Question on Head of Household for baby--both parents non-members

Hi,
I don't know who to tie a child's record to. Neither parents are members (although grandmother is a member hence the reason for the child having been blessed). Do I create a temporary record for the nonmember mother or how do I proceed?

Thank you in advance.

lantredulion wrote:I don't know who to tie a child's record to. Neither parents are members (although grandmother is a member hence the reason for the child having been blessed). Do I create a temporary record for the nonmember mother or how do I proceed?

Who does the baby attend church with? If it's the grandmother, then the child could be in the household with the grandmother.

Sorry, I should have made it clear that the baby is with the mother who does not attend church since she is not a member.

This scenario raises the question of why the baby was blessed in the first place. It sounds like the child will not have an opportunity to be raised in the Church, so there's not much point in being a child of record. But that's water under the bridge, so here's the reference as to what should be done:

In the MLS Software Manual, in the Head of Household section, it says "In certain cases, the head of household may also be another member parent, a single member, or a member child whose parents are not members." So the child would be the head of household.

aebrown wrote:In the MLS Software Manual, in the Head of Household section, it says "In certain cases, the head of household may also be another member parent, a single member, or a member child whose parents are not members." So the child would be the head of household.

Noticeably absent is the option of creating a non-member record for one or both parents. Since non-member records can't be transferred or moved between wards, it's probably not a workable long-term solution anyway.

aebrown wrote:This scenario raises the question of why the baby was blessed in the first place.

I would hope that the bishop obtained verbal permission from both of the non-member parents (not the grandparent) to bless the child according to the instructions in Handbook 1 (16.2.4). And if not, this at least serves as a reminder as to how valuable the Handbook can be in providing guidance that will avoid some of these problems.

In fact, the bishop should obtain permission from the non-member parent even if one of the parents is a member.

And as aebrown has quoted from the MLS Software Manual, the child would be the head of household.

Thank you for the quick responses. I will go ahead and follow the instructions in the Head of Household section. Thank you.

lajackson wrote:I would hope that the bishop obtained verbal permission from both of the non-member parents...

I'm going off of memory, but doesn't the handbook say that WRITTEN permission is required from non-member parents?

Interesting story... I had a very similar situation in that we had a child of record for a baby move into the ward as a head of household and without parents' records. Come to find out when calling the telephone number listed that the mother was a former member and the father was Jewish. Because of some agreement with the mother's parents when they were married, the baby was blessed in Utah (they lived in Indiana) when they were visiting the grandparents. The bishop in Indiana had no say in the matter. ...As a result, nonmember records were created (in MIS at the time) for the parents with the Father as the head of house.

greggo wrote:I'm going off of memory, but doesn't the handbook say that WRITTEN permission is required from non-member parents?

I believe there are some ordinances where written permission is required, but for the blessing of a child, the handbook says verbal, and includes a number of things the bishop should discuss with the parent(s) concerning what will happen in the future after the record is created.