but only in that we were supposed to be going to Honley show to see my sister compete, which she had said was in the afternoon. I got a text from her this morning at 10 o’clock to say her class was at 10, so we missed that 🙁
We went anyway, as we were planning on meeting up with the off the pathers, and we did manage to do that successfully. Didn’t see my sister at all though, so one very disappointed little girl there. Times I could scream at some ppl really.
J was in a much more amenable mood today, and I got to do lots of baby cuddling. He’s coming up to a decent armload size, and seemed to enjoy being draped over the forearm, in my mother’s patent “I can peel vegetables while burping the baby” style. Small got to have another ride on a carousel ring swing thing and I had a handy chocolate bar to distract him from the trauma of being removed from it. We saw all sorts of animals, from cavies (?sp) to shire horses, all sorts of birds (well OK, mainly chickens and hawks), and Big spent some of her own money on some wooden roses. Black and white ones, since you ask, which rather surprised me given that there were pink, red and all sorts of other colours available. I was proud of myself though, I didn’t intervene to suggest that she might prefer pink, and she conducted the entire transaction with very little assistance.
Once we’d looked at all sorts of stuff, had our picnic lunch and had enough of the assorted whining of assorted children ;), we retreated to the off the path homebase for tea. Big somehow contrived to fall off the swing and graze her back quite badly, which added to her hitting her head on the car window when I was forced to swerve around some idiot who decided to pull out before I was past him, meant that she was feeling a bit sorry for herself this evening. She still played well with C and M, and I noticed Small joining in a bit as well. All in all it was a very pleasant afternoon and evening, and they were both so tired by the time I got them home that they went very rapidly to bed. In fact Small didn’t make it into his own bed, just got half way across our bed and then stopped in a heap!
And now I’m fiddling with techy stuff. Not a lot of change there then.
I really ought to blog some of Big’s questions from the way home, but I can’t quite remember the chain. Some of it was to do with road signs and what ppl were allowed to do, and then she saw an SOS phone, which led somehow to a discussion about a variety of types of religions. I suppose in a way it bothers me that she is so against the idea of there possibly being a god, I mean, it took me a very long time to drift away from my religion, and there’s a Heinlein quote about taking the boy out of the bible belt but not the bible belt out of the boy (not that I’m a bible belt boy, but you get the gist) which makes a lot of sense. I suppose that’s partly it – I feel mildly guilty that I’m not bringing her up properly as I’m not indoctrinating her in the religion that I still find difficult to shake off myself – the conscious decision to not follow it is one thing, but the sub conscious stuff is a bit more difficult to step away from.
I’m not making any sense. I may revisit this later. Or I may not. 😉
Comments
19 responses to “A lovely day, if a touch less than successful”
Show sounds good, shame about the sister 🙁 But well done on the successful chocolate/carousel transaction!
sounds A lovely day. SB seems to be veering towqrds religion. why is religion so difficult for an agnostic!!!!!
ooh, v close alison!
Don’t understand why you would feel bad about not indoctrinating Big with something you’ve decided to step away from? I completely agree about the subconscious stuff being harder to move away from. I was definitely indoctrinated as a child and while I hold *some* of that dear as a spiritual heritage which I am very glad my parents gave me, there are parts of it that I really wish didn’t run quite so deep. Dunno if that makes any sense either, but it’s something I think about a lot as I do try and get the balance right with our kids.
I suppose I am afraid that I am indoctrinating her in the opposite direction, although what I am *trying* to do is offer plenty of information and diverse experiences so that she can make her own decisions. Does that make sense?
Makes perfect sense m’dear and for what it’s worth I think you’re doing a very balanced job of it too! I try to avoid any single religion with Dino but Daddy’s DP is an Anglo-Catholic vicar so he goes to Sunday School intermittantly and does come home with bible stories now and then. I’ve tried to keep it all very level and just say that people believe all sorts of different things.
As an aetheist I concede there may be a god (or gods) it’s just I haven’t found him or he hasn’t found me. Therefore I want my kids to make any decision on religion using freewill not to be indoctinated into a particular perspective by me. If they believed that god did not exist now I would fear that I had indoctrinate them with my belief. Fortunately they spend time with believers and non-believers and are, I think, getting pretty balanced exposure (I never say that just ‘cos I don’t believe in a god that there isn’t one.)
I think it is a different set of issues if you do believe in a god, because in fact it’s not believing it’s knowing. God is part of your life everday, aetheism isn’t visible in the same way, so how can you not indoctrinate? How could you tell the kids that god might not exist when you know that be to wrong? How can you offer balanced options if one is wrong?
Um, not wanting to be pedantic (who, me? 😉 ) but doesn’t conceding that there may be a god make you agnostic rather than atheist? I thought that atheist was believing (knowing?) that there isn’t a god.
I would call myself agnostic but it doesn’t sound quite right – I’ve a sneaky suspicion there is more to it all than meets the eye, but I can’t bring myself to come to terms with an omniscient omnipotent made in our image god. I’m not quite sure why Big is so vehemently against the whole idea, she’s had plenty of exposure to ppl with varying levels of belief (and has finally stopped telling them that they are rude for believing in god or praying, so that’s a relief) and I don’t ever say that I know there is no god, I make it quite clear that there may be, and some ppl believe very strongly that there is.
Bad wording….in terms of the way I interact with the kids, yes agnostic would be the best description. That’s my compromise to ensure some balance in their upbringing and easy for me to do. I don’t believe in a god and believe anyone who does is deluded. But I am not gonna to say that to my kids. The point I was making is that it is easier for me to do that than if I believed in god, does that make sense? It would be a bit weird to beleive in a god totally and to tell your kids it might not exist…..just not as weird for me to say that the other way round.
It does seem to me that atheism is a faith position, just like any other. You can’t prove there is no god, since any moderately competent supreme being would be quite capable of a trivial thing like concealing his existence.
In the absence of any conclusive evidence either way, I remain a devout agnostic.
“If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.” Woody Allen
I guess…..but intellectually I don’t live on the basis of needing conclusive evidence to decide whether something is or isn’t right. So to that end a lot what I believe to be true is faith driven.
Just so long as you don’t take it personally that a God who has so conclusively revealed himself to others has chosen to hide from you. Maybe it is something you said. 🙂
“I’m still an atheist, thank God.” Luis Bunuel
Hope it’s o.k to comment on this seeing as I’m a practical stranger :-). I think Tim is spot on when he says that whatever world view we have takes faith. For my part, I would need as much faith to believe the intricasies of nature are an ‘accident’ as to believe they are purposefully made.
kwym about out the sub-concious. I think it was a Jesuit priest who said ‘give me a child until they’re 7 and they are influenced for ever’. Hope you find some peace on it all 🙂
Sure you can comment Ruth. You are extremely welcome. Your quote is Ignatius Loyola, I think.
As I said I am an agnostic, that takes no faith at all, just an inability to take decisions. 🙂
“As the poet said, ‘Only God can make a tree’ — probably because it’s so hard to figure out how to get the bark on.” Woody Allen
Fancy knowing that! Doesn’t being agnostic require at least a small amount of faith in that it could swing either way?:-)
No, surely the statement that “EITHER god(s) exist(s) OR they don’t” is quite trivially true! No faith needed to accept that one 😉
No such thing as strangers on the blogring, only lurkers who don’t comment.
Ignatius Loyola – was that his real name?
Jax, I think you’re having some of the same problems as me with C and conformity. Conformity was a big issue for me, and one I want my children to be free of (in terms of the hassles) but I can’t shake off the feeling that it matters.
A very quick Googling comes up with ‘Inigo de Loyola‘. “[T]he name Ignatius [an early Christian martyr] was assumed in later years, while he was residing in Rome” presumeably when he was enmonked.
Jan – perhaps its because it does matter!:-)