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DS attends Jewish preschool. Wants to celebrate Jewish holidays.
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Anonymous
I'M. NOT. CHRISTIAN. That's why I think it's so weird. I'm not pagan either. Why would I celebrate a holiday with my kids that I don't believe in? It's lying to them and confusing. |
Anonymous
You are so tone deaf that you refuse to acknowledge what you already know -- that people aren't celebrating the crucifixion and resurrection, but the Easter bunny, chicks, baskets, egg hunts, etc. Oh, by the way, the baby Jesus would not have been born in December. Stop coopting Yule if you don't even celebrate it! Ugh! |
Anonymous
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but “Santa” is based on the Catholic Saint Nicholas. So yes, you are acknowledging and paying homage to a Catholic Saint. |
Anonymous
Wow, seriously? Then your bizarre fixation on how other people choose to celebrate with their families is even more insane. Get a hobby. I hear adult coloring books are very relaxing. |
Anonymous
What fixation? This entire thread is about this topic. So you are ok with OP celebrating Jewish holidays as well? |
Anonymous
Wait- I think you are confused because there are two of us you are replying to. I'm the "I'm not a Christian" poster but not the Op of that reply. Yes, she seems pretty fixated. Though tbh I would be too if it were my religion. |
Anonymous
So tell him sorry but no. My kids asked for a Christmas tree at that age. I said no because we are Jewish and don’t celebrate Christmas. They are capable of understanding. It’s a good lesson. He can join friends who celebrate but to do it on your own is not right. All Jewish holidays have religious components. |
Anonymous
Yes, this. The crazy adherence to silly, outdated, excessively controlling rules is why so many young Jewish people do not identify as religious Jews and instead say they are culturally Jewish. |
Anonymous
You sound like my Jewish mother in law who got my son a book as a child called There’s No Such Thing as a Hanukkah Bush and was dogged that he could not have a Christmas tree. Needless to say, he married a non Jew and getting a tree every year is his favorite thing to do. Here’s the thing folks - you can expose your children to different religions. You can practice different traditions and celebrate different holidays with respect. You can explain to your kids what different religions believe, focus on commonalities and values that are shared by different religions, and allow them to choose their own path, including no religion. Signed, someone who was raised Christian and now identifies as Buddhist and is married to a cultural Jew who has family members ranging from Catholic to evangelical Christian to Unitarian to Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism. In our family we celebrate many holidays. We talk about how different people believe different things, and how there are shared values across religions and many spiritual teachers throughout time who help people live better lives. And if you think I’m bad, here’s what is what is worse than this: pretending you believe a religion’s tenants when you really don’t and raising your kids in it, and then admitting to them as adults that you don’t actually buy into any of what you forced on them. |
Anonymous
Thanks for the lecture. I’m raising my kids how I was raised and my parents and grandparents before them. Before that who knows; they all died in the Holocaust and pogroms. |
Anonymous
But do you actually believe the faith? Like, the actual teachings of your temple? Or are you just doing it because it’s what you think is expected. I knew growing up my parents didn’t really believe Jesus was the son of god, in hell and heaven, etc. but they dragged me to church and forced all of us to get confirmed. As an adult they both quit church and admitted they didn’t believe any of it. Yet had pretended for decades thinking they were doing some Sort of societal good. |
Anonymous
I’m not particularly religious, but this is BS. It’s one thing to eat challah or apples/honey. But are you seriously just telling your kids “oh we’re going to celebrate Ramadan in our house this year”? We celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas because we’re an interfaith family. We teach our kid about different cultures, but that does not include celebrating random holidays we have zero connection as a family. That seems so disingenuous. |
Anonymous
Yeah you *really* don’t want to go there, when it comes to how Jews balance religion and family tradition. - A Jew who understands exactly what that PP is talking about |
Anonymous
| My 3 yo keeps talking about latkes and dreidels after his preschool teacher taught them about the holiday. Next year, I’ll be more prepared with books and a menorah and dreidels. I’ll even bake latkes. I’m happy my child wants to learn about other religious holidays. |
Anonymous
| We are Christian and my children attended a Jewish preschool. They went there because it happened to be advertised on our neighborhood listserve so I went to check it out. There were very few non-Jews. We loved the school. It was total cultural immersion for them. They learned a lot about another culture, tradition and belief system. They celebrated holidays at school, not really at home. They were obsessed with Sukkot and always wanted to make a sukkah, but were willing to settle for eating outside. We didn't talk about Santa at home when they were in preschool. (When they started kindergarten in public school, they heard about Santa and all hell broke loose.) I don't see anything wrong with indulging your son in learning other traditions. |