Anyone here ever Roman Catholic?

So I've been a Roman Catholic for 2.5 years. I've been pondering the idea of being a Catechist, a Monk & even a Deacon or a Father (the offspring sense, not the Priestly Vocation). Out of anyone here who went to Catholic Church (& quit sometime before or after confirmation) or those who are a currently a Roman Catholic. What are your opinions on these 4 vocations? Do you have any positive memories involving people in these roles? Have any of you ever considered the priesthood or something adjacent to it like a higher calling (such as the ones mentioned)? And to people who are Father's (NOT mothers, NOR solely from ANY religious crowd), what's it like having kids? Have you ever had the thought you regretted having children? I'm at a crossroads in my life where I have to consider all of my options & I want to contemplate the breadth of my options.

I can understand having a calling for religious work (Believe it or not,I was once like that, albeit a Baptist.)... But, to be a dad/father? We have urges and desires, but until you've met someone with whom you'd love to have children with, it's all on paper and daydreams. I've not one singular time EVER regretted having kids (One was a surprise and out of wedlock. But, if you play with fire, you're bound to get burned.lol). However, I do hate not having a local support system. I'd love to have just a day to truly decompress and bond a little better with my fiancee. Raising another little human isn't always a happy or even joyous thing, but I'd argue that it's one of life's greatest blessings and honors. Be prepared to work on your patience DAILY and to have little eyes that won't even let you use a restroom alone.lol If I were to say I had a regret concerning having kids, I only wish I had them about 20yrs ago.lol You're 32, you're not at a crossroads for this stuff.lol Just relax and maybe see if there any classes through your church that might help with any of these things.

Well actually yes I am at a crossroads. Either I'm going to go to school for a 4-year degree, abandoning my cad degree. Or I'm going to be going to seminary School in at least half of these choices. I understand that none of these are the kind of things you want to just jump into. I feel like I have two to three years to decide. I'm not sure if I have this irrational fear or not, but I worry if I wait too long to marry a girl around my age, she might be too old to have a child. I even have a cousin whom he and his wife despite being 3 to 4 years older than me, are running into complications with a pregnancy in their mid 30s. And I know I can adopt, but I want to have at least one the old fashioned way. I feel like I'm hung up on the fear of making the wrong choice and regretting it later. I mean if I get married I can still become a deacon... But like what if I was meant to be a monk or a priest?

What's your strongest inclination? Again, if you haven't, this really feels like the sort of thing you'd discuss with someone at your church who'd have more knowledge on the spiritual side of things. Me? I'd go with my gut and pursue the family life. It sounds like you'd be constantly struggling with the "what if" part if you decided to forgo that and besides, you can still do things for the church in MANY capacities even with a family. Also, women within your age bracket and at least 10yrs older are plenty capable of having healthy children (Duh... The likelihood of complications and fertility issues goes up, but you're not anywhere out of range.).

I'm not sure. Like the Deaconship seems like a cop out for being a priest. I kind of feel drawn toward being a monk or having children. My hangup with the priesthood is that priests cannot marry. But that political issue from 1000AD can be solved by banning members of the church from owning property or title...

I studied in a Catholic School during gradeschool and highschool. This was during he 90s and early 2000s. There are nice people, But I remember the bad ones more. There are actually a lot of Bullies from my school. There were male and female bullies. And no one really does anything to the bullied victims, the teachers, sisters etc. do nothing even if they see the bullying in action. I really felt odd, because we study a lot of prayers, attend masses and other catholic traditions and the school is even close to a church. But there were lots of nasty students. I am unsure in other countries, but the local priests in my area, I feel are a little outdated and too traditional. Like they are too dogmatic. These days I prefer to listen to mass in spotify, The mass is shorter, and the way the priests preach they use a more neutral and uplifting tone. Locally in the nearest church, the priests talk like a downer, always on a negative tone. They are always big on repenting on ones sins. For me personally, I am Catholic, but I don't agree on everything with the church's teachings. I also have interest in other religion and traditional practices. If you enter priesthood, for sure you have to do everything the way it's done like before.

One of the guys in my group is a Roman Catholic deacon. Never seen him whip out the crucifix on anyone, even if they were possessed. The thing about this guy is, he's a combat vet, with PTSD and needs the pressure of spiritual warefare as kinda an outlet for those high stress situations. I don't know if you could call that a calling, but I can say he is right where he needs to be. We look out for him, and he looks out for us. I don't know what happened to this guy down in Afghanistan, but it kicked him awake, psychically speaking. Lets see, as far as my dealings with Roman Catholics go, there's a lot of that on my uncle's side of the family, but not so much on mine. Funny enough, my brother and I both got baptized by them. They were never toxic about it. Never felt the psychological need to control us. And back in high school, I had friends in St. Mary's, which was the defacto RC school in the county. Going there was like walking into another world. A lot of the kids there saw us and instantly assumed we were delinquents. I always got the sense that they were scared of me every time I tried to ask them where one of my friends was. Meanwhile you'd have some real delinquents there who didn't even bat an eye. I swear, there was this one prick there who had some serious serial killer vibes. There was always this one teacher who had this gruff scowl, and would just kinda leer at us until we left. A lot of the kinds who went there, whether they stayed RC or not just kinda turned out weird. Like you had some who got married and live seemingly normal, well adjusted lives, but I can't say that for everyone. It's like their pent up desires later manifest in life as weird kinks and fetishes because they just weren't equipped to be able to handle them when they hit the outside world. So I think I would try my chances in the standard schooling system, if you do spawn some gremlins into the mortal plane. At least that exposes them to a diverse enough crowd to become more adaptable to the kinda shit life will later throw at them. Keep in mind though, this was a country bumpkin school, and I'm sure more urbanized RC schools might be able to net your kids those experiences as well.