I’m not religious but I do love a bit of pomp and ceremony on Confirmation day

THIS is a pretty auspicious year for our household. We have a Confirmation and a Junior Cert and I can tell you right now, being the shallow person I am, I’m way more stressed at the prospect of the Confirmation than I am about the state exam.

I’m not religious but I do love a bit of Catholic pomp and ceremony. I love getting all dressed up and parading up and down in front of everyone else as we all eye each other up to see who has the nicest outfit! I love the heartfelt hymns and the priest talking to us about renouncing the devil. I love having all the family around for an occasion that is not a wedding or a funeral. Most of all I love the fact that we will all be together celebrating the start of a new chapter in a young person’s life as they leave childhood and venture into adolescence.

But in the interest of full transparency, most of all I love the thoughts of picking the outfits!

Yes I know I know. I’m a horrible, superficial person but at least I’m aware of my own faults and failings. Surely that should score me a few points with The Powers

That Be Up Above.

After much deliberation we have finally picked the confirmation name although why they have to choose it

8 months in advance of the actual day is beyond me. Myself and the

12-year-old scoured every

Catholic saint’s website we could find to choose one she liked and that

I thought she wouldn’t regret in years to come.

She liked Ermingtrude,

Matilda and some other really weird name that

I can’t even pronounce.

We eventually settled on Juliette because I liked the romance of it and she liked the tragic fact she’d been guillotined!

The next major battle will be the outfit and whilst I’m hoping to channel a bit of hippy chic, dressing her in a cool maxi and leather jacket, she’s particularly keen on a flowery dress with a puffy skirt, like her friends. OVER MY DEAD BODY!

Meanwhile Himself is applying major pressure on the Junior Cert student to study whilst berating me for letting him away with murder and setting a bad example. ‘ You told him he could go to two parties this weekend?’ he fumed at me.

This is true. But to be fair, he’s entitled to a break after working hard all week, I replied. ‘Working hard???! All you do is make him cups of tea and sit down watching Bridget and Eamonn with him.’

This is also true but when I pointed out it was only the bloody junior cert and nobody ever asks you what you got in your junior cert, I got ‘et’ as they say in my part of the world.

It could be a very long year.

WE EVENTUALLY SETTLED ON JULIETTE BECAUSE I LIKED THE ROMANCE OF IT AND SHE LIKED THE TRAGIC FACT SHE’D BEEN GUILLOTINED!