How to navigate family
So my husband and I were raised with no religion. We've decided we'd like to explore christianity and are looking at various churches local to us to see which one suits us best, going to bible study groups and looking to put our kids in the youth program attatched to whichever church we choose. Our families, however will take a dim view on this and will assume we're being indoctrinated, bible bashers, weird etc we're both very close to our families but religion is something they just arent interested in so will struggle to understand our want/need to have religion in our lives. How do we navigate this? Its not as simple as just cut off anyone that doesnt agree with what we want to do.
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if u believe this is the right thing and is what u want for your family you should go ahead and move forward with this idea. It will be weird and awkward in the beginning for your relatives but they will soon adapt to it. If they dont respect the decisions u guys made, make sure u set boundaries this is for your kids.
“You have your beliefs, we have ours” it doesn’t have to be an issue if everyone can try and be respectful of each other.
My family also aren’t religious. I’ve found that if I don’t bring it up, they don’t either. If it does come up I usually try to keep the conversation short and not add any details because I know they wont like what I have to say and I don’t want to hear it from them. If they start bringing it up and forcing you into conversations that you don’t want to have with them, maybe just let them know that it’s not something you’re going to discuss with them. You can always walk away from any conversation without having to cut them off entirely.
In the same boat here. My husband and I both converted to Christianity 3 years ago and were baptized/confirmed in the Catholic Church about a year and a half ago. Raising our daughter in our faith and living our faith is very important to us and not something we are willing to compromise on. When it comes to family we invite them to big sacramental milestones (e.g. our wedding ceremony and our daughter’s baptism) and they can choose whether or not to attend without judgement from us. If they have questions we answer openly and honestly. There is a clear boundary that they are not to say things to our daughter as she grows up that are contrary to / against what we believe and if they do we would have to distance our family from them to some degree. We attend all family events and pray before our meals but do not expect anyone else to. Basically we live our faith unapologetically and if they make rude comments then we will exit the conversation. Respect goes both ways.
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