Raising Children

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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on September 24, 2011 at 8:53am

I was an atheist before I was a parent and have raised my 2 kids without any religious affiliation.   My kids are 16 and 20.  At this point, they have remained non-religious.  They seem to have stayed on the path so far.  (My late husband was a non-practicing Catholic and we were in agreement about this lack of religion in our child-rearing...we did attend religious weddings and funerals with the kids and explained what they were expected to do and how to behave beforehand so it wasn't a complete shock to their systems..ha...our little heathens behaved wonderfully, of course, and it was always interesting to hear their 'take' on the event afterwords and answer their many questions.)  

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Permalink Reply by booklover on September 26, 2011 at 3:28pm

My story is almost identical to mojos except my kids are 17 and 19 (so almost the same ages!), except I actually lost my head for a few months.  I tried the catholic thing.  My then 7 year old daughter said "I think that jesus-thing is a myth" and that was the end of that!  I  have terrific kids so we did something right!  Your kids will be just fine!

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Permalink Reply by Lana on September 24, 2011 at 9:45am

I prefer to raise little heathens.  I tell them it's their job as people to figure out what they believe about god, and that they don't have to decide anytime soon.  And I try to protect them from high pressure religious sales tactics.  When they ask, I tell them what I don't believe and what I just don't know.

I do try to teach them what's appropriate when someone wants to pray.  And that its rude to go around telling friends and family that there is no god in an unprovoked way, much the same way as it's rude to tell kids that there is no Santa Claus.  It isn't their place to create rifts that way. 

I have a step-son who is hanging out with a Jehovah's Witness family.  We are really hope he doesn't get into that too deep. 

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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on September 24, 2011 at 10:01am

Yes, raising well-mannered little heathens was my goal as well.  And promoting the idea that this world is filled with many people with many paths to follow...like you said, they don't have to decide anything yet....we are each a work in progress.  Having strong opinions is fine but not pushing others to agree or to hold those same opinions. 

 

I don't know about anybody else but I was raised a Lutheran and I played with all kinds of kids never knowing what their religion was...it just wasn't an issue that was brought up or talked about much.  Even in high school.  Well, in middle school I was fascinated with the 'holy rollers' as we called them....I didn't even know what that meant but we could pick them out in a classroom by the way they dressed.

 

But that was 30 years ago for me!  It wasn't until university that the idea of atheism even hit me...that people didn't always automatically belong to a religious group or believe in a god/supernatural being.  So hanging out with somebody who's a member of the JW's or whatever....does it really make long lasting impressions on a child/teenager?  It's hard to predict.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Stott on September 26, 2011 at 3:23pm

I raise mine to question deeply everything they hear, and  I talk with them about possible reasons why people believe the way they do.  Learning about mythologies and their connections also  becomes part of my teaching.  This can be considered the Middle Ground, if you like, but it gives my children a chance to make an informed decision about what they will believe later.  It hasn't always resulted in them staying/becoming atheist.  My oldest son has decided he's a Deist.  It would not have been mine, but I taught him to look at it all and decide for himself what makes sense to him.

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