I loved Anne's comment about just calling the goddess... well, Goddess. Unfortunately in the Bible Belt if that came out of my son's mouth at school there would be severe repercussions on him socially.
I do not remember if I posted about this, but earlier this year a parent at our school had the audacity to go into the teacher work room and place a nasty letter in my box. The gist of the letter was to inform me of my poor parenting due to allowing T to wear clothing that has skulls on them. It went on to further mention that as a teacher I should know this is completely unacceptable. This parent hopes to never have my son in a class with her child because his/her child should not have to be subjected to my son's inappropriate attire.
Yes, this really did happen. The part that was most ironic was that the parent did not sign the letter. I had no way to address the parent. They must know that I would have had several choice words to share on my son's behalf.
At the school I work at, this is common place. It is not excepted by the administration or teachers, but it happens nonetheless.
With that being said... that is why I need to come up with some way to explain my beliefs without handing him fuel for the fire so to speak. I absolutely hate that we cannot just openly discuss our beliefs, but what can you do?
That sucks :/ It's ridiculous how impolite, immature and downright rude some people can be.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you have to deal with that :(
We're lucky to live in a fairly liberal part of Arizona and we're able to be open about what we believe.
As far as naming the Goddess, you could call her "Mary" (Jesus' mother). You could explain to your son that the Goddess has a bunch of different names, but sometimes that makes people uncomfortable, so if he wants to talk about it at school or with friends, to call her Mary. Idk how much he will be talking about religion to his friends at school, our kid just wants to play Pokemon or 'house' with her friends. *shrug*
Or you could just tell him that your religion is different, and explain that people suck (lol).
Either way, I hope you find something that helps you guys :)
Hope that helps! Or