to think that some non-religious parents over-react just a teensy-weensy bit when their children are exposed to religion in the most benign form?

[SueBarooeeooeeooooo]

s'ok if I am. But threads complaining about this sort of thing are a regular MN feature, and I can't help thinking that some parents seem tremendously precious about it. We're Christians and it often comes up that not everyone believes the way we do, and I talk to my children about it and they wander off and scribble on the lounge walls again.

I've seen people complaining about Christian mums and tots groups, simple 'thankyou' prayers and christian charities. I am 100% ok with you bringing your children up atheist, theist, or chocolate-worshipping. Honestly, if I whipped myself up into a panic over every mention of different beliefs or none that my children encounter, I'd never get anything done.

(Please note, this is not a church schools whinge, I'm against selection on religious grounds.)

Some non-religious parents do, yes. But some religious ones do too. I've heard both in rl, though not that many.

So are you answering the door to trick or treaters then Sue? Surely little tots dressed up are pretty benign?

I think it probably all depends on one's definition of benign...

I'm not answering the door to Trick or Treaters because I have a baby asleep in the room above the front door. I've opened it in the past and given the wee devils sweeties and cheesy Christian junk

The problem is when your beloved 5 year old comes home and tells you god made the world.full stop. Kids believe what their teachers tell them at that age and I found it hard to tell him his teacher was wrong without shaking his faith in her!!

that's what my sons infant school teaches even though they are not a religious school. This closes off all thought. I want him to ask me,'how did the world start, mummy' and I can tell him about a big bang etc etc. The school should have said "some people believe that god made the world but there are other views too."

and to top it off, when he told his teacher mummy said there is no such thing as God, she told him not to talk nonsense. Where does that leave children? torn between believing there teacher and their parents. ITS NOT FOR SCHOOLS TO BRAINWASH MY CHILD.

phew.that's got that off my chest..thanks for that!!!

But I take your point about benign. I'm just in one of those "Oh, honestly, tell them we worship an imaginary sky pixie and get over it" sort of moods..

PS am a science teacher so doubly pissed off!!

did I just "over-react"?

I am atheist and my DH is a non-practising catholic, religion caused many problems for both my mothers and fathers family so the only RE I had was at school. Whilst i dont believe I do think it is important for our DC to make their own decisions in life, if they cant get the info from my I am more than happy for friends and school to provide their input. The biggest dilema we have at the mo is DD(5) wants to go to church so were tossing coins as to who will take her, or she will have to wait till next time we stay with a friend who does go to church every week.

But isn't that something you just kind of have to deal with if your children go out in the big wide world? That others will think very differently to you?

Oh, you're too nice Sue. I was trying to wind you up!

My local baptist church is very anti-halloween though, and do very much try to shield 'their' children from it's evil influences. I think they are overly precious.

I am a pretty bad catholic, so take a relaxed view of these matters, on both sides...

lol, TM, takes a bit more than that to wind me up

Sue B of course but the point is that schools have a massive influence when kids are little and they should stick to teaching facts not teachers own personal beliefs!

I think patr of the reason that people like me feel a bit vulnerable on this point is that it can seem as though Christianity starts to overwhelm your child a bit when they start school. DS1, who was not even aware that such a thing as religion existed six weeks ago, has already been attending Christian-based assemblies, a Christian Harvest festival in a church, and attends a school that has the local vicar on its board of governors. This is NOT a church school! It annoys me that so many assumptions are made by the school - ie, that all of the parents are OK with this level of religious activity. They would never assume that it would be OK to take the children to a mosque for prayers, or to read verses from the Koran every day at assembly. I think there should be a Chinese wall between religion as taught as part of the curriculum, and social, active religious activity as part of the school's pastoral activity.

Agree parents have to accept that children will hear about other people's views - trying to shield your precious babies from difference is a. unlikely to succeed and b. wrong.

But I would object to anyone in authority - a teacher, for example - telling my child something that is disputed as fact. I'm CofE but I would be outraged if someone told my child: 'God made the world' in such a way that it closed down all debate about science, for instance.

Oh god I'm being sucked in...!

Goodness Lil I would be outraged if when my DSs get to school they are told that God made the world. Surely even practising Christians don't really believe that do they?

When I was at school we had assembly every day and sang hymns and had a little story from the bible etc and I see no harm in my children being exposed to the morals from the bible. I will also want them to know the story of Christmas etc.

This is very different from the teacher you describe confusing a child in that way at a non religious school.

rubs hands together in fiendish glee at sucking Lil in

I do understand the perspective, PW, and I'm being somewhat cheeky because I Home Ed, so I've side-stepped a lot of this question from the other side of things.

I think you are probably right. Most British adults have had to murmur through the lord's prayer in assembly and we are hardly a nation of zealots, whereas on the other hand in America...

grrr at home edders. I would love to exercise that level of control over my children's education, but I fear I would kill them first if shut up in the house with them for 15 years. JeremyVile claimed the other day that she is going to home ed because she has a phobia about lice.

ellehcim, yes, some of do actually believe that

I sort of understand Lil's frustrations, but, I don't know, it doesn't seem that big a deal. Someone tells my children there is no God, I explain that's what they believe and we move on.

I'm not precious but I do object to the "existence of god" being taught as the default position by non-church schools. Why wouldn't I?

Ah well madame, as I explained on a similar thread the other day, I used to keep me eyes open during The Lord's Prayer and refuse to mumble along - and I bet you never noticed!

some of us that should have been.

PW, ha ha, yes, but I do let them out for 7 minutes on Tuesdays, so I'm coping

justabout... I don't think that what you believe is stupid. I think religion is immensely powerful. You only have to look around you, or have a rudimentary knowledge of history, to see that.