The original post: /r/mildlyinfuriating by /u/urban_ginger4 on 2024-12-08 05:21:55.

So, my children are 2 and 3 years old. I am an atheist and my wife is, I suppose, Christian. She isn’t really practicing or anything and never has been since I’ve known her. Her parents are very religious and have always insisted on us all praying before meals…holding hands, the whole nine. I hate it but it wasn’t a huge deal to me to just keep my mouth shut and hold a hand while they did their thing. What I have always HATED is that she makes us all hold hands and pray even in restaurants. Anyway, now that we have kids it bothers me a little more. They do this whole “god is good, God is great” prayer before meals to try to make it fun for the kids. My kids find it super amusing that everyone does it together and they started to do it at home sometimes. So, my compromise is that I replace God with Mom so that I am staying true to my beliefs. It doesn’t bother me that the kids say God. I’d just prefer not to. Tonight my wife got upset with me because I was saying “mom” like I always do and told me to stop pushing the kids to say mom instead of God. Definitely not what I was doing and frustrating that she feels that me saying Mom is pushing it on them but her saying God is not. Anyway, I told her that I don’t believe in God so I will continue to say mom instead (other than around her family) because I want my children to know that not everyone believes in God and that’s okay.

TLDR; my wife’s family taught my yound children a prayer and when I say it with them I replace God with Mom because I’m an atheist.