Rabbit Hole

There's this guy I respect a lot, he always has interesting stories to tell and is simply a lot of fun to hang out with. Last weekend I visited him at his home for the first time. Before we started the meal, he asked his nine year old son to pray and he replied 'No!' in an angry voice. He just fell silent at this, and after a while repeated his question to which the kid replied 'No!' again. His wife, who isn't very religious, took it over and said "God, thank you for this food", a complete non-prayer, and added: "jeez, can't you see that he isn't going to pray?" That was a side of his life I hadn't seen before and it disappoints me. He is not the one who wears the pants at home. I can kind of understand how Christianity may seem like bullshit to the kid, but it still isn't good that he's rebelling against his father and that the wife isn't siding with the father. This astonished me a little and I kept thinking about it.



Picture not related, I don't think like that, I'm just emulating 4chan by pretending a picture is mandatory.

I don't have children, and I don't practice conventional Christianity, but if I were in a similar situation, and if my hypothetical wife were willing to play along, I would probably force the child to remain silent while my wife and I solemnly said:


Benedic, Domine, nos et haec tua dona quae de tua largitate sumus sumpturi, per Christum Dominum nostrum.


But to punish the child, I would refuse to explain what Latin is. I would also instruct the wife to keep Latin a secret from the child. The child does not have to join in, but the child has to be silent and ostensibly respectful while the grown-ups do their secret grown-up Latin prayers.