My Single Mom Life

My sister is fortunate enough to be raising the girls in an age when there are books for atheists.
Parenting books, evolution story books, humanist books.
I really wish there had been books when my boys were little. There were so many questions the boys had almost daily because of things kids at school said, things teachers said, things people in the grocery store said.
It was difficult trying to raise them to have morals without having the fear so many other kids are raised with. The fear of eternal punishment if you "sin".
I know someone will chime in and say well kids aren't raised in fear with religion, but they are.
Simple bible stories create the fear whether parents realize it or not.
Jonah and the whale? I had the cutest little storybook when I was a kid about Jonah. It was beautiful. This little girl was learning the story of Jonah, and "God" was talking to her about it.
We all know how that story goes, but to me, a little kid, no matter how cute the story was told, no matter how pretty the pictures, a whale swallowed Jonah.
Whole.
Because he disobeyed.
I grew up in Maine, and every summer my mom would pack up a ton of kids from our own home and half the neighborhood, and take us all to the beach.
After learning the story of Jonah, do you really think I wanted to be anywhere near that water?
And yes I know, it was because he sinned, but I was a kid and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the best kid. I did bad stuff, my mom will tell y'all I did bad stuff.
I disobeyed many times, didn't finish my plate after being told to, didn't clean my room, had bad and angry thoughts. I was terrified a whale was gonna come and get me.
Just asking for forgiveness at night before bed, did nothing to kill my fears of that whale.
And don't even get me started on people being turned into piles of salt.

When I decided that my kids would not be raised that way, would not be taught the stories from the bible in order to learn morals and compassion for others, I had nothing to help me.
It was all up to me to teach them lessons about how to be good people.
It was rough.
Kids in their classes would tell them they were going to hell because they didn't believe in God. They were picked on, made fun of, teachers couldn't understand why I was so upset that they didn't intervene when the teasing happened.
I actually had one teacher tell me, "Well then maybe you should take your kids to church so they fit in."
Ugh.

Sis is lucky. There are so many great books to teach kids about evolution, humanism, how to raise them morally without any religion at all.
The girls are still quite young, but I found a few books I'm getting for them tomorrow for sis to read to them. Books that can answer the questions they will have as they grow up.
Here's a few of the titles I'm picking up for her.
Humanism, What's That?: A Book for Curious Kids, Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution, and Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story.