Thanks for posting the ritual booklet. It’s fascinating. With my wife being pregnant, I start looking at things through the eyes of a parent to be. Rituals are traditionally a super-familial thing, but including the whole family. Parents take their kids to Church. Parents light the Menorah with their kids. Parents celebrate Winter Soltice with their kids. Reading through the booklets, I constantly had to revise upwards the age at which I could first take my daughter to such a gathering. There’s no “minimum age” to participate in Church, or the lighting of the candles. I understand many LWers are single people in their 20s, and certainly a lot of NYCers are single people in their 20s. But I found myself wishing for a ritual I could do with a family. Perhaps if I’m sufficiently motivated, I’ll try to work something out next year...
This is the primary thing that I’ve come across that seems like a rationalist activity that meshes well with children. (It also originates in a fictional story, as far as I can tell, and so I’m curious how well it actually works.)
Is anybody aware of anybody having tried this? I’m also curious to know if this would work. I suspect the biggest obstacle will be hoping that your child[ren] can stay on point and not get distracted on their own tangents, that is, not quite answering the question that you asked.
When my child starts to speak, I will try this game and update the local LW group on how it turns out.
There are people in the NYC community who expect to have kids soon, and friends in San Francisco with kids who might potentially come to one in the future.
This whole experience was inspired by my family’s Christmas Eve celebration, which was inherently designed for children. I customized it for the people who make up our community now, but will definitely be revising things as kids become part of the equation.
This may well involve splitting off into multiple events that kids don’t participate in. (For example, we might have the “fun” part of the evening end with some activity for kids, and then they go to bed, and then older people do the more serious sections). How exactly to handle it depends on how many kids are coming, how old, etc. We’ll cross the bridges when we come to them, but yeah, they’re coming.
Thanks for posting the ritual booklet. It’s fascinating. With my wife being pregnant, I start looking at things through the eyes of a parent to be. Rituals are traditionally a super-familial thing, but including the whole family. Parents take their kids to Church. Parents light the Menorah with their kids. Parents celebrate Winter Soltice with their kids. Reading through the booklets, I constantly had to revise upwards the age at which I could first take my daughter to such a gathering. There’s no “minimum age” to participate in Church, or the lighting of the candles. I understand many LWers are single people in their 20s, and certainly a lot of NYCers are single people in their 20s. But I found myself wishing for a ritual I could do with a family. Perhaps if I’m sufficiently motivated, I’ll try to work something out next year...
This is the primary thing that I’ve come across that seems like a rationalist activity that meshes well with children. (It also originates in a fictional story, as far as I can tell, and so I’m curious how well it actually works.)
Is anybody aware of anybody having tried this? I’m also curious to know if this would work. I suspect the biggest obstacle will be hoping that your child[ren] can stay on point and not get distracted on their own tangents, that is, not quite answering the question that you asked.
When my child starts to speak, I will try this game and update the local LW group on how it turns out.
There are people in the NYC community who expect to have kids soon, and friends in San Francisco with kids who might potentially come to one in the future.
This whole experience was inspired by my family’s Christmas Eve celebration, which was inherently designed for children. I customized it for the people who make up our community now, but will definitely be revising things as kids become part of the equation.
This may well involve splitting off into multiple events that kids don’t participate in. (For example, we might have the “fun” part of the evening end with some activity for kids, and then they go to bed, and then older people do the more serious sections). How exactly to handle it depends on how many kids are coming, how old, etc. We’ll cross the bridges when we come to them, but yeah, they’re coming.