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 agree that faith can't be taught, which is why I don't object to children learning about any and all faiths.

I was not raised as Christian, nor was I christened as a baby. I was taught the Lord's Prayer in school and sang hymns.

However, when I was 20, I started to believe in God and became a Christian ( NB I am not happy clappy and most of my friends don't even know about this as it is personal to me and not something I preach about).

Faith either happens or it doesn't. I can safely say, Christianity is not contagious and it either happens or it doesn't. All school acts of worship had no effect on me, but something gave me an epiphany aged 20 and it was nothing to do with school.

I therefore have no objection to my children doing any religious activity because the matter of whether they believe and start having faith is out of my control. They either will or they won't, and that is up to them, not up to me.

I would like them to learn about all faiths and make their own minds up, or decide not to believe anything. The choice is theirs, not mine.

I still question my own faith on a daily basis, and my parents gave me the emotional freedom to do that critically.

If you don't like the word 'convert' you can just have 'change of mind', which is some thing anyone can do at any time. Those with a faith can suddenly lose it, maybe for a specific reason or maybe they just wake up one day and feel differently. In the same way someone who hasn't been brought up with people of faith might suddenly acquire it, from a specific happening, or because they are looking for something extra to life, or simply out of the blue.
I think, like YouoldTinsellySlag, that it is a very personal thing - and nothing to do with your mother!
As the mother you choose for yourself and your job is guide them, make them question things for themselves and ultimately to accept the choices they make.
OP sounds like the early church where they had the power because people couldn't read (and certainly not Latin) so they had to accept the priest's interpretation. OP wants to suppress any outside information so that the DC only gets the world according to the parent. It is one of the huge benefits of early reading- freedom of information. I could read most things by the age of 6 years and so could get all different views. One of my favourite books, read every year was about Christmas - why we have mistletoe - why Santa Claus got his name etc etc and of course the story of the birth of Jesus. Whether or not you are Christian is irrelevant - you should at least know the story, even if it is not part of your Christmas.

The best thing for a child is learning to read and having a library ticket and finding out things for yourself. It opens up the world to you and all sorts of interesting ideas and viewpoints.

I totally agree exotic. The best thing we can do for our children is to give them freedom of information and a healthy curiosity.

noblegiraffe your post about the CofE and evangelism reminds me of the line in a very early Coronation Street. An older lady asks a younger one "what religion are you?" and received the reply "well, nothing really." The older lady huffs and says "Oh - Church of England then! " :o