Teaching Kids the Truth About Marriage

  • Thread starter Thread starter JimG
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

JimG

Guest
From an article by Leila Miller:

I was ladling some soup for my kindergartner one afternoon when he said casually, but a bit tentatively, “Mom, girls can marry girls.”

I knew this moment was coming. “Gay marriage” was not even an issue when my oldest children were little, but after the Supreme Court forced my hand, I knew I’d have to discuss it with my younger children.

I turned to my son, made eye contact with him, and replied in a calm voice, “Hmmm. Well, no, girls can’t marry girls, sweetie. Where did you hear that they could?”

“Katie said they can.”

“No, hon. Katie is a nice little girl, but she is wrong. Only boys can marry girls. That’s how God made families—with mommies and daddies marrying and then having babies. It is always very sad when little boys and girls don’t have a mom or a dad, isn’t it? So, even though you might hear strange things about marriage from your friends, or their parents, or even in the news, what you heard is not correct.”

continued here:

 
Might be better to just tell the kid the truth and say that the laws of the USA permit this type of “marriage”, but our Catholic Church does not agree with the law and will not approve of or bless such a “marriage”, and as Catholics we follow what the Church says.

A parent telling a kid that “girls can’t marry girls” is just going to cause confusion when the kid encounters same-sex couples presenting themselves as husband and wife out in the community or even on the TV. Mom’s teaching that “girls can’t marry girls” will just appear wrong or like Mom is stupid and doesn’t know what she is talking about.
 
Lots of times, adults who make the country’s laws make mistakes. Sometimes they are really confused and make very bad mistakes, like when they allowed slavery and abortion. But we are Catholic and we aren’t confused, so we have to stick with the way God has always wanted things. The way he made us is for a lady and a man to get married and have babies. If we do things God’s way, people are happy.
Click to expand...
Seems to cover that the law says same sex marriage is possible but I agree she should have been more explicit.
 
The whole “if we do things God’s way, people are happy” is pretty wrong too.

There are a lot of sinners who are happy as clams, and a lot of people trying to do things “God’s way” who have miserable lives.

Sometimes doing what God wants is hard work and not necessarily what we want to do, but we do it because that’s what God wants, out of love for God.

All this idea that we will live happily ever after if we just do what the Church says is misleading and is only going to cause problems later. My mom sure didn’t teach me that doing what God wants makes us happy.
 
Even though the law may say that same sex marriage is possible, biology says that it is impossible. The trouble is that it forces parents to get into a discussion of the biology of reproduction before a child is ready, as in kindergarten. But kids can at least understand the good of having a mom and a dad.
 
JimG said:
Even though the law may say that same sex marriage is possible, biology says that it is impossible. The trouble is that it forces parents to get into a discussion of the biology of reproduction before a child is ready, as in kindergarten. But kids can at least understand the good of having a mom and a dad.
Click to expand...
I’m not disagreeing. However a parent is going to have to explain that secular law does allow it.
 
You did great! (Whoever actually gave that answer)

Girls cannot marry girls, and boys cannot marry boys. Our Catholic Faith does not call that true marriage.

We need to instill a proper understanding of marriage to our children.

There is a type of marriage that is forbidden by the Church. Its sinful and is part of our broken world we live in. It is an anti-type of marriage. We do not have to explain imitation marriage to kindergartners!

Why do we have so many foolish annulments in our Church? Everyone says because we don’t teach our children proper! Now they want us to “normalize” same sex marriage in the minds of 5 year olds!

Not only is our world messed up, but our Catholic brothers and sisters too!
 
Last edited:
Just because the State calls it a valid marriage, doesn’t mean it is. It’s still just as much of a marriage as sleeping with a prostitute.

In fact, a man sleeping with a female prostitute is more of a marriage than two civilly joined same sex couples.

Same sex marriage IS the Santa Claus
 
Last edited:
That can wait till at least age of understanding.

To explain the State makes laws which contradict the Teachings of Jesus should be secondary to first Teaching the Truth.
 
Do we teach our young catechumens what the reformers profess along with what we believe?
 
rcwitness said:
That can wait till at least age of understanding.
Click to expand...
Children will likely be exposed to it through their peers (some may be living with a same sex couple) as in the article that triggered this. I’d prefer to have things explained to them before that happened.
 
Either way, the explanation should be that, no… it’s not true marriage.

So in order to explain the civil practice, it takes explanation that is way above a 5 yr old!

The “yes” or “no” answer is “no”

The explanation requires maturity to understand what State law means and how it can be opposed to Jesus.
 
The kid is going to find out eventually that mom is wrong. People of the same sex can and do get married. The issue is that the Catholic Church and the State have two different definitions of marriage. The Catholic Church doesn’t ACKNOWLEDGE the state marriage. Mom needs to do better in addressing the truth while informing child of Catholic teachin.

Mom should have said “You are right. Two girls can get married, but Catholics are only allowed to marry the opposite sex because we believe children need both a mother and a father.” Or whatever explanation she wants to give on a Kindergartener’s level with regards to why the Church disapproves. She may have to explain what “opposite sex” means but that isn’t a big deal. Kids are smart. They understand the difference between a law, and what is taught when they go to Church on Sunday. For example, nothing in the law says you can’t have ice cream after you have brushed your teeth. That may be Mom’s rule, though. To the kid, they understand why Jimmy down the street gets ice cream before bedtime but they don’t.

Mom may as well get in the habit of explaining these things truthfully. There are a lot of things that are allowable by society that the Church has rules about. Nothing wrong in explaining it that way to the kids.

Edited to add: Kindergarten is in no way too young for the average child to be learning about reproduction. Once they are that age the other kids their age have noticed the difference between boys and gilrs and the chatter begins. Better to learn at home.
 
Last edited:
QwertyGirl said:
… Or whatever explanation she wants to give on a Kindergartener’s level with regards to why the Church disapproves. Kids are smart.
Click to expand...
Perhaps the farthest I’d go with my 5 yr old is,

“Some people think they can, but Jesus said they cannot”
 
Last edited:
QwertyGirl said:
Edited to add: Kindergarten is in no way too young for the average child to be learning about reproduction. Once they are that age the other kids their age have noticed the difference between boys and gilrs and the chatter begins. Better to learn at home.
Click to expand...
7 yrs old is typically the age of reason.
 
Last edited:
What does the age of reason have to do with teaching children the biology of where babies come from?
 
QwertyGirl said:
What does the age of reason have to do with teaching children the biology of where babies come from?
Click to expand...
My 3 yr old knows where babies come from. Reproduction and conception is a bit more advanced. Sex ed is better off in 3rd or 4th grade earliest. My 8 yr old is not ready.

Marriage being between a man and woman is more naturally understandable for a 5 yr old.

The State calling same sex partners married takes quite a bit more yet.
 
Last edited:
Yeah. In my area there are many lesbian couples and gay couples. We see them at the library, etc.

As far as my kids know there are marriages that Jesus makes and marriages that Judges make. Jesus is happy when He gets to make a marriage because it gives kids one mommy and one daddy. Sometimes people don’t listen to Jesus and kids have two mommies and a daddy or two daddies and a mommy.

I am very firm about biology. Eventually, I will expound on this. Even if two women have a child, that child still has a father. They might not talk to him, but they have one.

Currently all the homosexual couples with children we know are divorcees so this works in our reality.

And honestly, divorce is a much bigger and more frightening concept to at least my kids than having two mommies or two daddies.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top