What age to stop forcing teens to attend church?

[Anonymous]

There were church experiences I sought out, as a young teen, because it was a social outlet. Once the situation was no longer pleasant, I didn't attend any longer. Op, your teen needs to be their strongest self -- and that, most of all, means making decisions that are right for them. They are not doing anything evil by not attending, they decide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to indoctrinate your kid.

Let them play sports and get exercise better for their brain cells.

If you raised an intelligent kid they will leave the church anyway.

Exactly. I PURPOSELY did not baptize my kids and have told them since an early age they can pick their own religion or none at all and I will support them either way.

So sick of the families forcing their beliefs onto their children.

The open displays of hated toward Christianity are appalling.

Do you hate Islam and Judaism as much?

If only there were words to describe people who hate Judaism. Or Islam. Or christianity.

It’s just bizarre that someone can read a question obviously targeted towards the religious and yet come in a thread to denigrate the sincerely held beliefs of others. Do those posters honestly think people will read comments like that and change their minds?

Probably not, but OP should have posted this is in the Religion forum and not the Teen forum...and OP should know DCUM is generally not the place for this post in general.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to indoctrinate your kid.

Let them play sports and get exercise better for their brain cells.

If you raised an intelligent kid they will leave the church anyway.

Exactly. I PURPOSELY did not baptize my kids and have told them since an early age they can pick their own religion or none at all and I will support them either way.

So sick of the families forcing their beliefs onto their children.

The open displays of hated toward Christianity are appalling.

Do you hate Islam and Judaism as much?

If only there were words to describe people who hate Judaism. Or Islam. Or christianity.

It’s just bizarre that someone can read a question obviously targeted towards the religious and yet come in a thread to denigrate the sincerely held beliefs of others. Do those posters honestly think people will read comments like that and change their minds?

Probably not, but OP should have posted this is in the Religion forum and not the Teen forum...and OP should know DCUM is generally not the place for this post in general.

If you haven’t been here awhile it’s hard not to know which boards are helpful for what. Another example, don’t ask for help for a kid with adhd on any board other than special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to indoctrinate your kid.

Let them play sports and get exercise better for their brain cells.

If you raised an intelligent kid they will leave the church anyway.

Exactly. I PURPOSELY did not baptize my kids and have told them since an early age they can pick their own religion or none at all and I will support them either way.

So sick of the families forcing their beliefs onto their children.

The open displays of hated toward Christianity are appalling.

Do you hate Islam and Judaism as much?

If only there were words to describe people who hate Judaism. Or Islam. Or christianity.

No one said anything about hating Christianity. I am not the previous poster.

Forcing a teen to go to church is the definition of indoctrination. And in most cases exposes them to pedos unlike going to a drag queen book reading. So please continue to take your kid to the place for brain cells to die and pedos to roam free. Fact,open a dam newspaper across the country every week some Pedo Priest, Youth Pastor, Minister, or church leader abusing kids.

What is religion currently doing for the US, basically bringing us to the brink of stupidity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teenage DC is fighting church attendance due to sports interference. DC does not drive, so taking him to sports requires us to miss church as well. We've done our best to limit Sunday sports but as he's gotten older it comes up more and more. I don't believe he wants to give up his relationship with God but he says he'll stop attending church all together if it means missing more games.

For church attending families only, what have you done here?

As soon as they are old enough to stay home alone, they are old enough to decide to not go to Church or anywhere else. You can still hold them accountable to educational, health, and behavioral standards, while giving them freedom to choose how they meet those standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you allowing your daughter to do activities on sunday but not your son? You won't change your schedule because it messes up DDs activities but you DGAF about DS sports? Why is DDs so much more important?

DDs activity is year round and was prearranged around church. We've been able to do Saturdays or Sunday afternoon as well for DC for a while but as he's advanced and wanting to be with friends, it's now overlapped with Sunday mornings pretty regularly. DC is evolving with his dedication to his sport and his unwillingness to attend church and I'm trying to tread carefully so he has a say in how he spends his time without compromising his relationship with God.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you allowing your daughter to do activities on sunday but not your son? You won't change your schedule because it messes up DDs activities but you DGAF about DS sports? Why is DDs so much more important?

DDs activity is year round and was prearranged around church. We've been able to do Saturdays or Sunday afternoon as well for DC for a while but as he's advanced and wanting to be with friends, it's now overlapped with Sunday mornings pretty regularly. DC is evolving with his dedication to his sport and his unwillingness to attend church and I'm trying to tread carefully so he has a say in how he spends his time without compromising his relationship with God.

I really hope you don't use the term "his relationship with God" around your teen. You sound reasonable, but when you use that phrase it makes me think you are a little out there in terms of religion and your teen probably senses that as well.

[Anonymous]

I'm not threatened by those who hate Christians and the comments intended to insult me dont bother me. All Christians are accustomed to some level of persecution. This question was not for you and I respect that you choose to raise your family is different from mine.

I think I have a way forward so DC may continue sports. I'll discuss with DH and DC. Thank you everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to indoctrinate your kid.

Let them play sports and get exercise better for their brain cells.

If you raised an intelligent kid they will leave the church anyway.

Exactly. I PURPOSELY did not baptize my kids and have told them since an early age they can pick their own religion or none at all and I will support them either way.

So sick of the families forcing their beliefs onto their children.

The open displays of hated toward Christianity are appalling.

Do you hate Islam and Judaism as much?

If only there were words to describe people who hate Judaism. Or Islam. Or christianity.

Yes. Yes, I do.

And its ok to condemn organizations that do more harm than good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not threatened by those who hate Christians and the comments intended to insult me dont bother me. All Christians are accustomed to some level of persecution. This question was not for you and I respect that you choose to raise your family is different from mine.

I think I have a way forward so DC may continue sports. I'll discuss with DH and DC. Thank you everyone.

Oh my god. the victim mentality.

you're out of your mind.

maybe start paying taxes and we can at least entertain the idea of persecution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to indoctrinate your kid.

Let them play sports and get exercise better for their brain cells.

If you raised an intelligent kid they will leave the church anyway.

Exactly. I PURPOSELY did not baptize my kids and have told them since an early age they can pick their own religion or none at all and I will support them either way.

So sick of the families forcing their beliefs onto their children.

The open displays of hated toward Christianity are appalling.

Do you hate Islam and Judaism as much?

If only there were words to describe people who hate Judaism. Or Islam. Or christianity.

It’s just bizarre that someone can read a question obviously targeted towards the religious and yet come in a thread to denigrate the sincerely held beliefs of others. Do those posters honestly think people will read comments like that and change their minds?

I won't denigrate sincerely held belief of others (my parents) but will tell you in my experience being forced to go to church pushed me away from religion forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to indoctrinate your kid.

Let them play sports and get exercise better for their brain cells.

If you raised an intelligent kid they will leave the church anyway.

Exactly. I PURPOSELY did not baptize my kids and have told them since an early age they can pick their own religion or none at all and I will support them either way.

So sick of the families forcing their beliefs onto their children.

The open displays of hated toward Christianity are appalling.

Do you hate Islam and Judaism as much?

If only there were words to describe people who hate Judaism. Or Islam. Or christianity.

Yes. Yes, I do.

And its ok to condemn organizations that do more harm than good

Go back to Off Topic, where you incessantly remind people to say “holiday” instead of Christmas, you troll.

[Anonymous]

My mother forced church every single week, rain, shine, if we were sick (I have vomited in church more times than I care to remember), no matter what else we might have had going on, if I babysat late the night before my rear end was in that pew at 7am, etc. Also for every holy day of obligation and many days that weren’t obligated. If you lived in her house you were at church. Eventually she gave into begging that allowed us to choose which mass instead of 7am. I was a lector, president of the youth group, ran the stations of the cross, volunteered at every event, etc. I promptly stopped going to church the moment I left home. I returned to it on my own in grad school, but not every week. And I’ve mostly remained that way through adulthood. My spouse is in the you must be there every week camp. Our kids attend Catholic school (newly this year) and they have every other week school mass and they’ve started putting up a fight hardcore on those weeks because they don’t want to go twice in a week (I don’t blame them!) and it became a big fight between them and my spouse. I think we’ve mostly worked it out where we go every other week now, which suits my preferences fine and my spouse can of course attend as he pleases. All that to say, I think forcing the issue is the fastest way to turn them off totally.

[Anonymous]

It’s time, OP.

[Anonymous]

I’m not even religious but I find it paradoxical that some people here are talking about indoctrination by religion, while in every other thread in the teens forum it seems that organized sports are the institutions that are controlling American families’ lives: posts about family dinners? Limited because sports. Reasonable bedtimes for teens? Nope, sports+schoolwork. Alternatives for exploring other interests (ej the post about scouts)? Nope, sports. Of course being physically active is good, but some families but I think it’s time to reclaim free time both for teens and parents.