Parenting after 35

Are you religious?

Had an interesting conversation at our playgroup yesterday...

 Were you raised in a religious home?

Do you consider yourself religious now? 

Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc)

Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  

Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group) 

If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school?

Just wondering....  I also poke around on the Baby Names board and it seems there are many, many women over there who are not religious at all and leery of using a name that sounds like they are religious.  Not sure how I analyse that in my brain.  :)

Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml

Re: Are you religious?

  • I grew up a Reform Jew and that is how I am raising my kids.  My DH grew up a Conservative Jew.  I would not say we are religious but we do bring in the traditions of the religion into our lives and our very involved in our community.  We do not keep the shabbath and we do not keep Kosher but we do light the Shabbat candles most Friday nights and have challah with dinner, we celebrate the major Jewish Holidays.  We go to Friday night services almost montly - right now to the monthly Tot Shabbat services but as the kids get older, we will move to the monthly Family Service next year.  My older DD started religous school this year and the younger one starts in the fall.  They will both have Bat Mitzvahs.  We do get together with friends from our Temple for some holidays.  The girls go to a summer day camp for 3 weeks that is owned by our Temple and they include some Jewish things into the camp in regard to things they learn and art projects and they do special activities for Shabbat on Fridays.  We go to a 3 night family camp each summer at the Jewish Summer Overnight camp my DH grew up going to and my kids will go when they are old enough.

    I do not consider myself religious but my Jewish faith and beliefs is a part of my daily life in a lot of ways - many of my friends are from Temple and camp and the other more social aspects of the Jewish Community.  The book group I am in has all Jewish women.

    I did not grow up in a Jewish area and my summers at overnight camp really helped formed a lot of my beliefs around religion.  My kids are going to school in a more Jewish area (older DD's kindy class is 27 kids and 7-9 are Jewish).  I love that they will be exposed to a variety of religions and backgrounds and have a diverse setting for their education.  I do not care for religious based private schools.  My sisters kids went to non-religious based private school until they moved over the summer and it was great.  The diviersity was huge and they got a great education.  We open enroll to an amazing school so I have no need for a private school and since we are involved in our Temple and include the traditions of our religion in our lives, I don't see the need for a private religious school education for regular school.

    Jenni Mom to DD#1 - 6-16-06 DD#2 - 3-13-08 
  • Were you raised in a religious home?  It wouldn't consider it religious but we did go to church every Sunday

    Do you consider yourself religious now?  Nope

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc)  We don't do anything religious, not even at Christmas or Easter.  We do gather with family on those days for dinners and Christmas presents.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  Nope

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group)  Nope.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school?  Nope

    imageimageBaby Birthday Ticker Ticker Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

  • Loading the player...
  • No to all of the above.
  • imageBrideBuddies:

    Had an interesting conversation at our playgroup yesterday...

     Were you raised in a religious home? Very much so. We went to church weekly, we prayed before meals, we talked about our religion i the home.

    Do you consider yourself religious now? Very much so!

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc) Yes. She's still little but we read her religious story books and bible stories.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  Yes! Every Saturday we go to Mass.

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group) Yes.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school? No. After working in public education, I have noticed that private school teachers do not get the same inservices and work under the same rigor that public schools are subjected to. My DD will go to public school.

    Just wondering....  I also poke around on the Baby Names board and it seems there are many, many women over there who are not religious at all and leery of using a name that sounds like they are religious.  Not sure how I analyse that in my brain.  :)

    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker image image
  • imageBrideBuddies:

    Were you raised in a religious home? My Mom was religious but my Dad was atheist. When we were little kids my Dad went to church with us but quit when we were older. Mom made us go to church until we were adults.

    Do you consider yourself religious now?  Spiritual yes, religious no.

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc) We don't say prayers in our house. My Mom did give DS some books that talk about God and Jesus and I am OK with that but I don't want it shoved down his throat and I want him to make his own decisions about religion.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?   No, but DH and I have discussed it. I told him that I am ambivalent about it but if he wants to go and take DS then I will go too. I also told him that I take responsibility for all of the other days of the week so he will need to take responsibility for attending church. We have yet to go.

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group)  I would attend with DH if he actually followed through with going.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school? I am already considering sending DH to the Catholic school but I don't want him heavily indoctrinated either. However, a good education is extremely important to me so if we can only get that at the Catholic school then that is where he may go.

    Just wondering....  I also poke around on the Baby Names board and it seems there are many, many women over there who are not religious at all and leery of using a name that sounds like they are religious.  Not sure how I analyse that in my brain.  :)Yeah, I do not really process that either. There are so many common names that are also found in religious texts. IMO I would not have a problem with giving my LO a name that is also found in religious texts. It is just a name. 

    image"width="200px"> Lilypie Second Birthday tickers Image and video hosting by TinyPic
  • imageBrideBuddies:

    Had an interesting conversation at our playgroup yesterday...

     Were you raised in a religious home? yes

    Do you consider yourself religious now? yes

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc) yes. I raised my oldest religious, but not really formal about it. More like prayers when she felt like it, not just at bedtime and mealtimes.  I raised her religious, but always gave her the option of going to Sunday School so that it was her choice.  I will raise DD2 the same way.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  DD2 and I do.   DD1 goes when she's home from college.

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group) Sometimes.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school? No, I wouldn't.  Mainly because I want my children exposed to all kinds of faiths whether it's the one I'm raising them in or not.  I knew a couple of people in high school who had gone to religious private schools until sophomore year of high school.  They had a really hard time acclimating to all the differences and were very judgemental to everyone who didn't believe exactly what they did.

    Just wondering....  I also poke around on the Baby Names board and it seems there are many, many women over there who are not religious at all and leery of using a name that sounds like they are religious.  Not sure how I analyse that in my brain.  :)

    image
  • Answer me no to all the questions. Parents were raised Catholic and Mormon. I am spiritual, but not religious. I really enjoyed taking religious studies, it fascinates me, but I wouldn't send my kids to a religious school (my classes were uni electives).

    ETA: Fix spelling. Carholic? darned autocorrect

  • mwdmwd member
    imageBrideBuddies:

    Had an interesting conversation at our playgroup yesterday...

     Were you raised in a religious home? Yes, my father converted to Catholicism to marry my mother. 

    Do you consider yourself religious now? yes. 

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc)  yes, we have instilled prayer bump, where we bump hands together after we're done. The kids like it, and it makes it fun to pray. 

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  every other week. 

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group) yes, we go as a family. 

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school?  I think we like the public school, but i would prefer to send him to catholic school. 

    DS' name is Joseph, i guess i don't haved a problem with a religious name.  I did put my foot down about calling DD mary though........Just wondering....  I also poke around on the Baby Names board and it seems there are many, many women over there who are not religious at all and leery of using a name that sounds like they are religious.  Not sure how I analyse that in my brain.  :)

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
  • Were you raised in a religious home? Yes. We went to weekly mass. I went to a Catholic school, until I was 13.

    Do you consider yourself religious now? Yes. Becoming more so the older I get.

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc) We've started talking about God/prayers etc. We send the girls to a daycare with a very strong focus on Christianity.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  No. Mostly for logistical reasons. Baby needing to BF, nap times etc. I intend to start attending soon.

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group) He won't initially. He'll stay at home to mind baby while she naps, and he's also completing his masters so needs study time. When his time frees up a bit more, I'm unsure if he'll attend or if I expect him to. He was raised in a presbyterian home, but he's relaxed about catholicism, and I expect he'll end up attening at least some of the time.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school? Where I am our Catholic schools have term fees but they're pretty cheap, so we plan to send our children to Catholic schools, but will consider all options when they get to high school.

    As to the baby name thing...my Mum wrinkled her nose at lots of names I suggested. Sometimes she would say, "that names Jewish". I never questioned her, but I'm pretty sure she's not anti-Jewish, just uncomfortable with names that she doesn't connect to culturally. I feel the same about names that are outside my ethnicity. No matter how pretty I find some Indian/African/Spanish names, I would feel odd using them when I have no tie to those cultures.
     
    I also think a lot of this is perception. I think many names found in the bible are so commonplace that few think of them as "religious" eg John, Mary, Mark, Thomas etc etc. However some people will find those names have strong biblical connotations. Some names are also more "biblical" than others and I can understand people not wanting others to assume they are religious if they are not.
     
    Also plenty of people avoid names because they're associated with all sorts of literary texts. Some people wrinkle their nose at me because our daughter is Jane Hermione and the link to Harry Potter. So again I understand people not wanting links to various texts. Maybe it ties into people wanting their child's name to be "special" and not constantly linked to any one thing.
    image
    Elizabeth 5yrs old Jane 3yrs old
    image


  • imageBrideBuddies:

    Had an interesting conversation at our playgroup yesterday...

     Were you raised in a religious home?  Yes, mass every Sunday and all holy days of obligation we had to go before we went to school.  We also said the rosary while sitting at the table after dinner during lent.  I actually remember that fondly now for a variety of reasons.

    Do you consider yourself religious now? Yes but moved to a progressive Episcopalian church and away from Catholicism since my views on so many things no longer aligned with Catholic teaching after finishing grad school. 

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc)  I say grace at dinner, Kern attends church with me every Sunday.  Tried reading bible stories to him but he's not there yet since there are no trucks in them.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  Yes

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group) No.  He did while we were dating but since he's not a believer he'd start to discuss what he found wrong with the readings/sermon on the way home from church and it was not pleasant for me to have him there.   I only ask him to attend now for special occasions ie every year on our anniversary, before and big travel trips and for DS christening.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school?  I'd like to say no but around here Quaker schools are very good and also provide a lot of diversity.  He'll most likely attend one of them. Funny that I don't even think of them as a "religious" school because their reputation is one of tolerance.

    Just wondering....  I also poke around on the Baby Names board and it seems there are many, many women over there who are not religious at all and leery of using a name that sounds like they are religious.  Not sure how I analyse that in my brain.  :)

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
  • Were you raised in a religious home?  Yes.  I grew up Roman Catholic and attended Catholic School for 12 years.

    Do you consider yourself religious now?  Not at all.  I am agnostic and my husband is atheist.  We celebrate the traditional Catholic holidays like Christmas and Easter, but celebrate them as Seasonal festivities as opposed to religious ones.     

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc)  No, no prayers, and we did not baptize them in any religion either.   Although, we do raise our children to be thankful for what they have, value people, not things, appreciate the earth,  do unto others,etc, and treat everyone with respect.  This is something we feel unfortunately is lacking with most "religious" people.   

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?   No

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group)  No

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school?  Maybe.  I did get an excellent education, so it depends. 

  • Were you raised in a religious home?  No.  My mother is Jewish and my dad is Protestant.  We did not practice any religion at all.  I hated that approach and knew I would not raise my children that way.

    Do you consider yourself religious now?  While I still do not consider myself religious per se, I have taken a fundamentally different path since having DS.  I was baptised at the same service as DS.

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that? (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc)   We are raising DS in the Presbyterian church.  He was baptised, will attend services and Sunday school and will follow through with the milestones.  My goal is to have him learn the fundamental teachings of the Bible and have a solid foundation and understanding of Christianity so he can later decide for himself what path he chooses to follow.  I feel like my parents denied me that by not exposing me to anything. 

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services? Does your spouse attend with you? We attend church regularly, but I wouldn't say weekly.  If we have plans on a Sunday morning, we don't go to church.  We attend as a family as DH and I are both committed to raising DS in a Christian environment.  We are becoming more and more involved with our church and DH was just nominated to a committee.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school?   Possibly.  But it wouldn't be because it is religious.  There is a very prestigious private boys' school here that happens to be Catholic.  If we send him there, it will be because the education is top-notch and most of the graduates go on to Ivy league schools, not because it is Catholic. 

     
    Lilypie Third Birthday tickers
     
     
    Lilypie Pregnancy tickers
  • Wow.. great discussion, ladies!

    As for me, I was raised Lutheran, which is really Catholic Lite.  My husband is one step shy of being the pope... he's that devout.  Which IMO makes him a little rigid sometimes.  But he's very focused and we decided a long time ago that we'd raise any children as Catholic.  I know he takes his faith much more seriously than I.

    We do nightly prayers.. the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, and we "God Bless" various people.  Charlie knows most of the words to say.  Sometimes I think DH pushes him too much in that.

    We attend 7:45am Mass every Sunday and DH is a eucharistic minister.  C's playgroup is at the church and we do lots of fun, non-churchy things with them. 

    We are considering a nearby Catholic preschool now.  DH was hell-bent on home schooling but I'm not a fan of it--mostly because it will fall to me to do it and I'm not convinced it's a good idea.  FYI-Home Schooling is very popular here in Colorado since the public schools aren't that great.

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
  • Were you raised in a religious home? No, not really. My grandparents took me to church every week, and my Mom came sometimes but my Dad never did.

    Do you consider yourself religious now?  I am a Christian, but I am a bit of an outcast among the conservative Christian community, as I am politically liberal.

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc)  We pray at lunch with my ILs on Sundays but not at home. She does have some books that have religious messages that we read together, and she attends a Christian day care.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  We attend a church, but we don't go every week. ETA: I was raised Catholic; he was raised Presbyterian. As a family, we attend an Anglican church.

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group)  Yes, when we go to church, it's all 3 of us.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school? I am a public school teacher, so my daughter will go to public school, but I might consider sending her to the same private Christian school my husband went to if money were no object. I'm not sure.

    image
    Our sweet girl is 3!


    Lilypie - (R7Ux)


  • Were you raised in a religious home?

    Yes, but 2 different religions: my mother's Buddhist and my father's Catholic. My mother had to consent to raise her kids Catholic to marry my father, so I was baptized and sent to Catholic school (where I took mandatory religious education classes), taken to mass every Sunday, etc. I hated every minute of it. The Catholicism in which I was raised was super conservative, and that's not how I am at all.

    My mother always resented this kind of upbringing because she felt it was kind of forced, and she wanted to expose me to Buddhism as well, so she took me to temple services when she went. And her parents also took me to temple services, chanting, etc. and I loved it. I even loved the temple Buddhism classes for children. When I was old enough I just left the Catholic church and considered myself a Buddhist, which is the way it's been ever since.

    Do you consider yourself religious now?

    Not really, because Buddhism is more a philosophy/way of life than a religion. But in my native country most Buddhists also worship the deities of the Hindu pantheon, so I follow a lot of that as well. I would consider myself more a spiritual person and polytheist than religious.

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc)

    He's too young now, but he was given a blessing ceremony at age 1, and we take him to temple services when we can.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services? 

    Our temple's a bit too far for us to go every week (the way we used to a few years ago), but when our son's bigger we will be taking him more. And I want to put him in the children's religious education classes for sure.

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group) 

    He's a much more pious Buddhist than I am, lol! But we go to temple together. Just wish it was closer so that we could attend more.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school?

    Only if it was not overly-conservative and did not try to convert the students, make them attend mandatory religious services, etc., then yes, I would consider Catholic school. I went to one, and back then they were very inclusive (different religion classes for students of different faiths, etc.) and the education was superb. But that's no longer the case in Sri Lanka, because schools have become far less tolerant and tend to keep to their own religion. It's really a shame. But if we ever found a school here in our area like the one I attended, then I would definitely consider it.

    Lilypie Second Birthday tickers
  •  Were you raised in a religious home? Yes.

    Do you consider yourself religious now? Yes, but I wasn't for many years.

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc) Yes.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  Erm...no, bad about that. We are switching to a closer church. The PT commute was getting to be too much. 

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group) Yes, he is in school for Biblical Studies. He attends a private Christian college remotely and graduates in the fall (undergrad).

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school? Yes, and it often doesn't have to be an object as most offer scholarships. H works FT (in addition to FT advanced classes for college - now you get the busy/hectic part of things) at a private Christian school. It goes from K-12 and they're opening a third campus soon. We are considering sending him there - if not we'll homeschool.

  • I am not religious. I grew up in a family where some members were going to church occasionally (ortodox church), and others never went there. We have celebrated the big holidays (Christmas and Ester), but I've looked at them as tradition. My mom claims she is religious, but I have never seen her pray in my entire life and she goes to church only for the big holidays. 3-4 times a year, max.

     Edit: DH was raised Catholic as a child, but he is not religious as an adult. I guess he didn't have a chance to choose as a child :)

    We don't do anything religious in our home, except celebrate Christmas with family, as we spend the holiday with DH's family. When DS is old enough to understand, he can decide for himself if he will be religious or not.   

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
  • Were you raised in a religious home?

    Semi. My mother was (and is) fairly religious (Episcopalian), my father was not.  As a young child I attended services weekly with my mother, was in sunday school, etc. Once I was a teenager it was left up to me and I slowly pulled away.

    Do you consider yourself religious now? 

    Nope. I consider myself agnostic verging on atheist. 

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc)

    Indeed, we plan to send our daughter to Camp Quest, not spend much time on religion, teach all religions as being part of the culture but as no more real than say, most people would look at Greek mythology these days. 

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group) 

    Neither of us attend any religious services. 

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school?

    Depends on what you mean by 'religious school'. If money were no object, I would like her to eventually go to the boarding school that I went to for high school. It was nominally an Anglican school, but religion was not a daily factor in school life. 

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
  • Yes to all the above but I prefer to use the term "Christian faith" since the word religion is really people trying to reach God where Christianity is God reaching down to people.

    Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers


     






     

    Image and video hosting by TinyPic image

  • imageBrideBuddies:

    Had an interesting conversation at our playgroup yesterday...

     Were you raised in a religious home? Yes. 

    Do you consider yourself religious now?  Yes. 

    Are you raising your child in a manner that reflects that?  (Prayers at bedtime, mealtime, etc). My DS is still too little to understand it, but I fully intend to as he gets older.

    Do you attend weekly/regular religious services?  Yes. I am actually on staff at my church.

    Does your spouse attend with you?  (that was a big discussion point in our group).  Yes. He probably wouldn't be my husband if we weren't on the same page in this area.  It's too important to me.

    If money was no object, would you consider sending your child/children to a religious school? Probably not.

    Just wondering....  I also poke around on the Baby Names board and it seems there are many, many women over there who are not religious at all and leery of using a name that sounds like they are religious.  Not sure how I analyse that in my brain.  :)

    I grew up in the South, and naming babies after family members was very important. My son is named Jackson, after a branch in my family tree dating back to Andrew Jackson. The fact that it's not a Biblical name didn't really enter into our decision. 

This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"