Raising children when one parent is "born again".
Any advice on raising my son (4 yrs old), when his mother is a "born again" christian and I am an Atheist? I am an engineer by trade, so S.T.E.M. are the fundamental tenants that govern my life. I am also a very involved parent and, I find it difficult teaching my son the truths about the universe, when his mama drags him to church 2-3 times a week; indoctrinating him. Her and I have discussed it numerous times and I definitely do not want my son looking at his mama negatively or as though she is ignorant, but I also want to provide him the freedom of thought; free from the shackles of that goofy a$$ book.
4
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You're in deep scheisse! I would not want to be you right now. #RIP lol
SleeplessInTexas
Level 8
Dec 4, 2018
0
I'm an Atheist, an Anti-theist, a Socialist, a vocal activist, an intelectual and and Engineering professional in a predominately rural state lol; I've been in "it" deep for a long time ?
Your probably facing a choice between tolerating your wife’s religion and raising your 4 year old son in the church or confronting her about it and going ahead with a divorce. Tough choice to make. The religous nuts are hard to reason with. I myself faced that choice and choose to keep quite about my atheism for the most part. It is somewhat disturbing when my 6 year old grandson asked me if I believed in god and when I replied that I didn’t believe in something that didn’t exist he replied “but papa you will go to hell”.
Trajan61
Level 8
Dec 4, 2018
0
I concur with the suggestion to focus on reason and critical thinking and don't criticize Mom. At some point in time it is going to be difficult not to respond to comments about Jesus and God with something like, "Well son, I know Mommy believes that but Daddy doesn't". That might not go over well with Mom. It is, however, a big part of Christianity is to disparage all non-Christian ideology so you might want to set up some ground rules. If she really digs her heels in this will be a bumpy road.
OCJoe
Level 6
Dec 4, 2018
0
Thank you, sir. I appreciate all the advice and direction that, I have received.
I agree. She is not like likely to respect your beliefs, but you can make a point of explaining that to your son that in the end, we all get to choose for ourselves. Your son has a right to hear your side of things, regardless of what the mom thinks. My ex, an atheist, was co-parenting with the very Catholic mother. Over time, it became pretty obvious that the daughter thought the religious stuff was nonsense, and the dad (my ex) was pretty good about modeling his beliefs without disparaging the mother's.
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