David Gendron (and I have no idea why I have to start every post with his name today) left a link to an article about a woman who is using her second-grade child as a weapon to battle against a minute of silence in Arkansas.
I think this is an example of a really horrible mother who is willing to sacrifice her small child just to promote her own beliefs. I hate this type of parents. We all know how I feel about religious fanatics, but there is a gazillion ways to fight them without involving children.
As we all know, I have many very passionate beliefs. But I’ll be damned if I ever use my own kid as a pretext to voice these opinions and make her an outcast at school or among her friends as a result.
I shared this before but I will do so again. It was only in adolescence that I discovered that my parents were passionately anti-Soviet. Before I grew up, they didn’t make me carry the burden of hating the place where I lived. So I enjoyed all of the books about little Lenin, all of the fuzzy Soviet cartoons, and the activities of young pioneers, and so on together with other kids. As you might have noticed, none of this prevented me from developing a healthy hatred of the USSR in adulthood.
So if my child’s friends are all crazy about Disney princesses, I will be, too. If they all love football and admire cheerleaders, I will do, too. If they are into bake sales, I will be into that. And if they decide to pray to whatever God they wish, I will only be supportive. When the kid grows up, s/he will have all the time in the world to decide how to feel about all these things.
It is a lot lot LOT less damaging to an 8-year-old to participate in group prayer to whomever than to be singled out as a weirdo by other kids.