Heres How Atheist Parents Raise Their Children

[SwissTony]

3. We didn't bring our kids up as "atheist".

We never went to church, but some of our kids' friends did. Our kids would ask about this and I'd explain that some people believed in one or more gods, but we didn't. I also explained that other people believed in different gods and that 2000 years ago, people believed in gods who basically no-one believes in now. But they were not put under pressure to not believe.

My oldest daughter was invited by one of her friends to attend a couple of church services. We said it was up to her. She went to two and decided it wasn't for her.

I don't even know if my kids would describe themselves as "atheist". To the best of my knowledge, none of them are believers, none take their kids to church etc. It appears to be a non-issue to them.

We live in The Netherlands, so attitudes towards religion are not what I'd call extreme. Yeah, there are a couple of old-fashioned cult like groups (e.g. women shouldn't vote), but I rarely, if ever, get asked what my religion is.