Do Young Kids Need Regular Confession…

… Short answer, yes. Absolutely yes.

When my son made his first confession at the tender age of eight years old, all us parents joked, “what can they possibly have to confess?” Young children aren’t out breaking the law, being little bandits- killing and stealing. Young children are innocent.

So why do they need regular confession?

Two reasons, venial sin and Catholic conscience.

After my son made his first confession, I made it a habit to make him go to confession every other month. Yes, “make.” I used to make my son go to confession. Because if I didn’t he wouldn’t go on his own.

You make your kids do their homework, brush their teeth, and eat their veggies, right? Then make them go to confession.

My friend, the Unfortunate Catechism Teacher (Unfortunate, because she has a thankless job and is mistreated by her students’ parents), told me that in her entire fifth grade faith formation class only 2 of her 17 students could recite the act of contrition… because only those two students had been to confession in the past 2-3 years, since they made their first confession.

Confession isn’t an item to mark off from some sacramental checklist. Confession forms a child’s Catholic conscience. It also teaches them that have to be in a worthy state to receive the Eucharist, which reinforces the importance of the Eucharist.

Thankfully, after years of making my son go to confession, he now knows when he needs to go and asks me to take him, all on his own accord. And that’s why you force them to regularly go to confession as soon as they can.

It’s not about guilty kids, even though guilt can be a very good thing. Feeling guilty about our actions isn’t a bad thing. It’s the thing that helps guide our action from bad to good. Guilt is the feeling in our gut and heart that tells what we are doing is probably wrong if it makes us feel this way. http://www.familyland.org/LET/fireofmercy/Downloads/327-174%20Examine%20Ages%2010-14.pdf

http://www.familyland.org/LET/fireofmercy/Downloads/327-175%20Examine%20Ages%20Up%20to%2010.pdf