Question from the IF and 3T board....

FutureMrsW9

Hi Ladies - MH and I have been TTC for 16 months now and are going through IVF.  I typically post over on the IF and 3T boards, but one thing that I've been thinking more about recently is once we do have a LO how religion-wise we will raise him/her.  MH and I have discussed this recently and in the past, and while religion isn't super important to either of us (neither of us actively goes to church or temple), I do think it's important for our future LO to be associated with something.  I'm Lutheran and MH is Jewish.  I definitely have a stronger Lutheran background than he does Jewish (RE: I was baptized, got communion and was confirmed, go to church on the major holidays, etc....he didn't have a bar mitzvah or anything like that and his family doesn't observe any of the major Jewish holidays).  I'm wondering if there are any boards that talk about this or if there have been any past threads that have addressed it.  Or, if you, yourself, had to make this kind of decision, how did you finally come to a conclusion?  I know this can be controversial, so I'm not trying to stir the pot - it's just something that we've been discussing and has been on my mind.  Just FYI, our pre-marital consensus was that we would raise our kids by exposing them to both, but now that we're actively TTC we've started talking about it more and I feel a bit more passionately about it.  Anyway...all thoughts are welcome!

MrsCodeMonkey

We have taken a laid back approach. I'm agnostic (Romanian Orthodox) and DH is atheist but baptized methodist.

We got DD baptized in his childhood church because it was close by. DH didn't care one way or another. We did it more for the tradition and to keep our families happy.

Later on I'll teach DD some lessons from the bible and make sure to tell her the stories are not to be taken literally. I'll tell her about other religions and belief systems.

We'll definitely instill a code of ethics and teach some philosophy once she'll old enough to get it. Then I'll make sure she has a strong science background. That's the plan so far, but obviously there will be adjustments depending on her interest level and her questions.