https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 01 May 2026 08:22:42 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion/page/2#post-1106307 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 17:53:48 +0000 MrsKoala 1106307@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@irene: I think you would probably be described as an agnostic (I am!), which means that you neither believe nor disbelieve in any particular religion. There are different schools of agnostics out there but I personally am of the mindset that we as humans can't know what's out there or the nature of god or gods or any greater power. I think that sounds a lot like the story of the elephant! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion/page/2#post-1106207 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:37:38 +0000 Ra 1106207@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't plan on teaching LO about religion as much as I plan on teaching him tolerance of religions.</p> <p>I want him to be exposed to as many cultures and religions as possible. I want him to be open-minded. I also want him to determine his belief system (or lack thereof) through self-exploration rather than anything I've indoctrinated him with. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion/page/2#post-1106118 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 15:52:43 +0000 sunny 1106118@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Although I was baptized Catholic, I was largely raised without religious teachings. I'm thinking that is the same direction we want to take with our LO. I don't know if we will be teaching our LO much about religion at all. I think maybe we'll probably answer any questions she has to the best of our abilities but we aren't going to teach her with the intent that she chooses one to follow. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion/page/2#post-1105988 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 14:59:03 +0000 travellingbee 1105988@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@TemperanceBrennan: I agree. I feel we (DH and I) are way more considerate of feelings of those who are religious. I was thinking about how I never believed in Santa because I had an older brother. A kid in school (2nd grade)was telling me about what he asked Santa for and I must have looked at him like he had three heads. Santa?! You know there isn't really a Santa, right? AND... commence crying and a phone call to my mom. I was projecting that onto my son, being in school and telling some kid, "You know there isn't really a God, right?" Much touchier situation than Santa. Sooooo.... I liked your approach. I want to be clear that there are lots of different beliefs and that is OK. We aren't right or wrong. It is a BELIEF. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion/page/2#post-1105830 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 14:11:43 +0000 immabeetoo 1105830@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Basically exactly what @hilsy85 wrote. </p> <p>My parents raised us in a religion free house but let us explore of our own will; I went to both Jewish and Christian focused things when I was younger and decided it wasn't for me. They raised an atheist, agnostic, and a Christian this way between me and my siblings. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion/page/2#post-1105817 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 14:06:31 +0000 looch 1105817@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mediagirl: I hear you, I'd love to continue this discussion privately, so as not to derail the thread...I'll wall you. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion/page/2#post-1105785 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:56:59 +0000 mediagirl 1105785@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: It's what you "are" but it doesn't mean you can't learn about other religions. You can always denounce your relationship with the church, too. I was Catholic - went through it all the way through Confirmation (did not get married Catholic). </p> <p>I was recently confirmed in the Episcopal church. They accepted the fact that I got married in a non-denominational church while the Catholic Priests told me that I would not be able to take communion anymore since I got married outside of the church. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion/page/2#post-1105450 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 12:18:00 +0000 Lindsay05 1105450@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I will teach them to keep an open mind. If they have lots of questions and are genuinely interested then I will take them to a church. I will want to teach them the general premise about being nice to others, and respect your surroundings. However if they want to dig deeper into it I will help guide them in whatever direction. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105402 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 12:05:18 +0000 MsLipGloss 1105402@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PurplePeony: Exactly re non-issue. I live my life how I live my life not because of some afterlife reward or promise of a heaven or fear of eternal damnation. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105343 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:44:05 +0000 ShootingStar 1105343@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I haven't quite worked out yet what we'll teach DS about religion. I consider myself to be pretty much an atheist - I don't have any believe in God. *But* I'm not going to argue that for sure there isn't one, how would I know? I just don't have the belief that there is. DH is a lapsed Catholic who does believe in God, but to him it's more a personal thing. </p> <p>We've talked about joining a local Unitarian Church because they are very inclusive and their Sunday school classes are focused on the more academic side of teaching about world religions - not indoctrinating or teaching any one religion's dogma.</p> <p>Religion is just not a huge part of our daily lives and while I'm sure some questions will come up, I'm more concerned with teaching DS other things that are important to me. Like tolerance for cultures, races, and sexual identities; and being a good person even when circumstances are hard. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105340 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:43:27 +0000 LovelyPlum 1105340@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lovehoneybee: I'm Catholic, and I wasn't the least bit offended by that. I think it's pretty clear what you meant, no worries :)</p> <p>We will raise our child in our faith, but I want him or her to have appreciation and respect for all people of faith, and all people of goodwill. I also don't want our children to be afraid to ask questions. While DH's and my views on many Church teachings may now appear fairly orthodox, we came to them through a long, winding faith journey with lots of detours. So, while I hope and pray that faith is important to our children, I know that each journey is highly personal. I hope that we are able to allow our kids to walk their own journey, and that they let us witness it with them. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105313 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:32:01 +0000 yoursilverlining 1105313@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We are personally atheist, however; my husband is extremely familiar with the Bible (enough so to teach college level courses on the Bible), and with what it actually says, so we won't stick our heads in the sand about religion as it's all around us all. </p> <p>We plan to explain that different people believe different things, and so while some people believe in God, we don't for x, y, z reasons. We also don't belong to any church for x, y, z reasons.</p> <p>Morals and living an ethical, positive life is completely separate for us from any religion; and we don't need religion in order to know our right from wrong, and what sort of life to lead. We will talk about the historical Jesus, the actual person and his deeds. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105309 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:31:24 +0000 jedeve 1105309@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We will teach our son that there is a God who is the embodiment of love. We will teach him that God asks us to love him and to love each other, and doing so is following his word. We will teach him that we are meant to build God's kingdom, and that we do so through building a more just world. One without poverty and hate and violence. We will teach him how to look to Jesus for a model of how to do that. And we will teach him the story of how Jesus reconciled us and fixed a very often messed up world. </p> <p>We will teach him there are many different people who believe many different things and that it is not our place to decide who is right and who is wrong. But we will teach him the history of other religions and where they differ and where they are the same and why we believe what we do. </p> <p>We will teach him how to pray to God and how to talk to the saints. We will teach him about finding God in the Eucharist and in nature. We will tell him religion doesn't make him better or more moral than atheists, it just gives a different reasoning behind what we choose to do. </p> <p>We will tell him that we disagree with sme teachings of our church, for instance, that we (like our church) believe it is not a sin to be gay (but unlike our church) we do not believe it is a sin to act on that. </p> <p>I pray that my LO will grow up in the faith. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105288 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:23:17 +0000 lovehoneybee 1105288@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mediagirl: Big ditto about being raised ignorant of other religions--I was raised Southern Baptist and the only other religion I was ever taught about was Catholicism, and then only as an example of a "wrong religion" full of people that we needed to save because otherwise they were going to hell*</p> <p>(*I really, really, really mean no offense to Catholics. This is not what I believe now, obviously, as I don't believe in hell. Just what I was taught as a child.) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105280 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:20:22 +0000 mediagirl 1105280@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: okay. I was reading through it, wincing. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105279 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:20:18 +0000 PurplePeony 1105279@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MsLipGloss: I feel the same way. My DH is firmly athiest; I'm about 98% athiest but in the unlikely event there really is some higher power out there, I wouldn't change anything about the way I lead my life so it's a non-issue to me.</p> <p>I think we will take a similar approach as @TemperanceBrennan. IMO, it would be doing our kids a disservice to pretend religion doesn't exist, in all contexts from friendship to academic subjects like history and critical thinking to the child's own eventual character development. I don't want them growing up to think one is any better than another, though I know I can't control what they eventually come to believe as adults.</p> <p>We will be teaching values like kindness, honesty, patience, etc separate from any discussion of religion. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105278 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:19:31 +0000 lawbee11 1105278@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mediagirl: the character, Derek (played by Ricky Gervais) is...different? I don't know if they ever reveal what he has, he is just a little off. So it's intentionally like that. It's also a British show. I copy and pasted the quote because I'm lazy :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105259 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:13:36 +0000 looch 1105259@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mediagirl: So, I have a question for you (I am gathering you are Catholic)...did you baptize your daughter Catholic? Because this is what stresses me out, once you are baptized Catholic, I kind of feel like that's what you "are," if that makes any sense. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105257 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:13:21 +0000 mediagirl 1105257@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: I guess I'm missing something with that quote - is it intentionally worded horribly or is it a misprint? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105251 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:11:23 +0000 mediagirl 1105251@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm not atheist but I am trying to figure out what we are going to teach our daughter. I don't want her to grow up completely ignorant of other religions like I did (because Catholicism is the one and only religion that matters...) We haven't even taken her to church yet other than her Baptism. Once she gets to an age where she can go to the children's service, we will start going more regularly. For now, I don't want to go to church and send her to the nursery, I'd rather spend that time with her at home. Once she is learning something, then I'll send her. I'll continue the teachings at home but also have open discussions about all religions. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105240 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:07:15 +0000 lovehoneybee 1105240@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm not comfortable calling myself an atheist because while I don't believe there is a god, I'm not completely certain without a doubt that there isn't one either. </p> <p>DH is a pretty hard-core atheist, and would like to approach religion with LO as "You used to believe in Santa, but you know now he's not real. He's someone people made up. God is the same, except loads of people believe in him all of their lives" (once he's old enough to not believe in Santa). </p> <p>However I want E to respect other peoples' faiths, whether or not he shares them, and I don't want him going around talking about how silly people are because they still believe in "Santa". </p> <p>I'd prefer to take a route similar to @hilsy85: @TemperanceBrennan: teach him that people believe different things, about different religions, and that it's okay that people believe different things, especially if it brings them comfort. </p> <p>Though I hope he reaches the same conclusions we have, I refuse to try to brainwash him into believing exactly how we believe. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105206 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:58:11 +0000 lawbee11 1105206@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cherrybee: Yes! DH and I have already watched all the episodes :) And we both follow him on twitter. I love that his tweets are either about the non-existence of God or pictures of his cat. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105196 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:55:59 +0000 MsLipGloss 1105196@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cherrybee: my DH is the same! (he has some really funny names for Jeebus . . . but I won't share as to avoid offending anyone). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105188 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:54:37 +0000 Cherrybee 1105188@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: You've been watching Derek?!! It's brilliant, isn't it! Gervais is actually a philosophy graduate and a militant atheist. He spends most of his Twitter time baiting Christians and arguing that there is no God! DH thinks he's brilliant but it just grates on me!! </p> <p>Personally - I don't know. I really don't know. I was once a very devout Christian; I studied Theology at University! But I lost my faith for a while and now.... I don't know what I believe. Some days, I believe in God. I still pray.... but I don't always know who to. DH is an atheist and a pretty passionate one at that. He refers to my Bible as my "book about magic" and doesn't want me to tell LO that there is a God..... it's a tough call, really. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105098 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:37:19 +0000 MsLipGloss 1105098@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I walk the line between agnostic and atheist . . . I will teach her to think for herself and to decide for herself what she believes (and doesn't believe). Few things make me cringe more than hearing a small child regurgitate whatever they have been *programmed* to believe . . . </p> <p>I hold morals apart from religion . . . they are not one in the same. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105087 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:34:40 +0000 .twist. 1105087@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: oh! I will have to look. I hope it is on my netflix, there is a lot of differences between canada and USA! Unfortunately. :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105074 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:32:49 +0000 lawbee11 1105074@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@.twist.: It's an amazing show. It's only on Netflix, though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105045 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:27:14 +0000 .twist. 1105045@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: haha that is absolutely perfect and right in line with our beliefs and teachings. I am going to have to look into this new show of his! I love Ricky! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1105032 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:25:26 +0000 lawbee11 1105032@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is a quote from Ricky Gervais's new show, Derek. I love it. This is what we'll teach our kids. </p> <p>"I DON’T THINK IT MAKES ANY DIFFERENCE ANYWAY COS I’VE PRAYED FOR THINGS THAT HAVEN’T HAPPENED AND I HAVEN’T PRAYED FOR THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED. SO I DON’T THINK IT MATTERS WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IN GOD OR NOT. THAT’S WHAT I THINKS ANYWAY. I’VE MET PEOPLE WHAT DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD THAT ARE NICE AND WHAT ARE HORRIBLE AND I’VE MET PEOPLE THAT DO BELIEVE IN GOD WHAT ARE NICE AND WHAT ARE HORRIBLE, SO JUST BE NICE. THAT’S THE EASIEST THING, JUST BE NICE. I’M NICE, NOT COS I THINK I’LL GET INTO HEAVEN OR ANYTHING, BUT WHEN I DOES NICE THINGS I FEELS NICE AND WHEN I DOES BAD THINGS I FEELS BAD. THAT’S HOW I KNOWS.” </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-will-you-teach-your-lo-about-religion#post-1104955 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:12:01 +0000 TemperanceBrennan 1104955@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@travellingbee: I share your concerns about our kids telling people "there is no God". Although, it makes me kind of sad, because I doubt a lot of religious people have concerns about their kids talking about God on the playground. </p> <p> I think we are going to try to stress that it is ok that people believe different things. We plan to say something like grandma and grandpa believe in God, mommy and daddy don't. And stress that they and their friends get to believe whatever they want. Hopefully that will translate to the playground. </p>