Pagan Parenting- Raising your Children pagan?

[Lady Anastasia]

Raising your children pagan? Isnt' this the same thing as imposing your beliefs on another individual?

[Lady Anastasia]

lmao.... Nice post Gorm, I thought it was funny....

[Lady Anastasia]

I suppose I'm letting my children decide which direction to go in, much like my parents allowed me to choose.

I do my best to answer questions when asked. Their dad is a non-practicing Catholic, and their half brother and sister go to church every week... So, they've gone to church with them. They see it as more of a social thing, not so much about faith or religion.

My neighbor is Christian and he's given all the kids copies of the new testament and psalms, and I've sat outside as they've all sat together and read the psalms aloud.... They enjoy it.

I also allow the Mormon missionaries to come over and talk to everyone, the last time they were here, they gave us a copy of the Book of Mormon. It's my oldests favorite religious book at the moment, and she wanders around reading from it.

My youngest, she has some more pagan-esque tendencies, and you can often find her talking to the crows and the flowers and making 'potions' with different rocks.

So far I'm letting them test the waters and sample different flavors, to see which they enjoy more, I don't see any harm in it and I answer questions when asked and have shown them pictures of multiple Deity's from different paths and trads the world over... They're all fascinated with Ganesh... lol

But, I'm not forcing or guiding them to do and believe as I do, it feels wrong to do that.

[Felia de Luna]

Though I can't say for certain whether or not I will have children (I am not ready for them NOW, and perhaps later my feelings will change, I've just never had being a mom as one of my priorities), IF I do have children I want to be open and honest with them about what I believe, but allow them to know that there are other paths available. If they would like to take part in what I do, then I hope they find happiness and security there, and if not, then I at least hope that they will find it in whatever faith they decide to follow, and I will do my best to support them in every way possible.This was a fascinating post with a lot of in depth and intellegent replies. I've enjoyed reading everyone's opinion and would like to thank Lady Anastasia for starting such an interesting discussion!
Brightest Blessings
~*~ felia

[Breandán]

Nothing for me to add there.

Tom Flannery said:

Any good parent imposes things (hopefully, good things) on their children: manners, values, ethics, good character, rules, language, culture, etc. Why is religion any different?

My kids will be raised in an Irish Polytheist household--they will share their parents' culture--without any regrets. It is through passing such things on to our posterity that culture and tradition remain alive, and continue to grow and evolve.

[Lady Anastasia]

Would ritualistically sacrificing your child fall under the category of imposing your beliefs on your child?

[Breandán]

lol

I think just a little.

Lady Anastasia said:

Would ritualistically sacrificing your child fall under the category of imposing your beliefs on your child?

[Lilly Paine]

Hiyas Lala, yeah I haven't been here in a while, scold me good.

Anyway, mom of 3 kids, 13, 8, and little one will be 4 on the 19th, dad is Pagan too. We don't enforce any religion or spirituality on our kids but try to teach about the religions we know and it's not even a day to day thing. We let the kids get involved in "fun" rituals like Ostara and Yule, and I do private remembrance rituals with my daughter (the 8 yr old) so she can remember her father who died 3 years ago. My oldest, after his 12th birthday, I told him I wanted him to think hard about what religious/spiritual path he would like to follow and to let me know by his 13th birthday. I told him if he wanted to go to church and learn about a single god I would help him choose a church and make sure he got there for services and I would even go with him if that's what he wanted though I would refuse respectfully if asked to convert., and I told him if he wanted to learn more about Paganism that I and hubby would teach him from the basics and involve him in more rituals.


Point is, we are making sure our kids are about 13 or so before presenting them with available choices and then letting them choose. And yes, we do understand the ever changing minds and attitudes of children and we know that whatever they choose one minute could change the next and we are open to i t. Our philosophy, let the kids learn and experience so when the time comes that they actually ARE ready to make a committed decision they can make a well informed one.

[Lady Anastasia]

I like that set up Lilly, sounds like a good one.

[Theresa J.]

I'm glad this topic got brought up, because I will soon have to go through this with my son. (Fortunately for me, he's still at a blissful age of 17 months. lol). My difficulty is that I myself an Pagan (from a family that is half pagan, half Jehovah's witness- how my parents managed that is beyond me) and my son's father is Atheist (from a family that is Catholic and Methodist -again, not sure how they managed that one).

The way I see it, if you are an active religious/spiritual person, your child is bound to pick up on it and do something kids are great at: ask questions, which I think should be answered truthfully but with a grain of objectivity. I think it is important to find the happy medium (between blocking them out as to maintain a neutral stance in them until they have the chance to make up their own mind and "brainwashing" and imposing your faith onto them) when it comes to your kids. I think that certain "religious" values such as tolerance, diversity, and respect are things that definitely should be enforced in the raising of your child. (And the reason I parenthesize religion is because religions have a tendency to centralize and unite a community with their standard norms of behavior and conduct, which are not necessarily limited to one religion). For example, part of my spirituality has a lot to do with historical art, and I would like my son to have that same appreciation for it, but I do not EXPECT it to be part of his own spirituality or faith. However, I believe that if your child shows a committed interest in a particular faith or non-faith like atheism (I would assume around the ages of 12 or 13), that you should support it, even if they end up changing their minds.