What do we tell our children about our path?

[WolfWitch]

Okay. I'm going to chime in on this as I have a 4 1/2 year old little boy. My wife is a practicing zen budist and I am a practicing solitary Wiccan. My son will be whatever he decides he wants to be. We aren't bringing him up to follow any particular path or belief. We are bringing him up to know that there is something out there greater than us. What he calls it and how he praises it will all be up to him. Christy and I will answer his questions as he brings them to us. He's a bright little child so I expect the questions to come very young but I will not nor will my wife, devulge too much information in answering. I agree that too much is a burden not an answer.

But these are just my opinions as a Witch and a father.

GB.

WW.

[[GeekyPagan]]

I don't have any kids, but my boyfriend and I have talked about it. Now, how does one impart to thier child "Mommy is Wiccan, and it's not bad" when thier father (my boyfriend) believes in something completely different, as he's a Christian. This is a doozy. I am frankly terrified he's going to bring our child into his chruch for something innocent like a carnival, and he or she is going to end up indoctrinated the more the child goes to the church. This scares me, and I know how his chruch works, at least the "elders". The younger ones are more open, but I want to be able to share my beliefs with my child and be able to expose my child to many different faiths before he's completely warped. I know for one thing, Ed believes in the choice, he's never going to get out child baptized as a baby because he or she doesn't have the choice. So, there's some relief there. I dunno. It just seems heart breaking if my kid comes up to me and says "Mommy, you're going to hell because your a witch."

[Deirdre]

I don't have any children of my own, but my fiance does have two daughters (6 and 11 years old) who are with us every other weekend.

The youngest one goes to a christian school, an at the moment believes in god and the bible. When she comes to us with a story from the bible,we usualy tell her a similar story from the roman or greek mythology (i follow the greek panteon, my fiance the roman one) to show her that the stories are not that different. We tell her that it is okay for her to not believe the same as we do, as long as she doesn't tell us (or let people tell her) that what we believe is bad. Even though she is only six, she seams to understand that pretty well...

The oldest one is started to show interest in paganism herself. We try to answer her questions as much as possible, but we don't explain to her how to work a spell yet. We are thinking about letting her celebrate a sabbath (and do an ritual to honor the gods) with us, but not real magic yet.

[Addalaide]

I think thats a wonderfull idea to invite her into a sabbat. But i think you should talk to her mother befor you do. As much as you and your fiance want her to join you her mother probly has some say in it. What i usaly do for sabbats is just act like i picked a day to make a big dinner and some crafts, just say i felt like it. So no one bothers me about it and my fiance is happy he gets a big meal. so you can maby tell her that you are ganna have x-mass on the 23(Yule if you go along with that wheel of the year) insted of on x-mess day so she can be with her mom, or something like that. But good luck i whould like to know how things work out! My fiance is intrested in romean and greek gods, he thinks " Haveing that many gods and goddesses is kool" (his words exacly).

[Deirdre]

Her mother knows about what we have planned, and she is okay with it. She is not pagan herself, and really doesn't believe in it, but she accepts that her daughter is interested, and she knows that we will be very careful with what we tell her, and let her do/experience at this point.

[Witch1693]

I think that you should have told them when they were little so now if you tell them they will think that you are a lier.

Alex

[GenevieveDawn]

(I was the original author of this post) My daughter recently had to write down what cities she would like to visit for a school assignment. One of the towns she picked was New Orleans. I asked her why. She said one to see if they need anymore help with Hurricane Katrina and two, they believe in Voodoo and Witchcraft and she was interested in that. I about fell over. I told her I was interested in that too and I would tell her a little bit more about it in a few years. I'm thinking when she is 13. I already tell her little bits at a time. Like someone said, you don't want them to think you are going to hell because you are a witch.

[Witch1693]

Thats a good idea. I would tell them as early as they would understand, and tell them that, they wouldnt understand it and thats why you didnt tell them. dont tell them any uneeded info unless they ask for it(you dont want to sway thier decision)

[Sobek]

well it's excellent your daughter shows an interest. just pray to Gaia that she doesnt go around telling people cos more than likely they will try to get to come back to God

[Exilus]

Edited this because I didn't see that deirdre had answered already