blessing during mass

[Mystic_Aviator]

At the end of one Spanish Mass each month in one parish in USA they have the “blessing of the 3 year olds”. I asked about the meaning/significance of this and never got a good answer, except that in Mexico if a child makes it to his 3rd birthday he is good to go (as reportedly some die before 3 due to poor health), which was not the answer I had expected - I figured it had some Trinitarian significance or symbology, but nevertheless it bugged me for various reasons:

1. why? What does this MEAN? And what about the blessing my son just got in Communion line? And what about the blessing at the end of Mass?
2. shouldn’t this time be used better for Baptisms of the children?! Many, many Mexican parents at our for,er parish would sadly wait years to baptize their children until they had enough money to throw a huge party afterwards… Thus you have some 3 year olds getting blessings who haven’t even been baptized yet? So the. I wonder, can a non-baptized person receive a blessing anyways? What’s the affect?
3. it causes a bit more disruption to the sacredness of the Mass

Once a month was almost tolerable, but now were at a Parish that does this every Sunday (for all children who haven’t received their First Communion yet) and I’m again wondering, why? It only seems to take away the time of prayer for the parents immediately after Holy Communion who take their kids up for the blessing.

1. our sons don’t want to go up for this blessing anyways so we don’t force them, seems they already know they got a much bigger blessing when they went up in the Communion line and got that close to God himself …

I travel a lot and never see this at Masses around the world, seems to only be a rare thing in America or “American” Masses.

As a former Protestant myself, it just seems/feels a bit Protestant to me.

Thoughts?

Peace,
John