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Looking for a certain kind of book...

post #1 of 10
Thread Starter 
I need to find a book on "how to be a non-religious grandparent" or something like that.
My mom takes it upon herself to send us books on how to raise our son (due in August) morally as good Christian parents. We are NOT Christians! We are avid Atheists, and my mom knows this fully!
Still, she disrespects our choices by sending us her propaganda. The books are so demeaning, and act like children are something that need "fixed" from birth, and seriously, you'd have to have the mentality of a 10-year-old to take advice from this book!
DP wants to return the favor with a book on how to be a good, supportive grandparent without spewing religion on your grandkids.
Anyone read anything good along those lines?
post #2 of 10
I was looking for the Raising children without Religion book, but there were so many good choices, I'm just posting the whole page.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...hildren+withou

Good luck. What a bummer.

I think we should start a "Raising children without religion" ongoing thread. I'm watching this guy speak on Saturday and I'll be posting here about whatever I get from it. It's a 4 hour long seminar!
post #3 of 10
heres another one

http://www.amazon.com/Atheists-Intro...W6DQ8JJYY60ENH

And another one...man, I can't stop!!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Athei...ref=pd_sim_b_3

And how about "God is not Great: How religion poisons everything."
post #4 of 10
post #5 of 10
OP- you're in a tough situation (and one I'm familiar with... I'm pagan, DH follows a loose christian/mystic path, and my parents are "orthodox" roman catholics who are very concerned about the religious path their grandchildren are on). There are a couple different paths you can take here...

On the one hand you can send them a book or books on your personal beliefs. I wouldn't send books that say "religion is bad" (this just puts them on the defensive, makes them more concerned about your choices, and isn't likely to "win them over" anyway) but look for books that explain in a positive manner what you do, in fact, believe. You can offer this information not in a "if you want to be a good grandparent you will avoid discussing x or you will encourage y..." but as a "we want to share with you what we will be teaching our children/what we believe about X and Y".

After a lot of conflict this is the path DH and I finally took... we joined a Unitarian Univeralist group and provided my parents with "this is UU" information. We explained that we don't mind my parents discussing their beliefs with the girls once the girls are older but that the core values of UU were the ones we'd be teaching (there are actually several aitheists in our community, though the majority of memebrs in this group are buddhist, humanist, or pagan with a smattering of christian and jewish members), and that we'd like to avoid confusing the girls with "one true way" beliefs until they're old enough to understand that every person has the right to their own belief and that no one belief is any more valid than any other.

Another option is simply ignoring your parents/extended family's religious leanings and going with the "pass the bean dip" approach if they try to push their beliefs onto your family. So conversations about religion can be ended with repetition of the "this is our belief, pass the bean dip" or "this isn't something we're open to discussing, pass the bean dip" mantra.

We've used this approach too, and I've learned to open all gifts and cards from my parents since they often contain items that are not appropriate to our family or how we're raising our children. It's hard, especially with grandparents who feel strongly that they are saving their grandchildren and who don't respect your authority as the parent, but if you repeat the mantra early/often it can be effective. At least it can put the brakes on the more obvious "pushing" without giving the other party a place to argue from. You just refuse to engage and move on.

Of course, if you offer positive "this is what we believe, what we are teaching our children" and authoritative "this is not open to discussion, pass the bean dip" and still find that your parents or in-laws just can't stop... well, open letters, gifts, cards, and don't leave your children alone with their grandparents until they are old enough to discuss these subjects.
post #6 of 10
Ugh. Isn't that irritating?

My parents are uber christian and DP & I are both atheists. XDh is agnostic...or something to the tune of that and agrees with my parenting choices.

It's probably hard for my parents because I was christian up until I realized the truth - last summer. I finally just had to tell them, "look - this is me, this is the way i am. This is how i'm raising my daughter and this is how i'll be raising my son. I'M the boss. If you want time with your grandkids you HAVE TO respect my parenting decisions. Period. End of story.".

It was hard - but so far they've respected my wishes. It may seem harsh - but I honestly feel like i was traumatized as a child...I was still terrified of demons attacking me up until last summer at age 25! I do not want my kid thinking things like hell are real...and i feel i must protect her.

That being said, DD (just turned 5) believes in Jesus/God...i'm not taking that away from her, i'm just not egging it on. When she's ready to talk, i'm here
post #7 of 10
Why are you wanting to stoop to her level? It's clear you're equal on the not-respecting-the-others'-beliefs thing; where you're ahead is in not being passive-aggressive or clueless about pushing your beliefs on her. If you send her a book saying "This is how we want you to behave" you're doing exactly what she did to you, which hardly makes you the better man... and while it might be fun in a "taste of her own medicine" way, I somehow doubt it would actually work. From your OP it doesn't seem she's too cluey about social interaction.

I feel your pain, though... DH and I are Protestants, and his very Catholic inlaws have given us many a book over the years, including "The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism", a book on NFP for our engagement (now that was embarrassing!) and a Scott Hahn book (Scott Hahn being a Protestant who became a Catholic). None too subtle. And we were indeed tempted to retaliate by sending them, say, Calvin's Institutes or The Bondage of the Will... but decided in the end it would have been childish and snarky (and on a more practical note, useless and liable to open the field for more religious presents!). So instead we thanked them and either read the books or didn't, according to how interesting they looked. If they ever ask what we thought of them I'm happy to tell them, but they haven't, so all is calm.

In short, I'd go for a simple "I'm the parent, don't do this" approach. Luckily DH's parents haven't tried to give any controversial religious material to DD, but if they do I'll probably take that line - thank them politely but say we're not comfortable with giving that to our child. (Depending on the age and nature of the material, of course.)
post #8 of 10
I agree with Wombatclay.

If you start sending bokos and crap 1. you will be wasting money. 2. you will start a tit for tat exchange and no one will ever be heard on either side. completely useless and destructive.

If you want to talk to them about it just talk to them.
post #9 of 10
have you sat down and explained how rude that is? and that it's ruining your relationship? (not to sound stupid... but wow. she si SO overstepping her boundaries ina BIG way)
post #10 of 10
Send them back to her and say "No thank you".
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