Religion and children

[CindysRain]

I was raised in a Southern Baptist home, and as a child I often felt afraid; afraid of hell, afraid of Jesus being angry at my "sinning"... you get the picture. I would ask Jesus every night to forgive me of my sins, and was taught to include the phrase "and any sins I unknowingly committed" and I was constantly worried over what those could be. I often had terrible nightmares about hell, and went through much of what you described over your children being constantly fearful of not being saved.

I'll never put my kid through the inner hell I was put through as a kid.

You know what? I forgot that we also included the unknown sins. I can see that you did suffer much like my kids. But, you also got away from religion much younger, than I did...good for you!

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I do want to follow up with the fact that my babies are both happy and well-adjusted, now.

My daughter, who is older and was indoctrinated longer, is agnostic. She cannot comprehend there not being a creator of some type. But she agrees that the bible is a fairy tale.

My son is 100% atheist.

I didn't care what they ultimately chose, I just wanted them to realize they had that option.

They were around 11 & 17 when I stopped going to church. I fixed it as soon as I realized, but the guilt still creeps in, from time to time.