Gotta have faith

J and I are an interfaith couple. I'm Jewish and he's well...not. In actuality, neither of us makes religion a big part of our lives these days, but we both think its important to give the girls a religious foundation. The problem? We're kind of lazy.

I felt more strongly about raising the girls Jewish, and he agreed to let me do this. And now I feel pressure to actually do something about it.

We had Jewish baby naming ceremonies for both girls, but that is about all they have experienced in the Jewish faith. I have put off joining a synagogue because well...it costs money. And its just not been a priority in the past few years.

Tonight as I was putting Big A to bed, I told her that we were going to go to services tomorrow night to see my brother and his fiance receive a blessing. She had NO CLUE what I was talking about. I tried to explain to her that she was Jewish. "Jewish? What's that mean?" I did not know how to answer that.

"Are all girls Jewish mommy? And boys don't go poopy?" Huh? With that, she dissolved into giggles. "Is my name 'Jewish'?" she then asked. I truly was at a loss on how to continue this discussion.

"So you know how you sometimes go to chapel at school?" I asked (she attends preschool at a church). "Its like that but its for Jewish people." She still had no clue what I was saying, but was happy to steer the conversation back to poopy. I gave in and we laughed a little.

I'm hoping tomorrow night gives me a better jumping off point for this conversation. I need to pick up a copy of "Being a Jewish Parent for Dummies" if it exists.

The hard part to me is how to make something that's really not a big part of my life (but is a big part of who I am if that makes sense) into something that's a part of her life. I'm thinking Sunday school might be able to do the job better than me. Part of me wouldn't mind taking the lazy approach of continuing with the status quo of not doing much of anything to do with religion...but then I think that its not really fair to not give the girls a religious foundation, like I got. They are free to make their own decisions later in life of course, but they should at least get the benefit of a jumping off point.

Wish me luck as I figure out how to tell Big A that being Jewish doesn't have anything to do with poopy. And also? Wish me luck that she doesn't take the opportunity to yell something about poopy during services tomorrow night.