NOM

My ward is pretty great sometimes. For the past couple years we have received a text from the primary president asking if we are still ok/interested in teaching primary for the next year. It almost feels like I am truly volunteering.

Recently DW and I got the text. I am ready to be done with primary, but it is hard to say no to something where I get to teach my son with DW. It makes me the one pulling out of a family activity because of my beliefs, which is not a position I want to be taking. But babysitting for an hour a week sucks, especially when I am expected to indoctrinate the kids while doing it. So I mentioned to DW that I don't want to reduce my time with the kids, but I also don't want to teach anymore. I suggested that perhaps we could start doing "Come Along with Me" lessons at home for the 2nd hour a couple times a month; we would sing songs together, have snacks, and learn about stuff the kids are interested on the internet.

Yesterday we had the primary program for sacrament meeting, and for the second hour they had a teacher improvement class planned and the kids were going to spend the whole hour singing. Teacher improvement class as an unbeliever is awful, so I noped out of there. And since the kids had just been singing I told DW I wanted to take the kids home for some "Come Along with Me" time. I suggested she should come with us, but she got defensive and pointed out that she can go to class if she wants to, so I quickly agreed and headed home with the kids.

The kids and I had gotten situated to start our lesson by watching an episode of Adventure Time when there was a knock on the door and DW standing outside! She said there were only a couple people in the teacher lesson and she wasn't interested in that, so she came home. I don't want to get too excited, but this feels like a big deal. I'm glad she is willing to push back against me when I push her to do something she doesn't want, especially if it means she will also push back against church expectations. And she didn't freak out when I enabled both kids to skip primary. Maybe I won't be teaching primary next year.

Progress is great right?! Congrats! Hopefully things will continue to go your way.

Sounds like great news to me - you need to recognize the small/big victories especially when the setbacks are usually so much more impactful to us.

Hopefully that leads to some more positive changes down the road.

Definitely progress! And I’m a big fan of the “live and let live” approach. I’m working on my DH giving me some of that

That sounds like a great Sunday afternoon! And yay for progress!

DW and I worked out how "Come Along with Me" will work next year, so I will be done teaching primary at the end of this year, and getting my kids out of primary some too!

I will bring the kids home with me for the second hour for one Sunday a month and we will do a little family lesson about stuff me and the kids are interested in. DW is invited to that lesson too, but she gets to decide if she would prefer to stay at church. I would have preferred every other week, but she said she didn't think she could sign off on more than once per month. We can revisit it next year if needed.

I texted the primary president and it's all squared away! The very, very, very, very slow fade continues.

Linked wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2019 4:28 pm ....we will do a little family lesson about stuff me and the kids are interested in. DW is invited to that lesson too, but she gets to decide if she would prefer to stay at church.

I don't know what your current feelings are regarding God and Christ but if you include the Savior and plenty of Christian teachings in your lessons, especially when your wife is there, you'll be surprised at her desire to support you and her defense of your character when others imply you're not fulfilling your responsibilities.