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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be shocked that children don't know the Lords prayer anymore

314 replies

shaka12003 · 05/06/2012 19:55

Something that came up today whilst watching the jubilee celebrations. The church service came on and the Lords prayer was said my 2 dcs don't know it and havent been taught it in school.

AIBU to be shocked by this apparently I am as we now live in a political correct society and can't teach children these things.

OP posts:

sayanything · 05/06/2012 22:11

YABVU. We had to recite it every day at school for twelve years, eventually in 2 languages. It meant nothing to me until I turned 11 or thereabouts and actually thought about god and religion and promptly decided I was atheist. And then had to enter into endless arguments with school because I refused to recite it (although I would stand and be silent, of course). I would be furious if DS had to go through the same dross. As others said, if you want your children to know it, then teach it to them yourself.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 05/06/2012 22:14

The doxology ('power and the glory') is still there in Catholic versions, rat - it's just spoken by the priest (AFAIK).

But yes.

I'll stop being a pedant in a second, honest.

rainbowinthesky · 05/06/2012 22:19

It's quite worrying that parents expect school should teach something so important to the parent that they are shocked the school hasn't actually taught this. I believe ds should know about contraception and STIs so rather than assuming the school will teach him all he needs to know I have made sure I have informed him as much as I can. This is because it is important to me he knows this in the same way it seems it's important to the op that her dc know the prayer yet she didnt even realise they didnt know it. How does that happen?

stealthsquiggle · 05/06/2012 22:20

OP is being ludicrous.

As it happens, my DC know the Lords Prayer, as their school chooses to teach it to them, and to do Easter / nativity stuff as well. I couldn't give two hoots either way and will try and encourage them to make their own minds up as they get older.

There is no "tut tut what is this country coming to" angle to be had here. It's up to the school.

VashtiBunyan · 05/06/2012 22:20

I don't understand how a child of practising Christian parents doesn't know the Lord's prayer. Shouldn't it be one of the prayers you say with them? It is pretty central.

stealthsquiggle · 05/06/2012 22:23

OTOH, as has been pointed out, all DC need to know about Wombles, and Clangers, ans Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe, and it is every parent's duty to teach them.

TandB · 05/06/2012 22:24

Tethers, I know. I even tried singing the proper words as I thought he might have been a bit confused by the "Bungypants, Bungypants" lyrics, but he still didn't get it.

There's a huge cultural hole at the heart of our society.

rainbowinthesky · 05/06/2012 22:25

I had to buy ds a DVD of the Young Ones when he was 15 as he'd never heard of them.

PuffofSmoke · 05/06/2012 22:32

Slightly off topic but today DD (2) went down on her knees, clasped her hands, shut her eyes and said "God bless Mummy, Daddy & Ddog. Men"?!?!? Where on earth would a two year old get that if she doesn't have religious parents (which we are not)??!! She will come out with the Lords Prayer next I suppose!

DrCoconut · 05/06/2012 22:33

Tethers, we mustn't forget "I was walking down the lane...."!
On a more serious note though I tend to agree that Christianity is behind so much of our heritage that it can't do any harm to be aware of the basics, even if you don't believe them yourself.

sashh · 06/06/2012 06:23

PuffofSmoke

Take her to an RC church imediatly - claim she was influenced by Mother Theresa and she will be declared a miracle child.

iMoniker · 06/06/2012 06:52

My children do not know the Lords Prayer because we are not Christian.

I assume many children do not know the Ode to the Triple Gem but am not shocked by this because they are not Buddhist.

Kayano · 06/06/2012 07:07

There are two versions of the prayer anyway. Catholics don't add the random

'for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory' bit at the end

Haven't read the thread but good Christians teach their kids the prayer, it's not down to the school!

(I don't know if dd will learn it tbh because I don't believe anymore)

exoticfruits · 06/06/2012 07:14

I would expect that it stopped being said as soon as they had different versions- whenI was at school there was one version.

DizzyKipper · 06/06/2012 07:22

If you're religious you should teach them it yourself. I'd personally be glad if my children did not, why on earth would I want them to?

hackmum · 06/06/2012 08:03

Perhaps the OP would care to define "political correctness" for us.

cory · 06/06/2012 08:07

I think they should know it as part of general education, just like they should know the dates pf the French Revolution and the plot of the Iliad; it is all part of our general cultural heritage without which it will be much harder to understand cultural references.

But tbh I have never had an inspector round to check that I am not teaching my children these things. The politically correct society isn't all that well policed, you know. If you turn the lights out and pull the curtains and whisper in your children's ear I am sure you could manage it

RobinScherbatsky · 06/06/2012 08:09

Shocked? I am bloody delighted. The less children are religiously indoctrinated the better.

LynetteScavo · 06/06/2012 08:14

How old are you, exoticfruits? I thought the last line was added in the 2nd century.

I learned the Anglican version of the lords prayer at school (non denominational) in Y4. I'm glad I did, as I would never have learned it at home.

My DC have learned it at school. I'm not at all surprised most children don't learn it at school, and if they didn't know it and I wanted them to, I'd have taught it at home.

I do think all children should know the words of the national anthem, even if they choose not to sing them. I wish I'd been taught the second verse of God Save Our Queen.

complexnumber · 06/06/2012 08:19

I find it rather odd that the OP has taken so long to find out that her children do not know the LP.

Don't Christian families pray together?

LRDtheFeministDragon · 06/06/2012 08:19

lynette, the 'last line' has been around since the second century, but Catholics (and some Anglicans, judging by a wedding I went to at the weekend) don't have the congregation say it, and it's said by the priest.

I'm not sure I've ever needed to know the plot of the Iliad and I don't honestly think it has much cultural impact.

I think it's good to learn a certain measure of random, useless, for-its-own-sake stuff ... but if a school doesn't include the Lord's Prayer in that category it's not really an issue.

FlangelinaBallerina · 06/06/2012 08:20

I know the second verse to God Save The Queen, and I'm a republican! (smug emoticon).

exoticfruits · 06/06/2012 08:20

Not that old! However in church you now get at least 2 versions-from about 1970's probably. You had one when I was at school. I have taught in church schools-been to church with them and haven't heard it said.

cory · 06/06/2012 08:22

LRDtheFeministDragon Wed 06-Jun-12 08:19:49

"I'm not sure I've ever needed to know the plot of the Iliad and I don't honestly think it has much cultural impact."

Helen of Troy doesn't have cultural impact? Is never mentioned in literature? The face that launched a thousand ships.

Jupe01 · 06/06/2012 08:23

They can learn it when it means something to them, perhaps when they are old enough to weigh up whether Christianity (or any other religion) adds any value to their lives. I feel much more strongly about the fact that kids don't immediately stand for older people on buses, or don't know how to entertain themselves without electronic assistance (sweeping generalisation I know), than I do about them not being keen on reciting mystical incantations of whatever description.

For politically correct, read respectful of children's rights not to be indoctrinated by abusive nonsense before they have the intellectual capacity to reject it if they so wish.

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