Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief – A Review

In my journey to become who I am today, a lot of my views (okay, okay…mainly the touchy-subjects dealing with religious and political views) have shifted and changed from those of how I was raised. And, that’s okay. It doesn’t mean I love my parents any less. It just means that we know which issues to avoid to maintain harmony.

I’ve always been enthralled with different religions and their interconnectivity. (In fact, one of my minors in college was Religion, with a focus in World Religions to be exact.) In college, I was known for my ability to debate on both sides of an argument. (Don’t get me wrong…I have my own opinions, and I’m not afraid to use them.) I have an appreciation for many different belief systems, secular and non, and I’m comfortable in where I am today. The core principals are the same: love, kindness, a sense of right and wrong, etc. In my experience, it’s just the details that get fuzzy.

Luckily, my husband and I are on the exact same page when it comes to these touchy-subjects, but, as with anything, when you throw raising a child into the mix, these fuzzy details can be challenging.

In a perfect world, I would rely on how things were done in my own past as guidance. But, where do you begin if all of this is new?

Imagine my excitement when I discovered this book:

This book by Dale McGowan (and Molleen Matsumura, Amanda Metskas, and Jan Devor), is just that: A practical guide, and I love it!

So many of my questions were answered in this book. What is the best way to foster “religious literacy” without indoctrinating my child into a particular one? What is the best way to answer questions about relatives that have differing beliefs from ours? How can we cultivate empathy and understanding for everyone, even if our views are different from theirs?

If you have some of these same questions, or if you’ve been searching for a practical source to help you sort through some of these issues, I recommend you check out Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief.

In fact, there were even examples of questions that will arise that I hadn’t even thought of yet. I can definitely see this book on my shelf, serving as a resource for years to come.

This was not a paid review, however, The Casual Perfectionist received a free copy of the book for review purposes.