I'm torn on weather I should baptize my daughter now or wait till she is older...?

[starheartgirl]

I am Catholic was baptized myself at the age of 19 after being invited by parents to attend the local Catholic church because they had recently them selves been "saved" they put the invitation out there saying that they had found their place at a church and would like me to check it out and see how I felt about it, my entire life I have been told about God my mom took me to church as a child but really was never taught too much about any one specific religion, I now know that is mainly because my parents did have a full understanding about it. I now being 23 w/ a child of my own (6 mns) feel very strongly that even the tiniest amount of religion is very important in a Childs life I do however not want to force my child to be Catholic and tell her its the only way I want her to find God in her own way by learning about as many different religions as she wants to how ever I want to expose her to religion from a young age so she is aware of it and feels it in her life, I have....
.. Been taking her to church & thinking about baptizing her but my boyfriend who has not had any religion in his life feels that we should wait till she is older & can chose to be baptized. I personally don't think baptizing her is forcing her to stay catholic however I also have been doing some research online (have not talked with my churches Father or Deccan yet) and now I am a little confused. If I wait till my daughter is an older child 7-10 years old to give her the choice to be baptized after continuing to take her to church and live a religious life style as an example for her would I be "disobeying" the Lord. I currently feel equally that baptizing her right now would be a special thing to do however if i wait till she's old enough to say she wants to then it would be that much more special to her. One other side note that makes me lean toward waiting for her to be older is I don’t want her to be confused that because she was baptized as a child she is free to sin
With some of the answers i've got I'd like to also ask if the Catholic Confirmation can be explained a little more... am I understand correctly that a Baby is baptised and an older child woudl chose to confirm or not

[padfoot1001]

If i were you, I would wait until she is 10 or so and teach her about church, have her go with you.Teach her the Catholic beliefs, but not in a way that shows them as facts. Also teach her about other religions, and have talks with her.
Example: "Catholics believe in ___, but Jewish people believe something different. They think ___. We will never know who is right, because it is just what we think. What do you think?"
Your kid may not be mature enough at 10 to see both sides of it, because up until a certain age kids see things in black and white. You have to be the judge of her maturity.

I am glad someone is striving to teach their child multiple religions and not force anything on their kid. Good for you.

[Mtnfireprincess]

I would baptise her so that she can experience religion and faith as a child and then be able to better understand other religions as she learns about them. I would however let first communion and confimation be her choice and her choice alone, that's when she should start thinking about religion. I would want to bring her into another community of support by baptizing her. It doesn't mean it has to go farther than that.

If she decides to become another religion then the baptism won't hold her back!

[Sister DoDo B]

It is your deision now and hers when she can talk and understand the meaning of church. I got baptized around 6 mon., My little brother around 2, and my little sister around 6 mon also. It is all your deision if you want her to be a child of the church.

[Mackenzie B]

Parents always have to make decisions for their children when they are young. I would go ahead and baptize her now. It will make her feel a part of something when she is young. You need to raise her in a church, otherwise she will probably never find religion-you're right. It doesn't matter which church, but if you are Catholic, take her there! When she gets older, she'll choose her own path, but as a parent, you make the decisions for her now. You need to raise her and teach her your beliefs. Allow her to go to friend's churches when she's growing up to expose her to other religions. This will give her exposure.

So baptize her now. If she doesn't want to be Catholic when she's older, she doesn't have to be.

[rec]

if you want her to be a child of God and you want her to participate in the religious experience of your church,she should be baptized.

if you're uncertain about your faith and how often you'll expose her to it, then you could wait.

I'm Catholic, was baptized as an infant. As i grew up I experienced other religons, I went to different churches, took religious classes in college. None of that was prevented b/c I was baptized. I'm still Catholic and I made my own decision to be.