How do you maintain an enthusiastic demeanor about your child's school play, when inwardly you HATE that it is nativity?

[nevergoogledragonbutter]

Ok, so i'm not religious. I'm personally somewhere halfway between atheism and humanism depending on whether i can see a difference between the two, a moment that comes and goes.

But, I have come to accept that we live in a country that teaches a 'broadly christian' approach after being initially a bit wtf to find that him going to a non-faith school actually doesn't mean we can avoid the subject.

I don't feel that taking him out of assembly would make any difference other than to make him feel different about something he's too young to understand.

But, it irritates me highly that he is taught bible stories at a non-faith school and it irritates me even more that he will be expected to re-enact the nativity story and spend the next 6 weeks learning his songs and lines.

And while i would dearly love to see my 5 year old sing and dance or say some lines, the experience is marred by the play being religious. i have to somehow look past the religious aspect.

I don't want my own beliefs to ruin what could be a very enjoyable thing for him to do with his friends.

Is it possible to keep my feelings hidden? Is that the appropriate way to deal with it?
Why can't they do something else that would be entertaining for everyone?

Sadly partly because it would be useful if there were other non-christians within the school as a reminder that christianity is not a given and because it is useful for everyone to experience other faiths and nationalities personally.

'sadly the dds school is very much white, british with a v small sprinkling of other faiths'

well, its 'sadly' if such a school is in an ethnically/religiously diverse area. Unfortunately this does happen. But thats drifting from the point of the thread a bit.

christianity a minority belief system??

all 2 billion of us!!

Christmas - yep no ambiguity about the word. The timing however is a differnet story. It is astounding how many christian festivals were positioned over the top of existing pagan, roman, etc ones.

Global population over 6 billion. Don't know if the 2 billion is really valid (a tick in a census box doesn't equate to a true belief) but its a minority anyway.

DS (about to be narrator in nativity play) was telling me about the various "stories about Jesus" (or may have been "baby Jesus") that he's picked up at nursery and school (I was actually reasonably impressed at his recall, given that neither establishment has exactly pushed this element). "But they are just stories, right?" I said. "Oh, yes..." he answered.

Eyeballs, I think you are doing Metatron a disservice by missing off the end of the original sentence "so I think it is why it tends to be a bit biased" -- which is where the "sadly" comes in. Specifically it's contrasting with lockets' presentation in a more multicultural school that "some people, namely xxxxxx religion believe that....", which is the aspect missing in Metatron's DCs' school.

2 billion - actual practising? Or just stick c of e or whatever breakaway sect on the census forms.

Oh and 2 billion of a world population of nearly 7 billion is not a majority is it?

and thats just in our church

Anyway, Butter, to go back to your original question - yes, its possible to keep your own feelings hidden at this stage because you're a grown-up and he's a little kid (or donkey.

When he's quite a bit older, you may allow yourself to do as my DH does when DD is practising carols in the car - praises her singing and then raise questions like 'hm well if Jesus came to bring peace on earth why is it there are so many wars?'.

Its the largest group.

Anyhow off to bed now.dh in bed before me so snoring like a pig by now

grrreat
x

My children are atheists. Or heathens. DS gets a lead role in every play because he is a born show-off. This year's play happened to be a nativity. DS was Mary (it is a boys school). I found it hugely entertaining, as did he. He had some corking lines. The end result is that he views nativities in much the same way as he does Oliver (last year's play). No harm done, I reckon.

I think you need to look on it as just part of his general education, so that when he is old enough he can make his choice based on a good knowledge of Christianity, (and hopefully other religions). My Dad was very anti-religion, but made sure I learned a lot about the Bible because he was very pro- education, and apart from anything else it is very useful knowledge if you ever want to study the literature and history of this country.

I brought up my kids with the same attitude, and now have a grown up son who is very anti-religion, and is able to argue his views very articulately from a knowledgeable viewpoint.

Just enjoy it, the 'Nativity' years are really very short

Ah, the old curse of Eve stuff. Women, it is All Your Fault. Some churches still practise churching after childbirth today.

Bit of that in the Narnia books as I recall (OK, old CS was a theologian and they are Christian allegory but you know, he didn't have to share his Edwardian childhood public school fear of women...)

Those of you anxious to avoid nativity plays for fear that, shock horror, some of the children might BELIEVE the story - will Santa be coming down your chimney this year?

Always makes me confused how people can be so anti any sort of Christian element to Christmas, but get really cross if some child says to their child that Santa (who we all KNOW doesn't really come) is maybe not real.

We do nativity. We don't do Santa.

I don't see many of us on this thread doing nativity avoidance. Treating it on pretty much of a par with Santa maybe.

I have to admit that i was rather pleased that on christmas eve DS1 (aged 4) said 'santa's made up isn't he?'.
I denied it of course, but admired his questioning nature.

It is an interesting point though - that lots of people will do anything to avoid any Christian element, (which many people believe is true) but are quite happy for their children to believe in Santa (which we all know is NOT).

I have carefully never said to DS that Santa exists. I know that right now he does believe in Santa, but it's not down to anything I've said. I admit that I find it odd that 8 or 9 year olds believe in Santa; DS is four and I tend to assume that he won't believe next year. He's already asked me whether the tooth fairy (I've never even mentioned the tooth fairy in passing) really exists. I asked him what he thought and it was fairly obvious that he had picked up on the fact that I wasn't saying "Yes". So I suspect that he may have acquired and then ceased to have any belief in the tooth fairy long before he's likely to lose any teeth.

I was rather about the overly-sanitised approach to Noah's Ark that was presented at nursery. To read the books there you'd think that Noah and the animals had gone for a pleasure cruise. My first exposure had the story at a similar age had crying about-to-drown babies. Now that's a proper Old Testament educaton.

Lenin, I love the idea of your DS being freaked out by the idea. It's a fair point.

Santa I'm more comfortable with going along with, as I'm not expected to have to fund his university degree in Santa Studies in a few years time, as opposed to the budding theologist some of you think i'm raising. The santa stories are short lived and very silly.

i hate that our school doesnt do a nativity.it does some play about reindeer etc.but my dc are in it so i love it and am enthusiastic about it whatever!

Lily, thats the point - belief in Santa is exactly like belief in fairies. No one takes them seriously. The trouble with the nativity story is that a lot of people really do believe it. You're belittling the power of christianity - it actually does matter. (unfortunately IMO)

He asked today why Santa has magic reindeer.

DH said, ordinary reindeer don't have the range.

Er, my weak point being that nobody bases their faith or way of life on Santa after the age of about 8. You don't get Santa fundamentalists.