How will you raise your kids?

[Belthasar727]

I don't expect to ever be married in the future. It might happen, if I ever find someone compatible that I want to share the rest of my life with, but it's at the bottom of things I want to do in my future.

On the other hand, after I spend enough time taking full advantage of my freedom as a lone individual, I would like to have a kid or kids of my own eventually, whether or not they are adopted or my own blood.

Here's the thing though, as much as I want to be the playful parent, I also want to keep my kids grounded in reality.

No Easter Bunny, no Tooth Fairy, no Santa Claus.

I mentioned that I didn't want to raise my kids with Santa Claus to my mom once, and she jumped on me about it. I realized that if that's something I ever want to do, family might be an obstacle when it comes to raising my kids.

How are you going to raise your kids? How do you expect to raise them while taking your parents and present family into account?

Does anyone here already have kids?  

[Becka Minato]

I'm planning on not getting married, but I'll most likely adopt a kid or two. I'll raise them just as my mom raised me, I'll give them room to grow and let them believe in what they want to believe in. Santa Claus and the other childhood figures will probably be included in the raising of my children.  

[banryuu]

I want spawn some day my other half doesn't though. His whole thing is if I want them I'll be the one taking care of them in nearly all ways. He doen't think he is good with kids but we'll see when it comes down to it.

Raising kids in this socity is going to be the largest obsticle. I want to teach my spawn that they get what they deserve nothing more nothing less. I can't stand the spoiled roten brats of today.
I don't know about Santa though. The whole point for me would be so my kids didn't know it was us buying them all those gifts. They may think that they can get whatever they want with out being good.
Behaver and respect is a huge thing for me. I was raised on the golden rule. "Do onto others, as you would like others to do onto you."

I probly won't buy game systems for my kids I'd want them to learn the vaule of buying things you want yourself by saving. It also teaches them to take care of their stuff.  

[CleverScreenname]

Raising kids without santa clause, etc seems well and good until they get old enough to talk to their friends at school about what they did over winter break. Then they realize, these other kids get presents and believe in Santa Clause and they don't. So they may feel jealous or inadequate or something of the like. You can raise your child however you want, but sometimes believing in things like Santa Clause can be good. If nothing else, it can stimulate their imaginations.

It's a very tough question for an atheist, though. For me at least, I would want to celebrate christmas with my child, but it would be hard to explain to them that it's a religious holiday when we aren't religious. As for the child's personal religious beliefs, that's even harder. I would want my child to feel free to practice whatever religion they want if they want to practice it, but at the same time, if my child doesn't say "mommy, I want to go to church on sunday," I probably wouldn't bring him/her there on my own accord.

I think it's one of those things that many atheist parents often find themselves playing by ear. My sister and brother in law have a toddler, and they haven't celebrated any religious holidays with her, but I'm anxious to see how they handle it once she's a little older.  

[cup_noodles]

I'm going to raise my kids like my mom raised me.
She showed me all different kinds of religions out there and told me that people took "blah blah blah" as the absolute truth in life and that it's ok.
I was left to decide on my own.
I don't think I'll raise my kids with the idea of Santa Claus either, but I'm somewhat sure that they'll learn about it through school and such.

 

[evilsiletto]

I dislike kids from 1-8 why? The whining drives me literally up the wall, the parents are lucky i dont slap them

when they are 9-12 they are innocent but now in the new age that has been trashed and discarded.

13-18 - the begging starts expecially with you rich people.

19-23 - you will miss them

24- till you die or they die they will become your friend not just a daughter/son. heart  

[Super Ivan Drago]

I've always believed Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy to be excellent first-time experiences in critical thinking for children. Not just in figuring out that he doesn't exist, but that sometimes even great ideas with a lot of back story have much simpler and more logical explanations.

As goofy as it sounds, I would definitely say that figuring out that Santa Claus didn't exist was one of my earliest steps on the road to becoming a skeptic and an Atheist.  

[=X-Sparker + AquaKiller=]

i would raise them like how my mom did. i'll show my kids all those kinds of religions, show them science, and i'll tell them to be neutral, go analyze the infos yourself, and see which makes more sense, religion or science?

and i'll also tell them,"you know how christianity keeps saying there is only one god? well they just contradicted all the other religions by that statement. so now, classify the ppl in the world into two groups: religious and non-religious. now if the religious ppl contradict themselves by arguing over which god is the true one, how can you even believe in anyone of them? If the religious ppl don't even agree with each other themselves, how can you agree with any of them?"  

[Dread Dionaea]

I'm not sure. The man I'm with now is Roman Catholic, although like many Catholics he couldn't care less about God or repercussions for disbelief. He's also majoring in History with a Medieval focus and knows very well how much of the Catholic church is steeped in bureaucracy and intellectual rather than spiritual choices. Frankly, I don't think he'd care if a child wasn't raised Catholic.

Basically, I think I'd make it obvious that I don't believe and why. I also wouldn't discourage theological and spiritual questioning and curiosity. It's best a child learns everything in an open environment. If it decided to pursue a faith-based lifestyle all I'd care about is making sure it'd be properly informed, no biases at all.

As for Santa and all of that, harmless fun. In fact, questioning Santa lead to me being an atheist at the age of five. I have no qualms with it at all.  

[Yami_Ichi]

I must hold on .. // ♥

I have actually thought long and hard about this, and have come to several conclusions about how I will raise my children.

First off, no santa or any of those mythical beings. My parents told me from the beginning that they weren't real, but it was OK to pretend. And then when everyone else told their stories about how they found out Santa was fake, and how it crushed them, I could only giggle at the fact that I did not go through that.

Second, religion will not be important. Sure, should my child decide to be a Christian, I will support them. I will make my kids feel love and accepted despite what they may think or believe. If they want to go to church one day, it will be fine by me. But, you are not going to see me there with them unless it is for something special.

Third, I am NOT going to be the one to hand out money to them whenever they ask for it. They will get an allowance, and, should they waste it all and not have enough for something they want to do, too bad. But yeah.. if they need to come up with like.. an insane amount of money in a month, I'll help.

But really.. you can't plan anything else. Every other method to your parenting technique is going to depend on the child and what their specific needs are. You can only really set starter points, that can be changed and altered to the child and/or how the child grows.

♥ \ .. This happens all the time.

 

[dr_nuby]

I want to raise the kid with out the childhood figures (ie. santa, jesus), so they can go to kintergarden and tell all there friends the truth. and one day ima take my lil athiest to curch, one of them 3 hour long ones too, and then tell them if they want to go back, thats ok with me, or they can have what ever the newest gaming system is then, i want to name him jesus, and he will be an athiest. and my mom will try to take him to church, and il have him make fun of her, and she wil cry.  

[Dark_lord_15]

I do not want to raise a kid. I hope I will be too busy for it.

If I ever did, no Santa, Tooth Fairy, ect. They could have whatever religion they want (hey, it worked for me) and I would not push them in any way whatsoever. I not give them everything they want, they would have to earn it.

dr_nuby

I want to raise the kid with out the childhood figures (ie. santa, jesus), so they can go to kintergarden and tell all there friends the truth. and one day ima take my lil athiest to curch, one of them 3 hour long ones too, and then tell them if they want to go back, thats ok with me, or they can have what ever the newest gaming system is then, i want to name him jesus, and he will be an athiest. and my mom will try to take him to church, and il have him make fun of her, and she wil cry.

LOL! That would be me if my parents were christians.

 

[Arios V]

You know, I haven't put thought into it, so I have no clue as to how I'm going to raise my kids. Probably should start thinking about that within the next 4-5 years.  

[PickleBoy]

If I ever have a child (I'd only ever want one) then Santa Claus and the Easter bunny are going to be there. I always knew that Santa wasn't real (only cause, psh, why would Santa use the same wrapping paper as my mom? And the same hand writting as well... I mean... HELLO!) and the Easter bunny was too far fetched, but the whole idea of having the fun was cool. I think imagination and a bit of whimsy in a childs life is fine. It gives them more to base the rest of their life on. As for holidays and stuff... I'd just use the whole soltice thing. *shrugs* There doesn't have to be any X-mas or blah blah.  

[Dathu]

PickleBoy

If I ever have a child (I'd only ever want one) then Santa Claus and the Easter bunny are going to be there. I always knew that Santa wasn't real (only cause, psh, why would Santa use the same wrapping paper as my mom? And the same hand writting as well... I mean... HELLO!) and the Easter bunny was too far fetched, but the whole idea of having the fun was cool. I think imagination and a bit of whimsy in a childs life is fine. It gives them more to base the rest of their life on. As for holidays and stuff... I'd just use the whole soltice thing. *shrugs* There doesn't have to be any X-mas or blah blah.

xd God I love the high-heels.


Anyway, I dunno if I'm gonna do the whole Santa shabang. I think I'll just keep my mouth shut and let the little woman do the lieing. That way when the kids get upset, I'll just be like "You mom's a mean b***h. She feeds off your sadness. Now lets go buy a new video game system and 40 in. flat pannle television, that'll show her."