How To Ensure That Your Child LEAVES THE FAITH!

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How To Ensure That Your Child Leaves the Faith
  1. Avoid the use of the word ‘sin’. It may develop in the child a guilt complex. This will prepare him to believe that there is no right or wrong.
  2. Never take your child to confession. This will ingrain the concept that no one sins and there was no need for Christ’s life, passion, death, and resurrection.
  3. Drop off and pick up your child from Catechism class and never take them to Mass. If Mass is not important to you how can it be for your child?
  4. Never pray, say a Rosary, or read the Bible at home. The child will see that the faith is something that is only preached not practiced.
  5. Never discuss or teach the Catholic faith in your home. The child will think if Catholicism is not worth talking about, why bother?
  6. Pick and choose Catholic teachings you wish to follow. That way your child will learn their opinion is superior to God.
  7. Come to Sunday Mass informally clad. Not being well dressed makes a statement that the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament are not worth respect.
  8. Only come to church on holidays such as Easter and Christmas. The child will see that you are a hypocrite.
  9. Don’t have religious pictures, crucifixes, or statues in your home. This way the child will not be frequently reminded of Christ and His Church.
  10. Tell your child that one religion is as good as another. The child will doubt the Holy Roman Catholic Church is God’s one true church and Christ’s words, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
I found this on eCatholic2000.com. There’s lots of good stuff on there.
 
boomerang said:
How To Ensure That Your Child Leaves the Faith
  1. Avoid the use of the word ‘sin’. It may develop in the child a guilt complex. This will prepare him to believe that there is no right or wrong.
  2. Never take your child to confession. This will ingrain the concept that no one sins and there was no need for Christ’s life, passion, death, and resurrection.
  3. Drop off and pick up your child from Catechism class and never take them to Mass. If Mass is not important to you how can it be for your child?
  4. Never pray, say a Rosary, or read the Bible at home. The child will see that the faith is something that is only preached not practiced.
  5. Never discuss or teach the Catholic faith in your home. The child will think if Catholicism is not worth talking about, why bother?
  6. Pick and choose Catholic teachings you wish to follow. That way your child will learn their opinion is superior to God.
  7. Come to Sunday Mass informally clad. Not being well dressed makes a statement that the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament are not worth respect.
  8. Only come to church on holidays such as Easter and Christmas. The child will see that you are a hypocrite.
  9. Don’t have religious pictures, crucifixes, or statues in your home. This way the child will not be frequently reminded of Christ and His Church.
  10. Tell your child that one religion is as good as another. The child will doubt the Holy Roman Catholic Church is God’s one true church and Christ’s words, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
I found this on eCatholic2000.com. There’s lots of good stuff on there.
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Great post! I was just talking to my mom about pretty much everything on this list. She had a bit of a disagreement with her parish’s director of RE who doesn’t stress about half of these things. I know a bunch of people for whom #10 is a huge issue. Most of these were neglected in my home growing up and my siblings and I all strayed to some degree. Although I don’t have a list, these are all things that I stress on a regular basis.
 
This is an excellent list. Should be given to all Catholics to think deeply about.

Mary.
 
Reading all of these things I realize my mom did one heck of a job raising her 6 kids to be good Catholics. We’re not perfect but we try.👍
 
We didn’t do any of the things on that list - in fact, we did the opposite. But both our children have left the Church.
 
I struggle SO MUCH with how to get my older children back to the faith. They aren’t even young adults- they are 11 and 14. The fourteen year old attended Catholic school and was bullied both by students and the teachers- some of whom happened to be nuns. He went from thinking about being a priest when he grew up to now wanting to have absolutely nothing to do with religion. The eleven year old simply follows my husband- who is agnostic. He doesn’t want to go because he finds it boring, he doesn’t want to sit still and listen, etc.- all the typical childish excuses. I find myself paranoid about how to teach the younger ones- newly 5, newly 3, and the baby. The five year old went to Sunday School during mass this year and had problems with that. The three year old went to the nursery which he absolutely loves, but obviously doesn’t learn anything there per se. The baby is with me. Honestly, I just don’t know how to keep the baptismal promises I made to God on their behalf. I pray and pray and pray for my husband, because I think if he reverts back to Catholicism, the boys will all follow. I don’t know. It keeps me awake most nights.
 
Bonnie said:
We didn’t do any of the things on that list - in fact, we did the opposite. But both our children have left the Church.
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Yes.

There’s no magic formula to ensure that all of your kids will grow up and be great Catholics and have good marriages and happy families.

But, I’ll play:
  1. Act as though sin is the only thing that matters.
  2. Don’t talk about forgiveness or mercy and certainly don’t demonstrate it.
  3. Treat your kids as though they are props to demonstrate how awesome you are.
  4. Treat your kids as mini-mes. Don’t respect the fact that they aren’t you and that they have interests different from yours and that’s totally OK.
  5. Serve roast pastor for Sunday brunch every week. Then be surprised your kids don’t respect the clergy.
  6. Be mean and disrespectful to your spouse. Never show that you love your spouse. Then wonder why your kids don’t believe in the sanctity of marriage.
  7. Be totally different at home and when dealing with outsiders.
  8. Act as though other people’s sins are always WAY worse than the ones that you fall into.
  9. Never say, “I’m sorry.”
 
wild_thing said:
Honestly, I just don’t know how to keep the baptismal promises I made to God on their behalf. … It keeps me awake most nights.
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Keep praying for your children and let them know how much you love them and that you are praying for them. Believe me, that is the limit of what you can do. My children are young adults now and left the Church in their late teens, tho they left it spiritually long before. But I’ll never stop loving them and praying for them.
 
  1. Come to Sunday Mass informally clad. Not being well dressed makes a statement that the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament are not worth respect.
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I"m amazed how often this item comes up in one form or another. I’m not saying its right or wrong (and I think most of this list is good), but dress is a surprisingly frequent topic, with views varying very widely.

One I’d add is not to separate your faith from your every day. We’re all one seamless package, and if the Faith only comes up on Sunday, it’s not going to be taken that seriously, in my view.
 
Bonnie said:
We didn’t do any of the things on that list - in fact, we did the opposite. But both our children have left the Church.
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I am in that boat too. Just keep praying!

At times I feel anxious about it, until I remind myself that my anxiety is a lack of trust. So I pray for an increase in trust as well.
 
It’s all about finding the correct balance. Growing up, I was home schooled and several of my mom’s friends home schooled as well. We had various group activities and stuff so we engaged with a lot of the different kids. Some families, despite being Catholic raised their kids pretty much like was listed in the OP. Those kids left the faith. Other families were very strict with the faith. They wouldn’t even let their kids watch TV. Those kids all left the faith as soon as they moved out.
 
Bonnie said:
We didn’t do any of the things on that list - in fact, we did the opposite. But both our children have left the Church.
Click to expand...
Keep praying, and invite others on CAF to do so.
Remember, most of the good we do, we may never see the results in this life. You planted the right seeds, takes longer to grow in some kids. But they may show fruit in ways you didn’t anticipate. Mine too.
 
My parents did almost all those things, but from a Protestant perspective. We were “Baptists”.
Guess what? I left the church and became Catholic!
 
  1. Make sure that your standards for being “Catholic enough” are high enough that your children have no Catholic role models outside of your nuclear family. Build the walls high around your nuclear family and fill the moat with alligators.
 
  1. Make sure your kids don’t know the difference between Church teaching and your personal quirks, whims and idiosyncrasies.
 
  1. Make sure your kids know how verrrrry much you sacrifice for them and their siblings. They’ll thank you by not having any kids.
 
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