Choosing a religion

People that have too much time to raise their children spent a great deal of time wondering about things that mums with three children and a full time job don’t even consider. How much time can he watch TV? Are white bread and tuna bad? Will he turn into a psychopath if I tell him there is no Heaven for dogs?

Religion seems to be the new educational Sudoku for mums. When I was little, these big topics were not discussed at home. The answer to “I was told in school when we die we go to Heaven” was “ok. Wash your hands, sit and eat”. And if my mother had only two children and no time to discuss this, imagine my grandma. The good thing is at those times things were a  lot simpler. When one dies, goes to Heaven. Unless you don’t wash your hands. Period. And that was alright. If you start digging into religious topics you might find yourself explaining to a kid what a Virgin is and why God allows suffering, and after the latest book from the Pope, trying to construct a supernova out of cardboard and aluminum paper.

New mums are sometimes agnostics, even atheists, and have less children and more time to think about how to tell a kid without traumatizing him that a bearded guy sitting in a cloud is besides sexists, unlikely. What I personally decided is to tell Dani that colored fishes go to Heaven. Even more, I will be ok with him learning the names of the four evangelists and all the rules in the catechism. And I will certainly let him sing Christmas Carols! Why? Because I would not want that, when he is all rebel and sixteen he will join some religious sect or Reiki course out of curiosity. I know it is a rather radical way of developing his critical thinking but it works. Ask the girls that went to nun’s schools. Me, for example.

Why not to teach him then Hinduism, or Islam? Well, it could be, but it has a few disadvantages, not singing Christmas Carols being the main one. And although I just love the creativity of Hinduism, it is difficult to make Dani believe that God cut the head of his son and replace it with one of an elephant. To make something like that sound reasonable you need to be really consistent at home, in the school, and the TV.

Yes, I do worry a little. Letting him believe some stuff is risking that the school and friends will end up deciding his religion, but, isn’t it what is going to happen in any case? I rather focus on things I can control, like deciding if he should eat tuna sandwiches.