One of the highlights of my First Holy Communion was picking up a Happy Meal on the drive home after a long day visiting relatives.
You would have needed to put aside most of the modest sum you received from family to help save up for something special.
But children’s first port of call nowadays is Smyths Toys to splash the cash like drunken sailors.
They don’t even think twice about peeling off some notes from their bulging wallets to buy a PlayStation or Xbox.
It’s no wonder these kids are losing the run of themselves considering how 13% pocket a staggering €1,000 for their big day, new research revealed.
And almost a quarter receive more than €800 – with the average amount being €648 for girls and €587 for boys, the Ulster Bank study found.
It also said 62% of parents believe their children receive too much money and 90% promise to have a good talk with them about it. But it’s clearly falling on deaf ears judging by the huge amount of kids dressed up to the nines you’ll see in shopping centres with bags full of luxury items.
I don’t understand why parents don’t just take control of their kids’ purse strings and ration it out sensibly in an effort to help teach them the value of money.
It’s bonkers to allow children wander the streets with cash burning a hole in their pocket.
It’s like asking a recovering alcoholic to work as a night watchman in a brewery.
You hear them in the schoolyards boasting about how much they got as if it was a competition, which is an unhealthy attitude.
This easy money fails to teach these impressionable minds that the €50 inside the card from their auntie was bloody hard earned.
There’s no real spiritual value to it either because most of them are not practising Catholics.
They will have long forgotten about the true purpose of their big day soon after taking off their expensive new clothes, which will probably never be worn again.
Many won’t darken the doorstep of a church again until their Confirmation for another shot at milking this cash cow.
So, what’s the point in spending megabucks on First Holy Communions if we parents don’t actually believe in the Church’s teachings?
Personally, I feel it sets our children a bad example by encouraging them to be associated with an organisation that lacks equality by prohibiting women priests and refusing to marry same-sex couples.
The Catholic Church is just as much to blame for making our kids money-hungry by going along with the charade of allowing any Tom, Dick and Harry to receive the First Holy Communion sacrament.
They should only offer it to genuine practising Catholics – but that’s not going to help fill up their collection plates.
I might be crucified for saying this, but sorry, I feel the First Holy Communion custom is no better than someone going around with cap in hand begging for money.
The only difference being we’re talking about adorable kids who are nicely dressed up with dollar signs in their eyes.
I wish they would use some of their Holy Communion money to buy their parents a copy of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
