I attended the small primary school in the picturesque village where I grew up. I have very fond memories of my time there and have always hoped for a similar experience for Mabel.

My primary school was Church of England, and as far as I can recall, I was one of the only children in my class not to have been christened. My parents do not follow a faith and I questioned them about their desicions to send me to a CofE governed school – both at the time of realising I was somehow different from many of my friends in that I wasn’t christened and I didn’t attend Church outside of school related visits, and then again directly related to writing this article.

Their response was that is was at least at the time, an excellent school in terms of eleven plus examination pass rates, and that they ultimately believed in the core values and principals of the education provided by the Church Of England.

When I was ten years old I told my parents that I was going to join the Church Choir and decide for myself whether I might want to be christened or not. They supported my decision and duly dropped me off and picked me up on a Wednesday evening and various Sundays for practice/services/bell ringing etc. I wasn’t so much precocious as I was entrepreneurial – most weddings a choir member would earn £2.50 which in the 1990’s would buy you a fair few packets of Space Raiders, Opal Fruits and a couple of pairs stick-on earrings from Tammy Girl. Maybe even a sequin hair scrunchie if the sales were on.

I loved the sense of community that my village church offered me, the festivals, the charity events, fetes and festive celebrations. My somewhat sketchy and admittedly rose-tinted memories of that time recalls a group of folks whose foundations lay in helping others and bestowing kindness and goodwill upon your friends, family and neighbours which on reflection, could only be a positive environment for a somewhat awkward pre-teen with a penchant for overtly adorned ponytails and Dirty Dancing. (It was my favourite film to watch with my grandparents on a Friday night whilst Mum and Dad were on the razzle dazzle, and no, the juxtapositon of being allowed to view this particular movie and less than 48 hours later appearing fully robed in Church singing Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus is not lost on me – such is the kaleidoscope landscape that is parenting).

I currently find myself in a position where having extensively researched primary schools local to our new home that Mabel is in the catchment for, our firm favourite happens to be CofE.

At this point Mabel has not been christened. We have however been to an advent service at our beautiful local church and we plan on attending the Christmas carol concert later on in the month. Just like any parent, I want her to have the best education possible in a school where she is happy, healthy and safe. I also want her to be able to be exposed to our multi-faith and multi-cultural society. Ultimately I want to give her the opportunity, when she is experienced enough to understand, to choose. Whether that be what subjects she wishes to pursue for her GCSEs or whether she wishes to be a member of the Anglican Church.

To be absolutely clear, I have absolutely zero judgement towards any parent that decides to christen their children or indeed endeavour to encompass them in their chosen religion throughout childhood. It hasn’t escaped me that this is a contentious subject to feature, it is also very much part of my current decision making process/confusion/continually deliberating whirr in my exhausted brain as a mother and at the very core of blogging is essentially what we are currently dealing with in every day life.

We actively encourage sharing thoughts, experiences and advice on the subjects featured on Rock My Family, the team themselves often have quite differing opinions on various parenting subjects which often promotes interesting, sometimes fairly heated but always respectful and non judgemental debate.

As always, your contributions in the comments section are very much appreciated.