My four-year old daughter skipped into the lounge last week and declared ‘baby Jesus’ is coming to school. My heart skipped a beat as this was a conversation that I wasn’t prepared for. It’s time for the Christmas Nativity. As it’s not a church school, I do question why they’re doing the birth of Christ. However, I’m not anti-Christmas but, as a family we look at it as a time to celebrate family and friends with less emphasis on religion.
I’m an atheist, but I was baptised (can’t remember what religion) and I did attend Catholic School for a year. However, my daughter was not christened, to the surprise of my mother in-law, as we felt that it would be hypocritical of us as we aren’t practicing Christians.
It’s not my intention to shelter her from religion but I will make it clear what I believe. I love that schools have Religious Education in the curriculum, introducing children to many different religions thus, hopefully, fostering respect for people’s different beliefs.
I think that religion is a very personal choice, one that I don’t feel she can make till she is quite a bit older, at least pre-teen. I’m going to do my best to remain unbiased and let her sort out her own belief system. If she wants to regularly attend services we will support her. Unless it’s some bizarre cult of course and then I’m totally up for an intervention.
This is why I probably turned my nose up when I was sent a copy of ‘Littlest Angels’ to review as it introduced the concept of Heaven and Angels. It’s based on the classic children’s story by Charles Tazewell. To be honest, I haven’t watched it from start to finish, hubby has and said it was ‘okay’ but Madame really liked it and has asked to watch it several times. The Littlest Angel is out to own and download on DVD now
When should you introduce your children to religion? What should you tell them? I’d love to hear your comments.