Heather’s World in Review

So, I did make an entry two weeks ago. And I also typed up an outline for an entry last week. However, my rambling was just a little too much for me to be willing to hit the submit for. Nor did I really take the time to look into the outline points I wanted to cover. Brief overview before I move onto allowing myself to ramble again: it was cold! & great State of the Union.

Now, I was sitting in a doctors office yesterday. My kid is a shy little nervous thing. He insisted I was in the little section set aside for kids so he could go in there and play with what they had available. While he played with a preschooler toy, I thumbed through the magazines. In between the Highlights and some torn up books, I found a parenting magazine. An article about how to raise your kids with spirituality had caught my attention. Let’s just say, I wasn’t sure if I should be angry or upset over the article.

It stated that 96% of Americans believe in God. It touched on the major religions in the US. It touched on not just saying that you believe in ‘God’ but to actually participate in your religion. I believe they also stated that only 40% of families actually went to their church of choice with any sort of regularity. Religion in practice is what they were advising to parents. This would encourage their children’s spirituality.

This was a disappointing read for me. I guess I was hoping too much to have religion not really encouraged for children. I highly disagree with submersing a child into something when they cannot fully understand what it is they are told to believe in. To me, religion is like Santa or the Easter bunny. They are things you are told stories about and encouraged to believe in. However, as you get older, you learn that are not real. You learn that you were lied to growing up. The only thing that separates Santa from religion is that religion you are told even as an adult that it is real.

I don’t want to have my child grow up knowing that I lied to him about stupid little things. Instead, I have created a tradition with my hubby for Christmas time. Instead of waiting for the one day of the year when “Santa” is supposed to come, we put out the presents we get for each under as we wrap them. I cannot express how fun it was to see my child come home from school and run straight to the tree to see what pretty little package made it there while he was off learning. Why have the joy of a Christmas morning once a year when you can have your little one excited every day for a month while the tree is up.

But I digress. I believe that when you tell your children these religious stories growing up, your child has their freedom of thought taken away from them. When they are young, they believe everything that you tell them. You are their everything. You answer their questions on why the sun rises every day. You comfort their fears when they have a bad dream. They have nothing but faith and trust in you the parent. I feel that children are disadvantaged when they are brought up deeply rooted religious home. At least, from my personal experience, I felt like I was disadvantaged. I was trained from my birth to think one way. I was told what I should believe in and what I should think about so many things. Growing up the way I did leaves little room for real thought. Breaking out of those trained thought processes was so fucking hard.

I don’t want to have my child become a robot just because I told him this is what he was supposed to be or do. I want my child to learn about life for what it is. I don’t want his life shadowed by fears given to him. He should enjoy life for the little time he has. He shouldn’t have to worry about the things I had to worry about growing up. He won’t have the pressures I had. All I need to do is make sure he is educated and has options to learn about whatever his little mind might wander off to. And, never lie to him – where possible.

As I said earlier, I was disappointed in the article. I was hoping for something that might be more focused on how to raise a child to be aware of the world and in touch with himself. Instead it told me to take my kid to church and often.

So, yea. I am a rambly person. I don’t know if my thoughts were easy to follow — or even if they made sense. It felt nice to type them out. Maybe I will work more on my outline from the State of the Union last week. I might be very late with a commentary on the speech. That’s better than never though, right? I like our president. I am not sure of how things have went in the past year, but I do think he is a wonderful speaker. He knows how to instill hope into my heart. I don’t have faith in much. He gives me faith in my country. I can only hope that he is able to make our sytem start working together and getting some of the things he wanted at the very least started. He has some wonderful ideas. I do hope to see some of those things come to pass.