Waaah! My husband refuses to become a god botherer, even for the sake of the chyldren!

Pfffft. Lady, he attends services to at least give the appearance of being a committed family. If he's not a believer and sometimes screws up his face at the more egregious bible thumping, give the guy a break.

And, sh'yeah riiiight at allowing them to make their own decision about religion once your monkey paw clutch slips from their shoulders. If you can't physically drag them, I bet you'll use guilt and hell-fire manipulation to get them into church.

Myself? I'd be a realist and not insist that hubby go to church. His clear lack of belief is going to be more confusing to the twerps when they are young than for her to plainly say "your father isn't a believer, which is his right. However, I want you to be exposed to the teachings and my belief."

http://community.babycenter.com/post/a54877921/ot_-_christian_moms_need_advice

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I am pretty adamant that my boys grow up in the church. Its very important to me. The problem is my husband isn't very supportive. He believes in God but not organized religion. When he does go to church with me and our son he doesn't participate and half the time seems generally annoyed. He won't pray with us at the table and doesn't care if our boys are baptized.

At this point it really bothers me. My son is only 15 months and our second due June 4. I don't like showing the mix signals. I am all for our boys making there own desicion when they get old enough but For now I want to take them to church and Sunday school and pray at supper as a family.

This sounds like my parents: my mother was a religious nut, a brainwashed Catholic, and my father just absolutely put his foot down and refused to participate in the nonsense. She forced all of us to go to church and catechism, and once we were old enough to "make our own decisions" those of us who stopped going to church were harassed and guilted for years until she finally gave up.

If she didn't wanna send "mix" (sic) signals to her children, she should have found a better match before getting married. Religion, money, and kids are three major things where couples really have to be on the same page before tying the knot. These two blew it.

My prediction: the seething resentment that she describes in his body language will only fester and grow. Religion will be a source of conflict that will never go away, and the kids will be stuck in the middle of that.

Her husband's beliefs are formed. He can't be forced into her religion. She needs to back the hell off.

He believes in gawd, so what the fuck's the problem? Church is an enormous, steaming pile of horse shit and even if I personally believed in God, I still wouldn't go. Churches are full of the biggest assholes every Sunday: men who disown their sons for being gay while cheating on their wives with men 10 years younger; bitchy women who smile to one another's faces and viciously gossip when backs are turned; women who have fits about the sin of sex before marriage when they're planning a wedding with their fiance they've known for three months for before she starts to show; people who like to throw around God's name to get their own way, but when others do the exact same thing, accuse them of being sinners.

Not to mention that church is fuckin' boring. No little kid is gonna give a shit long enough to absorb anything in church. When I was a kid - and still now - I thought church was the longest and most boring hour of my life. I HATED going. Why doesn't Moo go alone and leave Duh at home with the brats and they can worry about religion when the kids are older? Dragging them to church every week will probably discourage them because they'll figure all Christianity involves is sitting on an uncomfortable bench with nothing to do for an hour a week. Let them decide when they're older. Going to a Cat-lick school for a decade and to church against my will just turned me into an adamant atheist.

My aunt and grandma were holy rollers, but Mom was never big on church. She went when she'd take Grandma every Sunday, but never went up for communion or confession. So, thankfully, that meant I didn't have to either. Which was good, because the church my family went to was a little different and their communion was this oily applesauce shit that was scooped into everyone's mouths with the same spoon. Usually, Mom was groaning right along with me when we "had" to go to the extra-long 1.5-hour-long X-mess and Easter services.

Imposing religion on kids from the get-go can easily backfire, and no kid cares about religion anyway. Tell them when they're older about religion in general and they can decide for themselves what religion - if any - they'd like to follow.

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Cambion
When I was a kid - and still now - I thought church was the longest and most boring hour of my life. I HATED going.

Your church service was only an hour long??? Wow. What a lucky kid you were.

I believe in God but refuse to follow organized religion as well so I can certainly see his annoyance. Though in his shoes I wouldn't have married such a harpy to begin with.

I got sent to Sunday school once. Not if i just wasn't allowed back or saw straight through their bullshit.

R.E. was an hours skive once a week as the vicar was of the "Join in if you feel you need to" brigade. Luckily he replaced the "Hell and Damnation for all sinners" preacher.

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skyeyes

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Cambion
When I was a kid - and still now - I thought church was the longest and most boring hour of my life. I HATED going.

Your church service was only an hour long??? Wow. What a lucky kid you were.

At my childhood church, everybody without a watch started looking back at the clock if the sermon ran over 11:20. That allowed time for the final hymn, prayer and an extra 15 minutes in case somebody got dunked. The Catholics got out at noon and if service ran late, you had to wait at restaurants (all three of them). Basically, it was sing 3 songs, have a prayer, communion, minister yap for 20 minutes, one more prayer and it was time to go eat.

I once went to church with a friend and they just went on until "the spirit" told them to stop. They went on for over 3 hours. I thought I would die.

Religion should be a personal choice. You can expose your kids to it, but forcing them to go to services against their wishes will backfire once they reach adolescence and the whole rebellion stage.

1. Everything Cambion said. Marry me!

2. I fail to see why the woman who posted that can't respect her husband's right to believe whatever he wants to. Lots of Christians seem to have a really hard time with this concept, but fully expect you to respect THEIR beliefs.

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keeper of traken
Religion should be a personal choice. You can expose your kids to it, but forcing them to go to services against their wishes will backfire once they reach adolescence and the whole rebellion stage.

Boy, you can say that again twice. My parents forced me to go to their christer fundie church up to the point where I got married (to a catholic, in a catholic church) and moved out of the house. (A few years later I woke up one morning and said "What the hell was I thinking?" and left the catlick church, too.) Now I'm a happy atheist. My parents never did get it.

I'm a Christian and I refuse to go to church. It's full of hatred and human doctrines that don't even have a shadow or Christian altruism tacked on their side. I would be ashamed to be affiliated with most churches.

Every Sunday DH and I go to Saint Mattress.

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the noodler
Every Sunday DH and I go to Saint Mattress.

I usually have mass at Our Lady of the Wi-Fi

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So your husband believes in god and goes to church with you, even though he doesn't like it. He doesn't stop you from taking your kids to church or praying with them at dinner...even though he doesn't believe in it himself. You're already winning, bitch. WTF more do you want? Relationships require compromise. This is not what compromise looks like.