I dip, you dip, we don’t
We don’t do religion, but I tell Paige that the dead cat on the side of the road is in animal “heaven”; a place where there’s tuna by the ton and mice to chase for hours and hours. This is different than the “heaven” my Grandma is in; that’s the heaven where dapper old woman go to listen to books on tape and eat BLTS forever. When she asks what my Aunt’s dog is, I tell her Zeus and that he was a Greek God. When she is playing in my closet she happily chats with a stone Buddah my Dad gave me a few years ago.
I celebrate Christmas, and Easter but it’s never about Jesus. Christmas is about gathering family and friends together for some delicious food, gift giving and generally being awesome and cozy during a cold December. It’s about giving back, charity, and whatever other warm and cozy things you can think of, ESPECIALLY peppermint bark. Easter is naturally, about chocolate. About spring, gardening, brunch and hunting for eggs.
I love holidays, traditions and mythology. But we don’t really do religion — we don’t need it. If Paige wants to grow up and go become a devout Christian preaching her words to other folks FINE [I won't be happy but FINE] otherwise, lets stick with our gods, goddesses and hollow bunnies because that’s what makes me happy. Stories, myths, imagining a possible heaven that has no overdue book fines and strong coffee because that’s my idea of an afterlife, baby.
When Paige was born people asked when we were getting her baptized and we shrugged and said um, never? I’m not going to pretend to join a church, pretend to believe in something and dip my kids head into some water so that my family can breath a collective sigh of relief. We even offered to have some sort of spiritual hippie bullshit ceremony at our house where we would chant and dip her into water but everyone rolled their eyes — their loss.
Now we have a second kid coming, and my mom’s practically begging for a double baptismal. I’m naturally ignoring her, but it’s annoying. My kid[s] are awesome in every single way, touched by the hand of some made up god or not. If you believe in that shit fine, but dont’ keep asking me, pleading with me, fucking begging me to go get them baptized because you’re wasting your breath. I do what I want, WE do what we want as parents and it’s just to raise conscious kids that know about ALL religions and stories, not just the ones filled with guilt, and sin.
That’s my rant for the day. Paige is off at her Grandmas for a weekend of sugar and I am going to sit and do entirely too much of nothing. Cable and some chocolate is looking mighty good, oh yes [ but I'll end up scouring books for crafts to do next week even though this is MY free time dammit and I shouldn't even be thinking about parenting]
My Grandma, Mom, & her sisters are way more catholic than I am personally. I’m agnostic. I believe in a higher power, but not God. I think your approach to religion in this modern age is smart & powerful. If Paige & lil bro gain knowledge of all religions and aren’t forced to choose just one then they’ll be prone to be more open minded.
I also agree with you about the religion free traditions of Christmas & Easter because I LOVE candy & presents & family & friends.
totally been there.
I’m going to get that response from my pseudo-Catholic family, too. Stick to your guns.
I am catholic… and the son, and all further children will be baptised, but it’s more a nice thought than a feeling of being forced to… His godfather is gay – and that was my rebellion. I believe religion should be about all the things you mentioned, not about what people have made it become. I don’t think God cares if I go to church on Sunday, he’s likely quite happy that I have a lazy coffee morning with my family.
I’m stealing your idea of a no-late-fee library for my heaven… I can’t believe I didn’t think about it before
I don’t plan on forcing religion on Orson because when I was little it kinda was. However, I am a little glad it was because I know about it now and I like knowing about different religions. So I plan on having him go to the Temple because I want him to be aware of religions and not ever judge anyone for their religion even though there are some crazies out there.
I just wrote about baptism the other day. For us, baptism is an important part of our faith and we wanted our son to be a part of that… that being said- we teach him that other paths (or none at all) are equally as valid and cherished. We want him to know that UGH I HATE TO USE THIS WORD *coughCHRISTIANITYcough* has been transformative for us. In my world though, that isn’t about a religion or dogma, it is about being a good citizen: loving justice, standing against suffering, accepting others, and self transformation…
it is all a bit convuluted sometimes.
I am glad you are standing up for your values. Shit! Who BEGS another person to do it their way! Kudos for being proud and secure that your way is just fine- because it is
GOSH, this sounds like my mother to a T! hmm, we don’t go to church, we don’t talk about religion with our kids, and we’re not sure we believe in a god but, yeah, we’ll baptize our kids just so they’re on the “list”. no thanks.