Parents battle over whether to take Jewish foster child to their Christian church.
When this father is upset with this wife, he asks Reddit:
'AITA for not forcing my foster kid to go to church?'
My wife (35F) and I (34M) have decided to be foster parents after not being able to have children. Our current foster child, Hope, is 15 and Jewish. We're Christian. My wife is really committed to her faith and won't hesitate to push it onto others.
The past week, my wife would put crosses up in her room when Hope is elsewhere, and Hope would take them down (after I apologize for her behavior). Hope hates confrontation, and is a generally quiet girl.
I have spoken to my wife about privately, and she believes she is 'getting rid of the 'Jewish-ness'.' I don't like it and I don't think it's right that she does this.
When Sunday came (First Sunday that we've had her) my wife woke her up and demanded that she went to Church with us. I heard this outside Hope's room, as our walls are not necessarily soundproof.
Hope kept stammering, and I felt my wife was exploiting that. I stormed in and told my wife that she needs to respect Hope's religion, and let it be.
She looked shocked, as if she expected me to take her side. She stormed out of Hope's room, grabbed clothes, took one of our cars, and is currently staying at my MIL's house. I told Hope she doesn't need to, and I would skip for that day to be with her.
My wife is furious at me, and my in-laws think I'm in the wrong. (My parents died in a house fire ten years ago.) I'm not sure about it. AITA?
Let's find out.
thirdtrycharm writes:
NTA. Your wife is trying to force a child in foster care to convert. how incredibly cruel to take a child in such an unstable situation and try to strip away her beliefs and by extension remove the way those beliefs can function as a connection to any past family or a sense of community.
imagmafightme writes:
The irony of it all is OP's wife is straight up acting un-Christianly.
Wouldn't Jesus have happily taken a Jewish child in and accepted his beliefs without pushing his own agenda on the child? Don't people have to choose to go to the Christian god - not be forced towards him?
OP you are NTA but your wife seriously is. She is acting in bad faith and you need to stand by this stance if you want to foster this child or any other.
These are vulnerable children who have spent their life with their own experiences and beliefs already impacting them. They need shelter and acceptance, not to have a religion they don't practice shoved down their throat.
If you cannot protect this or any other foster child from your wife's agenda, you need to stop fostering tbh cos your wife is only going to add trauma on already traumatized children.