to be pissed off at school for telling DD (5) about Baby Jesus?

[Kalemu]

We don't want religion anywhere near our house, one of the main reasons we chose to send our DD to state school instead of a CoFE school. Imagine my surprise when she came home with a Baby Jesus picture book and singing about the Baby King. This makes me very mad - it's not like we want to keep her in a bubble, but I wanted to have told her the different religion when she was a bit older.

Thinking of writing to the headteacher to let him know our thoughts, and to demand that we're informed next time they plan to talk about religious stuff in class. Do you think AIBU?

I have noticed that once some people have a DC they want to control their entire environment! You can only control yourself.

I'm very atheist, completely intolerant to intolerance and pretty much with Dawkins on the evils of liberal religionists. My dd spent yesterday singing ' glory to god ' really loudly, with huge enthusiasm and hands to the heavens actions everwhere we went. Gotta love those nativity plays.
Ours is a very multifaith school and I do find it odd they choose very happy clappy plays rather than do some shoddy job like we had in my day.

You don't do christmas?

Your child gets no presents? You don't decorate the house? You don't do santa? Nothing?

I'm impressed. Most people who say they don't believe in god still do christmas.

You could always celebrate yule instead, if you wanted your child to have some presents at this time of year.

Or do you want to skip the whole thing altogether?

Who needs God to celebrate Christmas? He barely gets a look in. Even in my very Catholic upbringing God was restricted to Midnight Mass and a Nativity scene in the decorations; the rest of the day was spent just like everyone else with presents and turkey and tins of Quality Street.

You don't - but a 5yr old ought to have the general knowledge behind it - all of it and not just the parts sanctioned by the parent. Maybe they are just very unquestioning but you would think they might wonder why the supermarkets were playing songs about 'newborn kings'!

Oh, don't get me wrong, my 3 year old was singing songs about Baby Jesus with his toddler group and knows Christmas is his birthday, but all the 'atheists are hypocrites if they celebrate Christmas' stuff is weird when it barely registers as a religious holiday in most traditions.

I don't get that enjoying "presents and turkey and tins of quality street" is somehow not involving God - a religious person's Christmas day is likely to involve all that (though personally, not the meat or the Nestle products!) with a visit to church thrown in. The giving-to-others is quite a Christian thing, as is enjoying time with loved ones.

Where does God come into over-consumption and mass consumerism?
I like spending time with my family, as do many other humans around the planet, not just the Christian ones. A mid-winter blow-out has been around for a long time without a Christian spin on it.

Ah but that's not what you said the first time NG - you were saying God wasn't much present in your early Catholic Christmases, I was responding that Christians may well see "normal" Christmassy things as being to do with God, not just religious services etc. You can eat sweets without a blow-out (I've been told!) and I certainly agree most religious festivals have the same 'ingredients', but I'm hardly likely to think "oh, this is just like Diwali" when I look at Xmas tree lights, as it's not my background.

My aunt is Jewish and I think my uncle is an atheist. They're raising their daughter in the Jewish faith, but still do a tree and Santa.

DH and I are religious (he is devoutly Catholic and I'm just a general Christian) but it's never concerned me if non-religious people celebrate the secular aspects of Christmas, why would it?

OP, it's hard for me to say YABU, despite my own beliefs, because I'm American and we're not supposed to talk about religion in our schools. In the larger schools I attended and worked at we never did. Now I live in a very small town and they do bring it up from time to time, but there's no nativity or anything. I was surprised when DS came home from his (private, not attached to the state school) preschool singing Jesus songs just because no one had asked. TBF almost everyone here is religious, the churches are always full, etc.

Is athiesm the new middle class badge along the lines of "oh we don't have any sugar in our house except a small black crystal we keep in a locked cupboard for the builders"? It reads like it on here.

Is athiesm the new middle class badge along the lines of "oh we don't have any sugar in our house except a small black crystal we keep in a locked cupboard for the builders"? It reads like it on here.

,snort

PMSL at theodora.

Can I just add to the sugar comment "and the children (we don't say 'our' as they don't 'belong' to us) call us by our first names"?

I think the year without festivals, festivities or othwer holiday stuff would be rather boring.

Or it could be a measured response to rational thought and intellectual enquiry? Just saying.

Mum was religious, dad wasnt. He was an intellectual, so we had quite a wide range if ideas bouncing around at home. I still like christmas.

"Mum was religious, dad wasnt. He was an intellectual"

Says it all, really!

Seeker you may be right (measured thought etc) but not with regard to the OP's views I think.

My annoyingly intellectual dh is currently at church.

Oops. That didnt come out right (sorry mum)!

Dad was a very curious chap with a solid science background. He found religion interesting and way always questioning the hows and the whys. Mum was more of a "believer" although she did argue with the vicar on many many points (frequently, the poor man).

Our vicar (my boss too as it happens) is a very brainy chap. So is his wife and their kids. Our other vicar has a MSC in mathematics, the curate is an engineer and the other other one is a lawyer. No shortage of team members for quiz night!

Sorry, moomin, couldn't resist!

OP - I wouldn't go in and "demand" anything. It is not a good way to approach the school. But you might want to have a meeting to find out about their approach to religion. Also to let them know that you don't celebrate. Most schools will assume that families celebrate Xmas if they are not visible religious minorities (I.e. Sikhs, Muslims etc...)

Personally as a Xmas celebrating atheist I wouldn't advise to pull your child out of Xmas at school - it will make the last few weeks of term miserable for them. For most people in this country Xmas is about tradition, family and food and nothing to to with faith.

Theodora - Very funny.

Most atheists I know in real life are people who have no interest and therefore no belief in religion, whereas the ones on M N seem to view it as a defining quality/frequent source of angst.

"Most atheists I know in real life are people who have no interest and therefore no belief in religion, whereas the ones on M N seem to view it as a defining quality/frequent source of angst."

Really? I would be amazed if they have no interest in religion. No thinking person can possibly have no interest on religion!

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if I repeat anything, but I think it's possible to have an awareness of bible stories, and stories important to other religions, without actually believing it IYSWIM. Just because a child is from an atheist/non Christian background, doesn't mean they can't learn about Jesus and treat it as stories important to others rather than fact.