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Confirmation is a rite in many Christian Churches.

Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and Anglicans, view it as a sacrament, which in the East is conferred on infants immediately after baptism, but in the West is usually administered later at the age of reason or in early adolescence.

According to canon law for the Latin or Western Catholic Church, the sacrament is to be conferred on the faithful at about the age of discretion (generally taken to be about 7), unless the Episcopal Conference has decided on a different age, or there is danger of death or, in the judgement of the minister, a grave reason suggests otherwise (canon 891 of the Code of Canon Law). The number of Episcopal Conferences that have set a later age, usually between 14 and 16 years of age, has diminished in recent decades, and even in those countries a bishop may not refuse to confer the sacrament on younger children who request it, provided they are baptized, have the use of reason, are suitably instructed and are properly disposed and able to renew the baptismal promises (letter of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments published in its 1999 bulletin, pages 537-540).

Thats a reference from wikipedia.

I just had a argument with my mother about the sacrament of confirmation. My view is that I was forced into it at the age of 16 in middle school. Confirmation to me is a personal choice to be faithful to that religion or belief system. But my mother saw it as her duty to force it upon me and that if she had a chance to do it all over again she would force me again. This pissed me off allot to be completely honest. I tried to explain my view on the subject and my belief that all religious belief systems are subject to interpretation. She had non of it. She admitted that she had doubts about things but that she gave no mind to them out of fear of being unfaithful. I find that to be cowardly. Its fine for anyone to believe things if people feel that resonates in them as truth, but to have doubt and still believe blindly out of fear really bothers me, especially if it affects me. It just does not register with me. I am the type of person that takes what they hear and really asks myself if that holds any truth to me. It has nothing to do with any man-run institutions preaching. Fuck that, and for all those who think I am being disrespectful to your faith, well I apologize but fuck that. I will not sit here and listen to someone or some institution tell me whats the right and wrong way to think and believe. That not to say that I don't think that the moral values taught by the church are wrong. I think they are good teachings. I just don't feel like I have to have guidelines on how to give thanks to our creator. I don't think that I have to feel inferior to the son of God Jesus. I feel as if he was metaphorically speaking the confident Quarterback=(Enlightened son of God) of a disheartened team=(The People) that came in against the best team in the league and provided the motivation and confidence that we could all achieve victory = (enlightenment just like he had.)

Whats wrong with that. I am not making myself out to be on par with God! All I am saying that if God were a brown paper bag, I would be a piece of that paper bag that was riped off, Jesus would be a bigger piece of that paper bag, meaning that he was at a higher level of consciousness, but in the end when the paper bang was repaired we would all be one and the same. Part of all that is. No superior, no inferior, just one with all that is.