MIL trying to send MY Jewish kids to Bible camp!

[Anonymous]

controlling

YOU posters trying to have the last word are the controlling ones. Because you know best, don't you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My in laws agreed months ago to take our 6 and 8 year old for the next week while my husband get a week of vacation to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Long-standing issue that I am Jewish and we are raising our children Jewish, husband is totally onboard and has made that clear to his folks many times. So we call about dropping them off tonight and MIL casually mentions she signed them up for half day Bible camp at her church all week! I was speechless, literally handed the phone to DH and walked away. I think we need to cancel the trip tonight, I can't imagine how she thought this was ok. Where do I even go from here?

What I do not know is why you are going on vacation without your kids and taking it for granted that the kids will be happy sitting on grandma's couch being bored all week without driving the grandparents crazy.
By the time you have been married 10 years, deciding to take the kids with is no biggie and I am sure the issue is not the bible camp, but you realizing that a whole week is too much for elderly people

[Anonymous]

OP, at least your MIL told you.

My children have attended VBS at another religion from ours and had a nice time - it was not evangelical at all - mainly crafts, singing, dancing and outdoor play. (They were generally a canned VBS camp that can be purchased online)

Let the kids go, color the Noah's Ark coloring sheet, play outside, and give your ILs a 3-hour break each day. When you return ask your kids if they had fun, but don't ask a million questions and get yourself upset. They won't pay attention to the details, they will just play with the other kids.

But...you might want to throw away the song cd, or ask your ILs to keep it at their house to enjoy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My in laws agreed months ago to take our 6 and 8 year old for the next week while my husband get a week of vacation to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Long-standing issue that I am Jewish and we are raising our children Jewish, husband is totally onboard and has made that clear to his folks many times. So we call about dropping them off tonight and MIL casually mentions she signed them up for half day Bible camp at her church all week! I was speechless, literally handed the phone to DH and walked away. I think we need to cancel the trip tonight, I can't imagine how she thought this was ok. Where do I even go from here?

What I do not know is why you are going on vacation without your kids and taking it for granted that the kids will be happy sitting on grandma's couch being bored all week without driving the grandparents crazy.
By the time you have been married 10 years, deciding to take the kids with is no biggie and I am sure the issue is not the bible camp, but you realizing that a whole week is too much for elderly people

The answer to that is ~20 pages ago.

[Anonymous]

The real victims here are the kids. Dueling indoctrination efforts in play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real victims here are the kids. Dueling indoctrination efforts in play.

It's a shame that the people who have zero "rights" to do that are inserting themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My in laws agreed months ago to take our 6 and 8 year old for the next week while my husband get a week of vacation to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Long-standing issue that I am Jewish and we are raising our children Jewish, husband is totally onboard and has made that clear to his folks many times. So we call about dropping them off tonight and MIL casually mentions she signed them up for half day Bible camp at her church all week! I was speechless, literally handed the phone to DH and walked away. I think we need to cancel the trip tonight, I can't imagine how she thought this was ok. Where do I even go from here?

You could start by not dumping your own kids on the grandparents for a week. A 10th anniversary is a ridiculous excuse. You just don't want the bother of taking care of the kids while on vacation because it's a lot of work and maybe you're not that enthusiastic of a mom anyway.

Perhaps the grandparents perceived that you might not give a hoot about what your kids do when they are away for the week? Can you think of any things you have done in the past or attitudes you may have expressed (aside from the dumping for a week on the grandparents) that might have given the old ones that impression?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's one thing to provide some cultural education, but these half-day bible schools are usually offered free of charge to drum up business for the church. And it is a business. The kids are going to come home with bags of novelties that feature a cross and words of scripture. The only purpose of that is to teach them how to be Christian, not to teach them about Christianity. You will find a few Christian kids at a Jewish camp but you will never find Jewish kids at a Christian camp. It doesn't work in that direction.

Do they give out chocolate Jesus's wrapped in foil in those goody bags?

[Anonymous]

C'mon people how many Jewish women who regard themselves as totally committed to the faith would ever marry into a Christian family?

[Anonymous]

I think OP has a right to be upset. Jewish kids do not belong at vbs (and yes, those kids are Jewish because the mom is Jewish). On that same note, Christian kids should not be sent to a Jewish camp. Why on earth would they want to go anyway????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP has a right to be upset. Jewish kids do not belong at vbs (and yes, those kids are Jewish because the mom is Jewish). On that same note, Christian kids should not be sent to a Jewish camp. Why on earth would they want to go anyway????

You really can't see the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's going to be good times in the house when one of the kids decides to convert to Christianity.

Or, when they get older, start having sex with Christians like Mommy does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP has a right to be upset. Jewish kids do not belong at vbs (and yes, those kids are Jewish because the mom is Jewish). On that same note, Christian kids should not be sent to a Jewish camp. Why on earth would they want to go anyway????

What would the Talmud say?

On the one hand, it's good that the grandparents will take the kids for a week so mommy and daddy can shtup in private.

On the other hand, Mommy married a goy and the goyish parents might be a bad influence.

On the third hand, the kids need to learn sooner or later that they gotta watch out for those goyim because #antisemitism.

On the fourth hand, maybe it will do those kids good to be out in that fresh air even if at a Christian Bible Camp and get some exercise instead of playing video games all the time for a change.

On the fifth hand, if the kids are like typical little sitcom Jewish smart aleck kids, they will be able to out-debate those Christian anti-semites at the Bible Camp. So maybe when the Christian kids tell the Jewish kids they're going to hell because they don't believe in Jesus, the Jewish kids will outfox them by pointing out all the discrepancies and flaws in whole notion that Jesus was divine.

On the sixth hand, so what if the kids do end up going to Hell? Florida is actually hotter this time of year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you really have three choices here;
(1) agree to send them to the Bible camp
(2) get your MIL to agree to send them to another camp (which you are going to have to find, select, and pay for) instead
(3) cancel the vacation.

To me, (2) sounds like the best option, but it is really up to you.

Fourth choice: OP could actually take five or ten minutes and try to educate herself about the camp, or even gasp call up the camp director on the telephone, talk to the camp director, i.e. communicate like an adult, explain the situation, and try to find out what the camp religious program actually is all about. Perhaps the camp director is not a huge anti-semite and will be sensitive to the religious issue.

Of course this would require OP to actually put in some parental effort into the situation, so probably not very likely this will occur.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you really have three choices here;
(1) agree to send them to the Bible camp
(2) get your MIL to agree to send them to another camp (which you are going to have to find, select, and pay for) instead
(3) cancel the vacation.

To me, (2) sounds like the best option, but it is really up to you.

Fourth choice: OP could actually take five or ten minutes and try to educate herself about the camp, or even gasp call up the camp director on the telephone, talk to the camp director, i.e. communicate like an adult, explain the situation, and try to find out what the camp religious program actually is all about. Perhaps the camp director is not a huge anti-semite and will be sensitive to the religious issue.

Of course this would require OP to actually put in some parental effort into the situation, so probably not very likely this will occur.

This is not parental effort. This is effort to clean up the mess that MIL created.