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SD9 & Greek Mythology

Anywho78's picture

So I thought I’d share the latest hilarity from SD9.

A little background on why this incident was so funny…

When I met FDH, he claimed that he was “very religious”…his kids knew NOTHING about religion aside from what they saw on those video’s “Veggie Tails”. The few times they went to church that I saw, I asked the Skids what they did at Church & all they said was “Oh, we went out & played.” No Bible stories, no nothing.

I’m not religious due to my funky 1960’s styled cult upbringing but I take the claim of being religious quite seriously & believe that if you claim it, you should act like it. FDH hasn’t been to church in awhile so neither have the Skids.

Well…I LOVE Greek Mythology. When the Skids were starting to read “real” books, I read some goofy Mythology books with them. They are now quite the little scholars when it comes to this particular topic. They can tell you which gods do what & which gods had which kids & the list goes on.

In my Developmental Psych class, the teacher showed a video clip of a kid who was a “loner” at school. He was picked on & he was contemplating suicide. The parents of this kid started taking this kid to church so that he could get involved in the Youth Group…kid ended up making friends, it boosted his self esteem & they all lived happily ever after.

SOOOOOO I decided to look into local churches & their youth groups for SS10 who is high functioning PDD (NOS) but has no friends at school & he tends to get picked on. I discussed the “issue” I have with churches with MIL who talked me around in order to help SS build his self esteem.

This SAME evening, SD9 comes up, talking about Isis (of Egyptian Mythology). She then bumps her discussion to the Greek gods & tells me that it’s important to pray to the “right” god for what you need. Now, this pray topic being thrown in with the Egyptian & Greek gods was a little alarming…the following discussion occurred:

Me: Yes SD, praying is very important!
SD: I know! Plus, knowing WHO to pray to is just as important, don’t you think?
Me: Ummm…what? You’re only supposed to pray to ONE god…as in THE GOD, you know…Jesus’ daddy?
SD: (laughing with heavy sarcasm)) OH RIGHT…you don’t pray to HIM to be pretty, do you???
Me: Ummm…no…I do my hair & make up if I want to be pretty.
SD: NOOOOOO! You’re supposed to pray to Isis, or Venus, or Diana!
Me: *blank stare*
SD: The whole point of having OTHER gods is to make sure there’s one for everything!
Me: Ummmm…no…THE GOD is the ONE & ONLY GOD SD…yes, people worship OTHER gods/people/animals too but if you believe in THE GOD, He’s the only one you pray to.
SD: The gods aren’t just stories, are they? *starting to tear up*
Me: SD…THE GOD said, in the Bible that there are NO OTHER GODS. It’s a very big deal for Him. You can’t pray to anyone else…
SD: But, they AREN’T just stories!
Me: Once, a long time ago, people did worship all of these gods. Then, they stopped worshiping them because their cultures changed. People started worshiping THE GOD & the Greek gods became just stories passed on from older generations.
SD: But who do I pray to if I want to be pretty???
Me: Again, you do your hair & make up dear…when you’re older, that’s how you’ll do it. For now, you’re 9 & beautiful. You will grow into a beautiful young lady. You have nothing to worry about on that front. If you want to though, you’re more than welcome to pray to THE GOD to make sure you’re pretty both inside & out…He loves to listen to children’s prayers & he can answer them just even better than Zeus, Diana or Aries ever could!
SD: *seriously disappointed* Oh…ok.

I called MIL shortly after this conversation to share with her the *importance* of getting them to church…

I did NOT think that I had to explain to the Skids that MYTHOLOGY is full of MYTHS or stories…ah well, I guess you live & learn.

Comments

Anywho78's picture

Oh Foxie...I almost choked (both with laughter & disgust) so many times during this whole conversation...religion really is a sore topic for me but I did keep to my FDH's "beliefs" so I had to pat myself on the back Wink

My Pagan sister LOVED that she was praying to the Greek gods & was disappointed in me for telling her that she (SD) could only pray to the one God (as in Jesus' daddy) if that's who she believed in.

*Sigh*

Lalena75's picture

I'm with foxie on that, I do believe I've had similar discussions with my own kids around that age on who what why of God's and such, but since church has never been an issue I wasn't stressed. They turned out fine bet Your SD will too, at least she wasn't asking about who to pray to, to bring back the dead explaining that no praying would fix that was rough as I was in the same place emotionally as the kids were.

oldone's picture

For some ridiculous reason I was allowed to take mythology in lieu of history when I was in college. It was a women's college and I don't think they guessed that a women (early 1960s) would be taking physics and math courses with zero history.

Sometimes I think I am the most uneducated person - yet on paper I look great with my degrees from good schools. But I do know my gods and goddesses (Greek and Latin names).

wreck's picture

You tell her that the Greek gods are just stories, but that she's supposed to pray to ONE god? He's not a story? Why, because he's the new trend and Greek gods are old?
Don't you think we should be able to believe anything we want to believe in, if we believe in anything?

I just don't understand all of this.

You're basically convincing her to believe in THE god, even though she clearly would like to pray to several gods.
Why shouldn't she?

A religion is a religion and as long as it's not bad for her, why tell her she she can't do it?

She might grow out of it, she might be a pagan when older..
But it's all up to her.

You're making her worship one god of one religion. No one should be forced to worship a god they don't want to. If she wants to pray to Isis, how can anyone tell her not to? If she wants to pray to Venus or Diana, how can anyone tell her not to?

If you'd let her pray to THE god, Jesus' daddy, you should let her pray to Isis, too.

This just seems very, very, VERY wrong to me.

Religion is not something you should force on anyone, even if it's a child.

"My Pagan sister LOVED that she was praying to the Greek gods & was disappointed in me for telling her that she (SD) could only pray to the one God (as in Jesus' daddy) if that's who she believed in."
Of course she was disappointed, how can you tell someone that they can only pray to the one God? Doesn't SD have a right to believe in what she wants to believe?

sandy1234's picture

They're the parents...it's how they want to raise their children-just like we tell all of the nosy people who try to give US parenting advice..

Anywho78's picture

Wow Wreck...welcome to Step Talk!

Maybe you missed the part of my blog where I said "I’m not religious due to my funky 1960’s styled cult upbringing"...but whatever.

My FDH is the custodial parent. My FDH has the right to bring his children up in whatever religion he deems fit & Christianity just happens to be the choice he made.

For the record...we discussed a number of religions & she knows that she is more than welcome to come to me if she wants to learn about any of them. Just since that discussion (on Good Friday no less), we've talked about Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism (her GM's religion of choice) & other run of the mill Christianity churches.

You certainly do skip entire important parts of posts while jumping to judgmental conclusions.

Well done!

wreck's picture

Of course he has the right to bring her up in whatever religion he wants to, but not to force her to believe in it.

It's one thing to try to being her up in Christianity, another to force her to worship one god if she doesn't want that.

Anywho78's picture

LMAO Dog Person! That's awesome! I agree about the "god in chief" idea being fantastic...would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that one!

You'll get a kick out of this...my SS10 was within earshot of the above discussion & chimed in that THE GOD may actually be a Titan so he MAY be related to Zeus & co... Maybe?

Fun, fun!