Numbers don't lie: Godless families raise better children

But, no. Not that I know of. I doubt they talk about it. It seems like they mostly talk about spies and cops and robbers and superheroes and that kind of stuff. He's at an age where they are all currently starring in their own action movies at recess every day.

 

Tweeted at you?

I remember being pissed as a kid when my Jewish neighbor told be Santa wasn't real. You're really going to piss folks of when your kid starts telling his classmates that the Bible is a myth.

 

There's like five Indian kids in his class. I'm sure what he'd be telling them about the Christian Bible is fairly mild.

What would they have to be pissed about, though? What percentage of Americans believe that Adam and Eve actually traipsed through the Garden of Eden together and that Jonah got swallowed by a whale? I guess it's probably disturbingly high in Alabama, but probably pretty negligible in our little corner of suburban Chicago.

 

That said, it is a myth.

I'm not going to not tell him otherwise in order to protect the delicate feelings of a hypothetical fundie kid in his class in the event the topic hypothetically happens to come up one day on the playground.

 

I fully plan to tell my son when he's older that under no circumstances is he ever to be alone with a Catholic priest. I imagine that'll lead to some tense conversations with other parents.

 

He did come home recently and announce: "Did you know that sometimes Santa brings kids tablets?"

 

LOL. I guess Santa didn't bring tablets to the Whitman home this Christmas.

 

Nope. Not for a while. And no reason for it.

Video game time is strictly tied to reading time in our parts. They have this thing called "RAZ Kids" in which the kids read books on the tablet or laptop, and work up through levels. For every book, he gets 10 minutes of video game time. But he has to read at least three books to get time. So he can't just read one and cash in right away. Sometimes he'll negotiate for another reward instead of video games, usually a Shirley Temple cocktail.

 

My oldest son is drawn to it. We go to church every weekend and my wife teaches Sunday School, but when they gave him his Bible in second grade, he just loves reading it. We've never pushed him to read it. Of course, he reads anything he can get his hands on, so maybe it's more that than anything else...

 

My kids get 30 minutes of tablet time a night (homework not included). Often they don't even use that, and we make them keep them in our room. Sometimes I let them go longer, especially if they're playing something that I think is educational (Stack the States, etc...)

 

My kid couldn't handle 30 minutes a night. We only do weekends. He's a little addict, so we have to limit it.

 

It's interesting because my oldest (8) has to use a tablet or computer to do about 90 percent of his homework. They have things called XtraMath, Spelling City, Sumdog and Typing Agent and he can do the tablet for the first three and needs the laptop for typing practice. So because of that, I'm glad we got them tablets for Christmas.