Go to Religion in the Modern World
- Add a comment
- Go to Raising your kids without religion
arGee - avoiding family conflict is the real trick of it
I was not able to do that in many cases but was able to deflect most of the acrimony from my kids to myself. Both my wife and myself have been pressured over the years, there were even attempts at quasi-kidnappings by both sides of the family. A supposed trip to the mall with grandma turning into a quick visit to a church function type of thing. When all was said and done however, I prevailed, my kids avoided having their heads filled with the same nonsense that I was brought up with. The small price in that I am considered the spawn of Satan by the in laws was definitely worth the trouble. My eldest is an agnostic, my youngest a believer but more importantly; I feel I have managed to instill an inherent sense of alltruism in both of them.
posted by
gomedome
on November 3, 2006 at 9:00 AM
| link to this | reply
I raised my son...
With a full appreciation of science and a scientific world-view. My parents were pentecostal missionaries in Germany (good, decent people, not the "holly roller" types), and my son would visit them in the summer. They saw him as another chance for their "failure" with me. The result was a lot of confusion in my son's developing mind. Each year, upon his return, I would carefully reestablish his scientific basis – all without destroying his love for the grandparents.
It worked well, except that when he finally found himself at the Naval Academy in Annapolis after serving as a Marine for several years, he opted to convert to Judaism. Go figure!
posted by
arGee
on November 3, 2006 at 6:57 AM
| link to this | reply
Schatz - my kids got children's illustrated bibles for Christmas on year
Even after I told the in laws that we didn't want them in the house. They thought that having the kids open them as presents on Christmas morning would make me change my mind. The books themselves were works of horror, full of pictures sure to give children nightmares. I've never understood how a dead guy nailed to some boards is a suitable picture for children. . . . "turbo Christians" . . I love it.
posted by
gomedome
on November 2, 2006 at 8:40 PM
| link to this | reply
My dad's family is turbo Christian, my mom's was Catholic until the family
fell apart when my Grandpa left my Grandma and the Church couldn't help her assumingly because the tithing had stopped and they don't like the whole divorce thing. But he left her, and left her in a lurch with eight kids. Ugh. Don't get me started. LOL Then there's my husband who was raised Catholic. His dad has received a medal from the Pope, he's so Catholic. Good thing is, while we lived with them, they never talked God to the kids. We made it clear that we weren't having it, and that was that. I've taken them to a couple of Unitarian churches, and the TC's give them religious kids books every holiday. If they're awful, they disappear. If they're ok, they stay. They don't talk about God much, except to say that he's the guy in the sky who knows this or that, or who watches people and that people talk to when they say grace. I have an aunt that says that you don't have to do everything 'by the book, but that it's important that your kids know what's in the book'. Funny thing is, I think it's way more important that your kids know what's in your heart, than what's in some book. Oh well, when they rebel, it will be to join a church, I know it. LOL
posted by
Schatz
on November 2, 2006 at 7:52 PM
| link to this | reply
religion is everywhere
just like starbucks and target
posted by
ladychardonnay
on November 2, 2006 at 5:44 PM
| link to this | reply
It's hard to stop the cycle because they get weekly motivation to try again
posted by
SuccessWarrior
on November 2, 2006 at 4:35 PM
| link to this | reply
give em an inch
posted by
Xeno-x
on November 2, 2006 at 2:21 PM
| link to this | reply