# Religious Dopers: When Do You Let Your Kids Opt Out **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-dopers-when-do-you-let-your-kids-opt-out/837624 "2019-07-25T17:44:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-dopers-when-do-you-let-your-kids-opt-out/837624/101 "2019-08-03T03:27:32Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > (For context on the prayer thing, in my personal experience all vocal prayers tend to automatically include all listeners as well. That bothered me, and I expressed the desire not to be in the room at the time. My mom responded by _refusing to let me leave the room when a prayer happened_. Her intent was to force me to pray by proxy, whether I wanted to or not. In response I stopped going to her house or any similar function until she relented, which took her about eight months if I recall correctly. I am now allowed to leave a room before the occupants of said room are led in prayer.) Well believe it or not I’m not really into oral prayers either. It always seemed more of a speech than a real prayer. When I do do them I make them quick. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-dopers-when-do-you-let-your-kids-opt-out/837624/102 "2019-08-03T04:55:56Z")
I voted “When they’re 18 and out my damn house”, because my (and my wife’s) expectation is that they’ll attend church as long as they live at home, but I could see circumstances arising that alter that expectation, so it’s not set in stone or anything. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-dopers-when-do-you-let-your-kids-opt-out/837624/103 "2019-08-03T19:03:40Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Some denominations make a big thing about Confirmation, which includes a Profession of Faith. A kid is supposed to be able to make that of their own free will. This usually takes place somewhere around age 12-14. All three of my kids went through their Confirmation and promptly quit going to church. One of them actually said, “Hey, I’m an adult in the church. I get to choose whether I go or not.” That was me. The thing is that after getting confirmed and stop going to church, my parents didn’t really mind, or at least they didn’t outwardly express any dismay. It seemed to me it was more of a matter of “I’m the parent and it is/was my responsibility to expose you to religion and attend church up to age X, but once you’ve reached that age, I’ve officially done my job and am relieved of said responsibility”. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-dopers-when-do-you-let-your-kids-opt-out/837624/104 "2019-08-03T20:52:34Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > We’ve had a number of kids who weren’t really into most of service (they’d read books or manga during it), but would enjoy hanging out with everyone afterwards during fellowship time. When they get to adult age, they can make a decision to not participate in family time. Wow I can’t imagine what would have happened had I taken a book, or worse a comic, and taken it out to read during a portion of the service. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-dopers-when-do-you-let-your-kids-opt-out/837624/105 "2019-08-03T21:12:04Z")
About 10 years ago, I decided to check out a new church in my town (it turned out to be way too fundie for me) and all the teenage girls were sitting in the same pew, texting and giggling during the sermon. My initial thought was, “how rude!” but then I remembered being that age, and we used the bulletin as notepaper because that was long before texting was invented. Plus ca change… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-dopers-when-do-you-let-your-kids-opt-out/837624.md?page=5)