Not specifically. I don't have any kids. But I know that when I do, there will be serious conversations I have to have with my parents/sister. But a small part of my motivation for doing everything I can to be successful is so that I didn't owe anything to my parents (they are highly religious, but incredibly supportive), and so that they couldn't point to anything in my life being a 'result' of my atheism. It was a childish motivation (even if only partial) to start life out with, I now realize that, but it served me well.
I think it's all about self confidence. I know it can be scary to be the only person in a room of religious people. No way around that. But you are your own advocate, and most importantly, you are your children's advocate. If you don't want them baptized, that's up to you. If you don't want them to attend church, that's up to you. I don't want to indoctrinate my children, so I will have conversations with them, we will go to church, synagogue, mosque to experience and discuss what everyone believes. My children will not be going to church with family members without me there, and there will be boundaries about conversations with my family members about religion while I'm not there.
In short: confidence in yourself, setting boundaries, demanding that those boundaries be kept, and (if it were me) not doing to your son what was done to you and what you fear might be done to him with your family. Teach him how to think, not what to think.
I think it's all about self confidence. I know it can be scary to be the only person in a room of religious people. No way around that. But you are your own advocate, and most importantly, you are your children's advocate. If you don't want them baptized, that's up to you. If you don't want them to attend church, that's up to you. I don't want to indoctrinate my children, so I will have conversations with them, we will go to church, synagogue, mosque to experience and discuss what everyone believes. My children will not be going to church with family members without me there, and there will be boundaries about conversations with my family members about religion while I'm not there.
In short: confidence in yourself, setting boundaries, demanding that those boundaries be kept, and (if it were me) not doing to your son what was done to you and what you fear might be done to him with your family. Teach him how to think, not what to think.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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PM me your email address to join the Slack chat! I'll give you a taco(or five) if you join! --->There's an app and everything!<---
