I Can't Really Tell Anyone, but I Am SO Proud of Myself

So my child attends a public university run preschool program. The director e-mailed us and let us know that they would have songs for their winter program featuring Christmas themes and Santa themes. I replied back after a few hours of contemplation that I would like an example or two of what the Christmas themed songs entailed. She did not give me an example but just explained Christmas themes which can be very broad but also pretty narrow. I didn't respond, but took a minute to reach out to my brother about my unease as well as a very close family friend.After some consideration (about a week to see if this still bothered me), I talked to the preschool teacher about my unease with Christmas themes being present at publicly funded center. I explained that we are practicing Christians (we are), but we also adhere and believe in the separation of school and state. I also explained the importance for us to be good neighbors to our other brothers and sisters of differing belief systems and that we as a family feel the importance of being inclusive and diverse. It was clear that there would not be any other holiday celebrations discussed/taught, so I was uncomfortable with my child not being a good neighbor to those who may not have the same belief systems and we did not want to make anyone feel estranged or not included by participating in singing Christmas songs. We can celebrate Christmas themes at our church celebration. I wasn't heavy-handed or condescending and I hope I came off as caring because those two individuals I reached out to are atheist and agnostic. My brother really shared his uncomfortable-ness being forced to do things in school or church that he did not believe in. He also said he hated being the difficult one or feeling like a brat by complaining about these things and that made him resent those individuals forcing him to participate greatly (and by some extension to Christian faith).The teacher was very accommodating and said that they were singing about Winter themes so that would not be a problem at all and she was super nice about my unease regarding the conversation. I can't really share this with others because I don't know if they'll understand it or not, but I just want to say I'm happy I stuck up for my viewpoint. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2PudUfr