I asked school to excuse DC from nativity (due to religious reasons - we do not depict jesus/mary/joseph.) They were absolutely fine with it. Happened to mention this to work colleagues - and they basically told me that I wasn't willing to integrate! 
I was a bit shocked that they saw it like this despite the fact that I explained why. I didn't realise that this decision was perceived as a lack of willingness to integrate - in a country which I have been born and brought up in.
I had to bite my tongue for the sake of peace!
So...MN jury...
AIBU to exclude DC from nativity for religious reasons (note: DC is not excluded from other christmas activities at school). Am I just not integrating well into the society that I was born and brought up in?
TIA
(please be gentle)
AIBU?
To not want my DC to participate in nativity?
Spru · 05/12/2012 15:47
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
Thank you for all the responses and thanks to the posters who put my view for ward more eloquently than I managed.
Yes, I am not impressed when my decision somehow means that I am not integrated.
SilverBaubles Yes, i have lived in other countries with more liberal and more conservative views than UK. Yes, my 'ethnic origin' is not UK, but my country and my heart is in UK - this is my country of birth.
My assertion to pull out was not militant at all - (to my ears your comment sounds like you are affiliating me with militant islam - but of course, like you, I could be wrong!) It was merely a decision that I made. My DC is not 'feeling excluded' at all.
What I have found interesting is the attitude amongst some that: 'if you do X, then you must do Y, or do neither. You cannot do X and but then not do Y. I thought I would take that on-board (though it was a very weak argument), all of a sudden, i am now militant!
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
TBH the thing with Santa and St Nicholas is that actually even if Santa is coming from the idea of St Nicolas, they aren't the same thing. To start with, people celebrating St Nicolas (and there are some) actually don't do it on Christmas day. doing so was a way for the church to bring an unwelcome celebration at a time that suited them (That's assimilation in religious terms). So St nicolas celebration moved from beginning of december to christmas day.
More importantly, whatever the story behind Santa, nowdays Santa is the guy dressed in red who lives in North Pole and has elves helping him wrapping presents for the children. There is no connexion at all now with religion, even if, originally, it was the case.
Different from a nativity scene which at the very heart of a religion, the birth of a prophet, the mum who was a virgin etc...
And, most importantly, why why should one should do something that is going against their beliefs for the sake of integration??? How can you even talk about integration about someone who was born in England, brought up here and, feels english 
? I though integration was about a foreigner wanting to 'integrate' to a new country.
But that doing thing a different way when in your country is just .. well doing things differently (You could even say weird or crazy things if you want).
Telling the OP it would her from 'integrating' means that the people who said it do not think of her as an englishwoman but as a foreigner.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.