faith with her is all but impossible (she doesn't have attention span for a conversation like that), her parents go to mass each Sunday but don't ever talk to her (or the other kids) about the faith so she really doesn't know anything about the faith. She can't answer any basic questions like "why do we celebrate Christmas" "what happened on Good Friday/Easter" etc.

Sound ridiculous because I'm talking about a kid but honestly, I do get frustrated at her. I'm not her parent so I'm not in a place to get her in trouble, take away her mobile device etc. but even as a kid, she dislikes me because I'm the "party pooper" that is calling her out or "being mean".

Hopefully this doesn't come across as me just complaining about her or her parents (I still love them) but I just wanted to paint the picture.

Besides praying for her everyday, I don't know how else I could help her faith journey as a Godparent. If anything it seems like I might even be pushing her away from the faith because of our growing dislike for each other.

What do you all think?

Thanks.

She may well be dealing with ADD. Don't expect her to focus on anything for a long time, and don't think that calling her out will help. Go in bite-sized doses.

In my experience, when relationships become touchy, quietly setting an example is the better and sometimes only option.