life

<p>Introducing kids to religion can be pretty tricky &mdash; especially if the person doing the introducing is a little too forceful.</p><p>A mom recently <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/oi2v5w/aita_for_implying_my_stepmother_would_kidnap_my/">took to Reddit</a> to seek advice after she became annoyed at her step-mother for seemingly pushing religion onto her son. She basically accused her step-mom of wanting to secretly convert and kidnap her child, and the step-mom did not respond well. She&#39;s wondering if she went too far.</p><h2>She and her husband have a different religion from her step-mom:</h2><blockquote> <p>Some background- I and my husband are Jewish. My stepmother converted to Catholicism about a decade ago.</p> <p>I (29F) and my husband (31M) just had our first child in 2019. My stepmother has been watching him while we work. Until now, that seemed to work perfectly- but I&rsquo;ve been noticing some decidedly Jesus-y bits to his babbling.</p> </blockquote><h2>Her step-mom shrugged it off:</h2><blockquote> <p>I confronted her, and she basically shrugged and said he must&rsquo;ve overhead her talking. She knows we&rsquo;re firmly Jewish, we&rsquo;re religious, hell, she raised me Jewish.</p> <p>It continued so I confronted her. The argument got heated, with her getting defensive and saying she &ldquo;didn&rsquo;t see the big deal in telling him some Bible stories&rdquo;.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>She said she didn&#39;t want her step-mom to watch him anymore:</h2><blockquote> <p>I told her if she wouldn&rsquo;t respect this boundary, she couldn&rsquo;t watch him anymore. She asked if I&rsquo;d really do that over that small of a thing, and (and this is where I might be TA) I said &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to wait for a Mortara situation to enforce boundaries&rdquo;</p> </blockquote><h2>She explained the reference:</h2><blockquote> <p>(If you don&rsquo;t know, the Mortara case was a mid-19th century legal case where a sick Jewish child was baptized by a Catholic maid. He recovered and the Papal States legally kidnapped him from his parents to raise him Catholic.)</p> </blockquote><h2>And now her step-mom is peeved:</h2><blockquote> <p>She&rsquo;s furious I essentially accused her of plotting to covertly convert my son/steal him. I&rsquo;m furious she&rsquo;s crossing the one rule I laid out. My siblings think I went a bit too far. My husband is staying out of it.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>She explained what&#39;s bothering her specifically:</h2><blockquote> <p>The issue I specifically had was with her telling him that people who don&rsquo;t believe in Jesus are going to hell. He&rsquo;s not old enough to make the connection of &ldquo;if people who don&rsquo;t believe in Jesus are going to hell, then mom and dad are&rdquo; but one day he will be.</p> </blockquote><h2>And their future religious plans for him:</h2><blockquote> <p>We are more than in favor of him learning about different religions- when it&rsquo;s developmentally appropriate. He is barely two.</p> <p>I am already looking at other childcare options and am likely going to have to reconsider my employment over this.</p> </blockquote><h2>The people of Reddit think her strong words were merited.</h2><p>Alert-Potato says:</p><blockquote> <p>I don&#39;t think there is anything at all wrong with pointing that out as someone tries to force their Catholic religion on your decidedly not Catholic baby. You should absolutely not use her as childcare going forward, and she frankly should never be alone with your baby.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>siani-lane agrees:</p><blockquote> <p>. I feel like if this was a story about a Christian parent whose Wiccan babysitter was teaching the baby goddess chants people would feel differently. But because the babysitter in question is telling Christian stories people are like &quot;Oh what could be wrong with that.&quot;</p> </blockquote><p>They add:</p><blockquote> <p>There&#39;s nothing wrong with not wanting someone to proselytize to your small child. Of course it is important to expose kids to different religions and teach them acceptance, but that is on the parents, it&#39;s not up to the step mom to just decide that this is the time and way to teach the OP&#39;s son about Christianity.</p> </blockquote><p>And curriculum-theorist says:</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>What most people who have been raised Christian-adjacent (even if they don&rsquo;t practice now) don&rsquo;t realize is how pervasive Christianity is in &ldquo;secular&rdquo; US culture. Your kid is absolutely going to be exposed to Christianity, and will have people trying to convert him his whole life. I had to pull my oldest child out of public schools because she had kids telling her she was going to hell, and teachers agreed and didn&rsquo;t stop the discourse from happening.</p> </blockquote><p>Doctor-Liz gives a suggestion:</p><blockquote> <p>I think it would smooth some feathers if you gave a half-assed apology of &quot;I don&#39;t think you&#39;d have my kid kidnapped but I&#39;m not at all joking about the &#39;no Jesus&#39; thing, so until I&#39;m sure you won&#39;t you&#39;ll not be watching them.&quot;</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>And Warriormuffinhead says:</p><blockquote> <p>She isn&#39;t planning on converting him. She IS ACTIVELY in the act of converting him.</p> <p>This would be a dealbreaker for me. She can&#39;t be trusted. Find different childcare.</p> </blockquote><h2>So in the court of public opinion, it turns out this mom&#39;s response was totally fair.</h2><p>Hope she can find a new sitter.</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

Mom asks if she went too far by accusing step-mother of wanting to kidnap her child.

Introducing kids to religion can be pretty tricky &mdash; especially if the person doing the introducing is a little too forceful.A mom recently took to Reddit to seek advice after she became annoyed at her step-mother for seemingly pushing religion onto her son. She basically accused her step-mom of wanting to secretly convert and kidnap her child, and the step-mom did not respond well. She&#39;s wondering if she went too far.She and her husband have a different religion from her step-mom: Some background- I and my husband are Jewish. My stepmother converted to Catholicism about a decade ago. I (29F) and my husband (31M) just had our first child in 2019. My stepmother has been watching him while we work. Until now, that seemed to work perfectly- but I&rsquo;ve been noticing some decidedly Jesus-y bits to his babbling. Her step-mom shrugged it off: I confronted her, and she basically shrugged and said he must&rsquo;ve overhead her talking. She knows we&rsquo;re firmly Jewish, we&rsquo;re religious, hell, she raised me Jewish. It continued so I confronted her. The argument got heated, with her getting defensive and saying she &ldquo;didn&rsquo;t see the big deal in telling him some Bible stories&rdquo;. She said she didn&#39;t want her step-mom to watch him anymore: I told her if she wouldn&rsquo;t respect this boundary, she couldn&rsquo;t watch him anymore. She asked if I&rsquo;d really do that over that small of a thing, and (and this is where I might be TA) I said &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to wait for a Mortara situation to enforce boundaries&rdquo; She explained the reference: (If you don&rsquo;t know, the Mortara case was a mid-19th century legal case where a sick Jewish child was baptized by a Catholic maid. He recovered and the Papal States legally kidnapped him from his parents to raise him Catholic.) And now her step-mom is peeved: She&rsquo;s furious I essentially accused her of plotting to covertly convert my son/steal him. I&rsquo;m furious she&rsquo;s crossing the one rule I laid out. My siblings think I went a bit too far. My husband is staying out of it. She explained what&#39;s bothering her specifically: The issue I specifically had was with her telling him that people who don&rsquo;t believe in Jesus are going to hell. He&rsquo;s not old enough to make the connection of &ldquo;if people who don&rsquo;t believe in Jesus are going to hell, then mom and dad are&rdquo; but one day he will be. And their future religious plans for him: We are more than in favor of him learning about different religions- when it&rsquo;s developmentally appropriate. He is barely two. I am already looking at other childcare options and am likely going to have to reconsider my employment over this. The people of Reddit think her strong words were merited.Alert-Potato says: I don&#39;t think there is anything at all wrong with pointing that out as someone tries to force their Catholic religion on your decidedly not Catholic baby. You should absolutely not use her as childcare going forward, and she frankly should never be alone with your baby. siani-lane agrees: . I feel like if this was a story about a Christian parent whose Wiccan babysitter was teaching the baby goddess chants people would feel differently. But because the babysitter in question is telling Christian stories people are like &quot;Oh what could be wrong with that.&quot; They add: There&#39;s nothing wrong with not wanting someone to proselytize to your small child. Of course it is important to expose kids to different religions and teach them acceptance, but that is on the parents, it&#39;s not up to the step mom to just decide that this is the time and way to teach the OP&#39;s son about Christianity. And curriculum-theorist says: What most people who have been raised Christian-adjacent (even if they don&rsquo;t practice now) don&rsquo;t realize is how pervasive Christianity is in &ldquo;secular&rdquo; US culture. Your kid is absolutely going to be exposed to Christianity, and will have people trying to convert him his whole life. I had to pull my oldest child out of public schools because she had kids telling her she was going to hell, and teachers agreed and didn&rsquo;t stop the discourse from happening. Doctor-Liz gives a suggestion: I think it would smooth some feathers if you gave a half-assed apology of &quot;I don&#39;t think you&#39;d have my kid kidnapped but I&#39;m not at all joking about the &#39;no Jesus&#39; thing, so until I&#39;m sure you won&#39;t you&#39;ll not be watching them.&quot; And Warriormuffinhead says: She isn&#39;t planning on converting him. She IS ACTIVELY in the act of converting him. This would be a dealbreaker for me. She can&#39;t be trusted. Find different childcare. So in the court of public opinion, it turns out this mom&#39;s response was totally fair.Hope she can find a new sitter.

Introducing kids to religion can be pretty tricky &mdash; especially if the person doing the introducing is a little too forceful.  A mom recently took to Reddit to seek advice after she became annoyed at her step-mother for seemingly...