How to Handle Santa When You Don’t Really Like Him That Much
Before my daughter turned three, I was pretty adamantly anti-Santa. Every parent approaches this issue in their own way, whatever their personal beliefs. I’ve heard good arguments from other atheist or skeptical parents who use Santa as a critical-thinking exercise for their kids—meaning that they don’t tell them that Santa …
5 Year Old vs Ouija Board, Halloween Time Lessons
My son’s been begging to play my old Ouija board for weeks after watching some kids playing it and Charlie Charlie on YouTube. He made his own Charlie Charlie and figured it out, but it just doesn’t have that same magic as an Ouija board. So, I dusted my old …
Reasons I am a Horrible Mother, Christmas Edition
A few weeks ago my 5 year old came up to me and said these 5 fateful words, “Mommy, Santa isn’t real, right?” As first I was a little stunned, because she had previously been pretty all in on this Santa thing. We have kind of half-assed it, to be …
Atheists Stop Saying This Please
Neil Carter, who blogs at the Patheos Atheist Portal at Godless in Dixie , has an excellent response to recent statements by Lawrence Krause about the teaching of creationism by parents, appropriately entitled “Stop Saying that Teaching Creationism is Child Abuse”. A tip of the hat to FtB’s Ed Brayton for bringing …
Reader Question: How Do You Handle Anti-Vax Relatives?
Sometimes, we get letters from our readers looking for specific articles. (We do read all the emails that we get!). Recently, we received this letter on how to deal with anti-vax grandparents: My husband and I are planning to have kid(s) in about a year or so, and my parents …
Festival of Lights: Doing Holidays When You Don’t Do Religion
As my kid has noted on many occasions, Jewish holidays are often not much fun. On Yom Kippur, for instance, it’s fasting and repenting. I don’t fast. My kid and Dr. Skull fast, Dr. Skull earnestly and the kid moodily. “Why do I have to do this?” she demands of …
Grounded Parents’ Gift Ideas (updated 12/9)
No, this isn’t a list of things you can send us; I’ll leave that for another person to post! It’s the holiday season, and many of our readers will be on the hunt for gift ideas. We’re going to pull together a bunch of suggestions for budding scientists, skeptics, alternative lifestyles, and …
Raising the Atheist Child
I’ve been an atheist since I can remember. Some people think I’m kidding when I say this, but I can clearly remember my Lutheran kindergarten, when the teacher was going on about Jesus and I was giving all the other kids the side-eye: You’re not really buying this? Dr. Skull, …
Are you there, God? It’s me, Elizabeth Lauten.
It really does take a village to raise a child but with the Village comes the occasional Village Idiot. Sometimes this Idiot is a lovable stranger in line at the grocery store loudly shouting Roku instructions to his family and sometimes the Idiot is Gwyneth Paltrow who believes that grown …