It was a smug, jerk response. I know now that in my heart.

An atheist, Buddhist-leaning friend bemoaned the fact that after leaving his small child with a sitter, the sitter asked him to tell stories about God. It was obvious that the sitter had indoctrinated his child.

My response: it seems your son has taken Pascal’s wager.

Please let this be my public apology to that parent stripped of his personal religious rights. You are quite right to feel violated.

The sitter clearly did overstep bounds by evangelizing your son with her moral values. As you said, you were not prepared to have that conversation with your son.

I agree. It does feel like a violation to leave your child in the care of someone and have them assume that your moral values are incorrect or that you are some sort of failure as a parent because you do not teach your child what should, in the caregiver’s mind, be culturally accepted norms and moral teachings.

Can we agree then, that no morality should be taught by caregivers at all? No judgement placed on the values taught by parents?

No more caregivers telling kids “it’s ok, let us know if your parents have weapons in the home”. No more “regardless of the teachings of your personal beliefs, this lifestyle is to be accepted and even encouraged.”

Can we all agree then, that caregivers should be restricted to the feeding, safety, and in the case of schools, education of academic subjects?

If it is wrong for a caregiver to impose a teaching of one particular morality, is it not then also wrong for all caregivers to impose a teaching of any morality?

It is time for a frank, public discourse on the topic. A discourse free of judgement of individual beliefs. A discourse merely on the appropriateness of the moral indoctrination of our youth outside the home. I welcome your comments below.