You know every time I tell someone we homeschool, we don’t celebrate Halloween, the Easter Bunny doesn’t come to our house, neither does the tooth fairy, or even Santa Clause – they look at me like I have a third eye.
I have to say I don’t like this feeling. It’s like can you PLEASE stop looking at me like I am weird, because I already feel uncomfortable around you simply because I am overweight…and maybe I don’t feel too confident in my looks right now.
I hate talking about Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. My son just lost his first tooth, I hate talking to people about this event because they think we celebrate the tooth fairy. I often wonder if any of it is all worth it. I mean people who are Christians and celebrate these things seem to have happy well adjusted children. Why put ourselves through all this guilt, and weirdness, if there isn’t going to be some type of pay off?
One thing that makes it REALLY uncomfortable is to talk about my beliefs with other Christians, because if I tell them WHY according to the Bible we shouldn’t do these things, they may feel judged by me…which is not my intentions. But just in their looks towards me, I feel judged…
Sometimes I do wish God would just reveal to me the purpose behind all of this, and why I am convicted but not my other Christian friends. Sometimes I just wish I could have peace about it all, and stop feeling GUILTY like I am doing something horrible to my children.
I know I am not. I see how they are, and you know what I am proud of them. Are my kids perfect, no. But they do seem to really appreciate life for what it is, not just looking forward to another event or toy to satisfy them. They seem content.
I know that God is not the one who is making me feel guilt. No, guilt is a tool of the enemy, and he is really good at using it.
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I just want you to know that I don’t think of you as the three-eyed being. I don’t want to celebrate Halloween in any way, shape, of form and thanked God for my excuse of children behaving badly.. I was happy to punish them with no trick-or-treating.. is that wrong? I am having such a hard time with Halloween. I didn’t want it to even begin in our family, and then when Bug was in preschool he got introduced to it and then I felt guilty for possibly leaving him out of what his school pals were doing so I let him participate and it carried on and now that we are homeschooling and that influence is not there I really don’t want the kids doing it but I still feel thing guilt of not allowing them to join in the so-called fun… ugh, it stinks! But I am glad they didn’t join in this year and I don’t want them joining in next year..
Christmas.. I’m torn on a Santa thing.
Easter… eggs are fun and so is the hunt, but I want my kids knowing why we have Easter.. I’m torn on the bunny.
I’m sick of the weird reactions to homeschooling too.
And there is more! There is so much more! What I let them watch, hear, where I let them play… yeah, I know how you feel on so many levels!
((HUGS))
Just know that I think you are pretty darn cool!
Becki, thank you so much for your comment! I’m glad you don’t see me as weird…it means a lot to me. {{hugs}}
I know Halloween is difficult for me too. This year I coped with it by letting the kids hand out Christian pencils, stickers, and candy to the trick or treaters that came to our house. This was a first for us since we stopped celebrating Halloween. And you know I was so excited and fine with my decision until I pulled into my neighborhood from an errand and saw a house setting up for the trick or treaters and that was when the sinking feeling came into my stomach and I just felt sad, and a bit guilty. I was so worried they were missing out simply because when I was a child Halloween was a big deal.
But when I step back and think about how excited my kids were to GIVE away pencils, stickers, and candy. And how they KNEW what we were giving away and why, and that they were evangelizing. I felt like I had given them more than what I ever had as a child on Halloween. It’s still hard though, and there’s is no telling the feelings that will rise up in me next year. But we definitely plan to evangelize on Halloween again next year.
You know with Santa, Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy it’s only difficult for me to deal with when I’m approached by other people. My kids look at Santa and the Easter bunny like they do barney, they aren’t real but just someone who is apart of the holiday. I tell them Santa’s not real but they still get excited when they see him, lol. I tell them the tooth fairy isn’t real but lil man still wanted to put his tooth under the pillow, LOL! It’s like they don’t really believe me, haha!
This year I just asked myself the question would Jesus celebrate Halloween or tell His kids about Santa, Easter Bunny, or the tooth fairy? And honestly I don’t think He would, especially the Easter Bunny because Easter is truly about Jesus. I felt like Jesus would evangelize on Halloween, so that’s what we did. The tooth fairy, I don’t know, I don’t think He would. I think you can have all those “characters” without having to make it about the characters on those holidays. I am honest with my kids though, and they know that the money they get for their teeth comes from mom and dad, and so do the presents on Christmas and Easter.
I think it’s really a struggle for most Christians, maybe that’s why they look at me weird. Maybe they feel guilty too. It’s a crazy world, and the enemy is alive and well. I’m just really working to NOT let it put a wedge between me and my Christian (and non Christian) friends because that’s what Romans 14 talks about.
I really do not have any room to look at anyone weird. There are too many people in the world with different beliefs to do that anymore. It kind of ties in with my views on prejudice.
It should not be able having guilt at all, so never feel that way. You have your beliefs so stand strong with them. You should not have to explain yourself.
I do participate in some of the events. I feel they are very commercialized in society today, but I am to the point that I tell people not to worry about giving me gifts. I leave that fun to my son, but he has already been made aware the real meaning of Christmas. I think there is just not enough emphasis on people to teach their kids the difference between the secular Christmas versus the true meaning of Christmas.
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