Dh and I are both atheists but we have very different views on how to explain religion to ds1 (4.5). Today we walked past an old church on a day out and ds asked what it was for. I said something about how some people believe in god and built churches as somewhere to go and think about him. Cue lots of sighing and muttering from dh along the lines of, "here you go again, pushing it on him," blah blah.
I have no idea why he said that - he knows my views - they are the same as his and he should therefore know that I have no wish to 'push' anything on my dc. Ds asked the question again and dh answered, "It's somewhere people can go when they feel sad or worried and want somewhere quiet to think." Annoyingly, I think this answer is bettter than the one I gave - which was probably confusing for a 4 yr old, but the incident reminded me how annoying dh's attitude is on this.
When it is Christmas he tuts and sights whenever the Nativity is mentioned, despite the fact that I always say, "some people believe that..." I think if it was up to him the dc would be told Christmas is all about Santa and worshipping the Argos Catalogue and I find this a little vacuous. I have already mentioned that I would like to get the dc a book of Bible stories for children beacause I believe it is important for them to know the basics of Christianity since it has been such a massive influence on all aspects of our culture. I had a similar book as a child and I loved the stories and the illustrations and it in no way influenced my beliefs. Dh is dead set against this and I am annoyed that he would be happy for our dc to be left in ignorance in this way.
AIBU?