Jedi Parenting

So I am curious as to the communities views on being a Jedi parent. Do you encourage Jedi like thought in your younglings? Do you let them figure it out on their own? Does the Jedi path color your parenting style? If so how? I dont think there are any right answers, I am just curious as to what peoples opinions are and if there is an consensus to be found.

No. I do not teach "The way of Jediism/Jedi Path" to my children. I teach them good manners and morals and will let them figure out what religion/path they want to follow on their own.

I explain what I believe to my kids, and some of the things other people believe. And then I ask them what they believe.

For me, religion is an entirely personal thing... and my children are people, too.

Does it colour my parenting style? Absolutely! I am a more calm, focused, sensitive, compassionate, loving and attentive person because of my path as a Jedi. I am more mindful of what I do, who I become, how I conduct myself. And I am more confident and at peace within myself.

Jedi parenting, it's just parenting. We all give our best to it. My Jedi path has opened the door to the best of me.

Since I have joined, my parenting style has changed dramatically. I was once the overbearing, authoritarian alpha male parent. The lessons I have learned here opened my eyes to seeing the world from other perspectives, even that of a seven year old.

I would like to believe that the changes my life went through will encourage them to do the same.

Time will tell.

I plan on teaching my son the 7 Army Values plus Objectivity.

Loyalty
Duty
Respect
Selfless Service
Honor
Integrity
Personal Courage

I want him exposed to different belief systems so that he can find his own answer though. Forcing him to be my religion (Christian) or walking the same path I do (Jedi) is not the right way to instill sincerity of belief in the things he does. To me, you can only live by a system if you have sincerity of it in your heart. And unless you reach that understanding on your own, it's merely something you do and you hope you gain the sincerity later.

Side story before I get to the main point:

I was raised in a devout Christian family for a large portion of my life. It wasn't until after I enlisted in the military when I began to grow skeptical of my family's religiosity and sought the answers to philosophical questions outside of the faith. There was a small part of my teenage life where I questioned the existence of a higher power, but I came out to my parents at a time where I was not ready to fully accept being different. As an adult, they still have their doubts of my choices concerning religion and often make it a subject of taboo when I am around. It literally gets to the point where they feel uncomfortable talking about their volunteerism at the church and the conversation begins to teeter off when I begin to chime in: even though I mention I love how active they are and openly support their right to their beliefs. They feel as if it is offensive for me to hear it. (Like I will literally catch on fire at the sound of the word church.)

Now the point I was going to make:

When I stepped into the role of a parent (and might I add, I wanted to start at a younger age insomuch that I retained some of my vitality in my children's adolescence) I was just exploring my position as an atheist. Looking back, I saw myself as a bit of an antagonist and sought to ruffle the feather to people whose views differed from mine by wearing standoffish clothes that displayed my viewpoints. The biggest reality check for me was when my oldest daughter (who is now six) told me that she wanted to go to church with my parents. At first, I immediately thought to myself, "Well, crap! No...She is too young to make such a large decision like that and it is my job as her parent to shield her from that contagious dogma." It took me several weeks to come to that "Aha!" moment and realize that I was kind of being a jerk to her. I forgot that she is growing up and I failed to support her in that decision. Religion wasn't ever the forefront of conversation within our household. My wife is an open Christian and we decided early in our marriage that we would avoid teaching our children about religion until there were old enough to understand it's principles.

And there's me...standing in the way of my own fear of isolation and disallowing her to pursue what she felt was right. She built up the confidence to ask me about something in which she found interesting and I shot it down. Ever since that moment, I have made a conscious effort to allow my children to identify with who they are and focus our parenting on skills in which I would only hope they would mirror (of course, I would hope they would scrutinize my wife and I's failures and do what works for them). I want my children to grow up with a sense of empowerment. Once they get a little older, I know they will begin to ask questions about their spiritual needs and their sense of religious belonging. I hope that they look to my wife and I as guides who will assist them as they find out who they are, and not totally rely on us to answer that question for them.

TL;DR: I was an atheist who didn't allow my child to explore religion. I had a revelation and now I focus on letting them make more life choices about who they are and who they want to be.