Just Asking with Peter Banzon
My parents want my little kids to spend summer with them but my husband and I are hesitant because my parents have a different faith and they get our kids to participate in their religious practices. I don’t want to hurt my parents’ feelings. What should we do?
The issue of differing religious convictions in a family is a sensitive one. You are raising your young children to embrace the same faith you and your husband share. So it is understandable why your husband does not want them to spend the summer with their grandparents that will expose them to religious ideas and practices you both do not hold to.
Your children’s spiritual upbringing and religious instruction are yours and your husband’s primary responsibility, not their grandparents’. Being taken to religious services and activities that conflict with the faith they learned may create confusion in their young minds.
Refusing your parents’ request will hurt and offend them. But you must respect your husband’s authority as the head of the family. On the other hand, if your parents will agree not to bring your kids to their religious events, then it may be reasonable to allow them to spend summer with their grandparents.
Are you fully convinced that you hold to the truth of God and of Christ? Do you and your husband know the core basics of your faith? Are you investing time to familiarize yourselves with the teachings of the Bible? Are you purposefully inculcating the truths of what you believe and why you believe to your kids? A solid foundation is the best defense your kids will have against wrong beliefs and teachings. The Bible says in Proverbs 22:6, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” (NIV)
