why do parents always make their kids suffer by imposing their own world view on them

LOL! Any parent’s here who don’t do that?

I do it, I admit, in all sorts of areas and probably not deliberatly but for something like this my 12 year old boy is perfectly capable of making his own mind up as to why he’s doing it and whether it’s a good idea.

I just got the impression fromt he original post and follow up that the blokes anger was with his ex-wife and his past experiences. In those circumstances the last person I’d try and channel it through would be my kid. I’d make a real effort not to.

freeform5spot

there is a difference between fasting for a cause and fasting to get thin.

I agree with you.

Mmm, when did SU turn into brainwashing fundamentalists?

Their activities didn’t do my kids any harm, and they had a good time. As far as I’m concerned they’re decent people trying to do a bit of good. My mob took the religious content with a grain of salt.

I would be more worried about her being involved with religious groups in school. Children should make up thier own minds when older, not be brainwashed by religions (of any kind) in schools.

Agree with mucker, religious groups shouldn’t be anywhere near schools nor should they be trying to influence 12 year old children.

A 12 year old has no religious beliefs – any that they do have are invariably fostered upon them by their parents or other adults. A child is no more a Christian than they are a member of the Postal Worker’s Union.

tinker-belle seems to have it pretty much right in the last paragraph. let the kids have some experiance as long as it’s harmless. Keep an eye on things but let them learn (which may be hard at times). Children are fed many lies from society (father Christmas etc) and most of them figure it all out. If children do not experience and learn how can they make the right choices for themselves as they get older.
What makes us think that our views are better than the ones that they may develop.

Perhaps saying despise was a bit strong its more a feeling the hopelessness of society that so many people are being duped by these organisations peddling of mumbo jumbo, rather than dealing with reasoned, rational, empirical facts, ie science not fiction.
I am disapointed that a so called NON denominational school allows groups like this to operate, this part of the curriculum should be taken care of in the RME class (religous and morale education) where the children are taught about aspects of many different relgions and teachings.
And dear wwaswas please believe me when I say my ire is not with the ex we’re both in very happy places relationship wise, generally get on well and work together for our chidrens welfare and benefit.

there’s a lot better things that she could do for charity rather than starve!

it’s actually quite good for you – kind of detox you body and brian at the same time,

What if your body’s ok with the detox, but Brian isn’t?

jeez you lot take the piss! its probably in reality 12-14 hrs without food, doubt she will waste away!!

anyway if its the day you see your daughter at least it will be a cheap one for you, every cloud and all that ….

Give her some real encouragement;

and why not join her? I did similar with my son who iirc was about 13 at the time – couldn’t remember what the charity was but Tinkerbelle’s post seems to ring a bell. We supported each other and felt good afterwards for having achieved something/given something.

Given that 25% of Primary Schools are church schools I’m not sure how effective the “brainwashing” is – can’t say I’ve noticed a big problem caused by large groups of fundamentalist Christian kids on the streets of a night. As it happens I’m an atheist but my daughter goes to a church school and if she ends up a “sober” Christian rather than one of the pissed up, leery, lawless, immoral kids that cause about 99% of the problems in our town, then I’ll take my chances and try not to be too down on myself

OTH my wife, who’s a year 6 teacher, reckons that 24 hours (if we are actually talking about 24 hours? – mucker?) is a bit much for a 12 year old and liable to make some of them feel a bit faint/ill/grumpy – as she notices them going downhill after a few hours without food at school.

So in answer to the question, yes, you did over react, a bit.

Thanks for the post though. We’ve just had a really useful conversation about how we feed our 2 kids.

Hmmmm, fasting would be a nightmare for me. I tried it once in a fit of hippy experimentation and just ended up with a nasty headache and feeling sick. It doesn’t have that effect on everybody of course but it might. Not nice.

Fasting at Ramadan is only during the hours of daylight. Get up before dawn and eat massive breakfast. Big dinner at sundown. Ramadan moves through the year so it’s best when it falls in midwinter.

Well that was quite mental reading everyone’s take on our wee family drama.

Mucker’s a great dad , our daughter loves spending time with him, and we get on well for the most part, i would even say we are pretty supportive of each other… and when we hit the odd hiccup we can usually sort it our pretty amicably – we had plenty of practice dealing with one another lol ….

My worry wasn’t about the fast itself , cos

(a) our daughter loves her chuck, is quite a confident wee individual and unlikely even to associate the fasting with eating disorders, and..

(b) with regard to the religious brainwashing, i would like to think we have brought our daughter up to make decisions for herself …parental brainwashing isn’t any better than religious brainwashing imho……although neither mucker or myself are very religiously inclined , both the girls have gravitated toward SU and church youth groups of their own accord – i believe they have done this because these organisations actually get off their arse and arrange things for the kids to do ( and for free mostly ) and also because they like a lot of the nice kids that hang out there. I don’t think either of them will make any great commitment to the church , in a way they are really just taking what they want from the organisation, good stuff to do , people to hang with and paying lip service to the rest . I can live with that – i can think of many more worrying options that today’s kids could get involved with .

My worry is that our daughter might lose her respect and trust she has for her dad if he over reacts like this …and i would hate that . I am already having to mediate at the mo cos she is mad with him. The next 5 years or so are a time when she will need our love and support more than ever….. and i don’t want her starting to turn a deaf ear on her ranting dad….

He’s great but he just needs to put a sock in it sometimes 😉

My POVs

1. Personally dont agree with the whole fasting thing.
2. I dont think the SU/school should be supporting this kind of thinking.
3. Eating disorders are something to be aware of even if the child likes their food at 12 yrs old. 13,14 or 15 might be a different story. The consequences are so severe its good that you are wary of such things.
4. Ok so you ranted a bit, you are concerned for your daughter who wouldnt.

..but SV …people switch off if you start ranting at them, ranting doesn’t help them to see the point of view you are trying to make ….. it only serves to vent your own frustrations , its of no benefit to anyone else…

I fasted at school, for Oxfam IIRC. We did 24 and 48 hour ones. Raised lots of money and brought the topic of hunger to the forefront of our young minds.

Muckers EX – seems a very sensible post from you.

As I said earlier I thought the dad perhaps overreacted in making a fuss about the fast – but probably did in complaining to the school

And this being STW yu can expect the people who comment to overreact totally

will muckers-daughter be along soon as well to give her perspective on events?

Why a fast? Easy to administer I suppose. Surely exercise based sponsorship is better for kids and more fun? Or maybe anyone can fast but not everyone can walk 10 miles? Though diabetics maybe not? Or those who’ve had eating disorders? How about sponsored jobs like Bob-a-job? That’s gotta be a better option – has purpose and anyone can do some sort of a job. Except the lazy…fek.

I haven’t eaten since this thread started.