...who spends time with his JW father, and in turn, his JW father takes him to meeting, etc. I cannot change this as it's court ordered (the nites he spends with his dad) but when he turns 6 (he's almost 5 now), our custody will change, and I will gain the time that he would otherwise be going with his dad. I do take him to church with me every Sunday so that he can understand there are options for him, but he still has the exposure to the JW beliefs. (I'm not JW, never was)
Until then, of course, he's learning things, that I would LOVE to show him a way to think for himself. As it is he knows that his dad & I do not have the same beliefs. He knows that his dad doesn't "like Christmas" and "doesn't like Birthdays" but it's ok that we do. I suppose that is a step in the right direction because before he was telling me that "daddy says Christmas/Birthdays/everything else is bad". I came unglued, told his father that in no uncertain terms was he to tell our son that. He argued as only he could, and I actually held my own against his "way of thinking". The sad thing is, our son is only 4 and it's hard for me to "talk" to him. He's already showing signs of arguing when I tell him he needs to understand that his dad believes that, but it doesn't make it true. He's afraid of his dad in that he will say/do whatever he can to make his dad happy as his father rules with fear. We just had Halloween and while my son enjoyed every moment of it when it came time for his dad to pick him up, he told me he had to "hide the candy" because his "dad doesn't like halloween" I told him that was silly, it's just candy (for God's sake!!) and put the candy back where it was. He was ok with that from there.
Last nite I was looking at a magazine that showed the earthquake damage in Pakistan, my son asked me what it was, I told him and he said "Oh Jehovah makes the earthquakes for paradise". He then went on to tell me that he could "play with the animals in paradise" or something along those lines. All I could say to him was "that is what Daddy believes" cuz I really didn't know what else to say.
How do you reason religion with a 4-5 year old so that he doesn't grow up thinking that this is all he can know? I'm not sure what else I can tell this beautiful little boy so that he will understand! He goes to church with me, he's got bibles and books & just about anything else I can encourage him to look at without trying to shove it down his throat the way his dad is doing. I keep telling him that he will make his own choices in life and not to let anyone tell him what he can or can't do but HE'S 4.......arg!!! It's just so frustrating sometimes!
Any thoughts??