



Tags: atheist, parent, parenting

Views: 75

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I'm also a SAHM-one girl aged 4 1/2. Lucky for us, she has a "late" birthday so we get one more year of preschool before we send her off into the big kid world of kindergarten.

I stay away from parenting discussion groups online because, since I'm not an "evangelical" atheist, people seem to think I'd want to convert to their own personal religion if they just tell me more about it. Especially since they know I couldn't possibly deny my daughter the joys and comfort of blah blah blah...

It's going to be great to get to know some like-minded parents!
Hi, I'm the mom of 2 girls, 9 and 6. I think this is a great idea for a group, as I get lots and lots of pressure to involve my daughters in church groups, especially because my secular-ish family is far away, and my ex's family is quite fond of a good bible thumping.

yay! I'm so glad for this site, and like you, I really hope to see it take off!
I'm the working father of a 2-year old little girl, can't say much, but I'd be glad to have a resource more inline with my world-view.
I have two kids. My son is 3 years old and my daughter is 8 months, so we don't get into a lot of religion talk yet, but I'm sure it will come up given that the rest of my family is Christian to some degree or other.

Like many of you, I really hope this site takes off and remains a positive place for atheists to be.

Oh, I also am a full time student and take care of my kids as much as possible (and daycare as little as possible) when I'm not in classes.

Looking forward to meeting and sharing with all of you.
My son is 4 1/2 (also with a "late" birthday), and I've managed to keep him out of religious group, bible camps, and things like that.
Hi Y'All~ We are Tina & Rory. We are married 14yrs. A son, 12... A son, 8... and a daughter, 3. I am a proud Freethinking parent, not an activist though I do belong to two local Atheist groups. I am happily raising dogma free kids!
Hi all,

Mom of three here 7, 5 and 3. I have been looking for a good place to discuss atheist parenting. Saying no to joining boyscouts, attending a catholic funeral of a teacher, kids being underhandedly indoctrinated by a neighbor; our atheism has been a larger part of raising our kids than I expected it to be. I really look forward to a place to get advice or just vent.
While I'd agree on Boy-scouts (their anti-atheist attitudes have been well publicized), I wouldn't shy away from Funerals, or other religious ceremony although I would insist on attending with my child. It's the perfect opportunity to stir conversation and inquiry. I think you must be careful in not trying to "Hide" religion from your children but to approach it as the social phenomenon that it is. I'm with Dennett on this that comprehensive religious education on all world religions is a very important aspect to leading people to an atheistic world view. Trying to shelter your children from religion is committing the same "crime" that the religious faithful do when they indoctrinate their children.
I completely agree. IMO information is power. Arming our kids with knowledge of as many world religions as is reasonable will really up the ante in terms of critical thinking. There's a reason that many Christians don't want their kids being taught other beliefs and I think we as freethinkers don't want to fall into their trap.
I agree with this. I have 2 kids, aged 10 and 6. the 10 year old can be shown any religious anything and remain skeptical and, likely, cynical ( I am not looking forward to him as an angsty teen). My 6 year old daughter, on the other hand is very prone to magical thinking. When her grandmother told her god was real, she fell for it. (Yikes!) While I do not keep religion from her, I like to be there when she is exposed to it so I can temper it with a bit of reality, hopefully without being too intrusive. We talk a lot about other's beliefs and other religions out there.
A funeral, I have no problems with whatsoever. Death happens, We all find out about it and yet many people can't remember what it was like to figure out we don't go on forever. It would be the whole afterlife thing that would take a lot of talking about.
We have been fortunate that there hasn't yet been a need to consider funerals although my son is fairly obsessed with death and questions relating to dying. Reflecting on the first Catholic funeral I attended as a child, now that you mention it, I would *probably* skip that part but I might still go to the cemetery. But you are absolutely right that it would depend on the child's ability to digest what he is experiencing.

I agree also that too much information can be confusing. I didn't mean to imply that young kids should be given all info all at once or anything like that. I think because I don't have the fall back that "god did it" I tend to talk about difficult subjects with my older boy more than I probably would if I was religious. Sometimes I falter and I know exactly when I've given him too much information and other times I manage to hit just the right tone.
I totally agree. I think it is important to teach children about religion and religious beliefs so that they can better deal with the world around them. A majority of people are religious so it is necessary to understand what they believe so that you can interact with them in the best possible way.

Also my experience was that learning about religions and mythology aided in my rejection of religion. It was in jr high that I realized that there were many religions but all of them claim to be the one true religion. Yet not all of them could be correct and none of them could explain how to determine which was actually the true religion.

As for Boy scouts me and my wife are undecided. She likes all of the things they get to do and learn but the intolerance displayed by them is disturbing. Luckily my little ones are years away from anything like that so we can re-evaluate the organization in a few years and decide at that point. Also we can look into other similar groups that are more accepting.


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