PapRoach123

How about raising your child with NO religion? My mother comes from a religious family, but I was never raised according to any religious standards. They didn't babtise me because they wanted me to decide for myself if I wanted to when I would be older. I was taught the value of the bible, but I was also taught that God might not be real. They gave me a taste of everything, not just a small little corner of a closed and biased world where, just to name something, they don't even remember what a common thing such as milk tastes like because they refuse to drink it.

If you, as a religious person cannot raise your kid in any other form than your own personal religion, than you can ask yourself the question whether or not it would be a good idea to take lessons in how to be open minded towards everything else. AND how to pass that on to your children.

There's a difference between raising a kid and molding a kid. I know that I was born in an open minded and highly tolerant country where conservatives do not dominate, but even for a closed minded place such as America I find this idea going a bit too far.

But ah, when the kid is older the kid won't know any better. Everyone does to and with their offspring what they want. Some will just have a little more trouble with their kids once they hit puberty than others.

Starshine

Why should Heather have to cook two meals? Its not harming the child to eat as a vegan now, and if they dont want to as an adult, they can make that choice.

PapRoach123

Well why not? What's so bad about that? Do you want to teach a child something, or do you just want them to tag along with you for the ride?


Making a choice equals having options and knowing what the options are. If you've only had one way your entire life, you're going to have more problems adapting to "society" once you're older. Psychologically, if you're not taught to think in multiple dimensions, you'll only think in one automatically. Which puts you behind on everyone else your age.


Lea's signature comes to mind. It's from a movie, I forgot what it's called. There is a lot of truth to what he is saying though, sadly. A lot of people make the mistake in thinking that teaching their kids about their own beliefs is enough. And that is why in today's age we see a lot of selfish brats running around. Never knowing how to see things from other people's perspectives. Always taking care of their own. Never taking into account others around them. Always caring about themselves first and foremost, and always pointing the finger at the other person when there is stuff going on. In short, an exact copy of their lazy parents who didn't want to go through too much trouble tutoring their kids.

But that's okay, cause that way they'll fit right into today's society. They'll just not be very attractive people to be around for longer periods of time.

Children = humans = complex. It starts with the simple things like food.

Starshine

Seriously, the same could be said for feeding your child meat. No matter what you do, its going to be wrong to somebody else.

CrAZyBeAuTiFuL4

Each parent has their own way to raise their children, I'm not saying one is better than the other and I'm not saying one is worse. If parents who are devout to one religion want to raise their child the way they were raised in that religion, more power to them. If they want to raise their children as your parents did you, more power to them. It's all a matter of preference. All I was trying to say that is for some people, if they feel really strongly on an issue or it's just part of who they are (such as religion for many), it could be hard to instill other values in your children. Now there's nothing to say that someone raised in a religion or a way of eating will never want to deviate from how they were raised. It may be harder for some to try something new, but that's not always going to be the case.


PS. You guys do realize that we're talking about a 2 and a half year old....right? How is a child that age supposed to decide what to eat and what not to? Exactly, it's the parents job. Even parents who feed their child meat and go by a regular diet decide what to fix their children and what not to. Most likely they're not going to fix things for the family to eat that they themselves don't eat. So they too are making choices for their child. Is that wrong too?

PapRoach123

Not exactly the same though. If you feed your child only meat then yeah. But I'm talking about giving your child every type of food there is at least a few times, just for the sake of teaching them what's out there.


I do agree with you on every point you say. The last bit is a gamble. But you know your chances. There is also a big chance that at puberty the child will want to break away from parents and their religious beliefs and all their little rules. Feedom for the kid, doomsday for the parents. I've seen it happen.

Everybody certainly has the right to decide how they want to handle things. I personally just don't think that doing it according to one religion or belief is the ideal way, especially in these current times.


Yes.


Well what is wrong? Ya know. Wrong is a big word. Lets put it this way. Every person has meals they love and like. I love food in general, and just because my mother or father don't like something doesn't mean I don't either. There are a couple of meals that I love which they don't. And if they had never given it to me, I would have never known how good it is for so many years. I'd really have missed out. And so I'm glad that I have the memories of eating it for so many years. lol

Eventually I tend to think that bringing up a kid is about your kid and not about you.

But it is like you said. 2½ year olds can't decide yet. But that will soon change. And every method a parent uses has consequences that'll directly affect them, but the kid first and foremost. It starts with the parents, and it ends with the kid. A 4 year old can't say I love chicken when they've never had it and so will never ask for chicken. But a 16 year old can start smoking. Cause if trying out chicken last week didn't kill me, then surely those lovely nic sticks that everybody at school seems to love won't either.

Everything that mommy says is bad, is actually good! Hmm hey weed. Lovely. *goes to coffeeshop with friends*

It is never said such will happen, but those all belong to the possibilities. And you hear it more often than not, that the biggest party animals come from strictly regulated households. At home they have to follow rules, but out there they can do whatever they want.

But if you give them that same freedom at home, you create an oppertunity for yourself to teach a child about their responsibilities. If I had a kid, I would personally want to raise my kid as well as possible, and not just turn kid into a copy of me. Other people might want to do it differently which they have the right to, and I just stand and watch how they deal with the problems they have created for themselves, and then proceed to draw my conclusions.

These are my conclusions. lol

ForeverInLoveWithJus

I know that she is young and not old enough to make her decision, I just dont believe in forcing your opinions on your children.

FantaOrSprite

Well it's better than most parents who can only be bothered to stop by McDonalds for a happy meal for their child and throw it at them.

I think at the age of 2 and a half a vegan diet wiil meet all the dietary needs of the child... Hell it's probably a LOT healthier, just looking at what alll they put in meats and stuff these days.

PapRoach123

I only eat chicken.

And fish. Sometimes.

Leonida

You had good parents.

My parents raised me exactly the same way in regards to making my own decisions.