Atheist parents!

Originally Posted by Phoenix X

I would rather have kids that enjoy talking to me and trust me enough to come to me with any problems they might need help with.

The problem with what you intend is how you seem to plan on going about it.
Children go to authority figures when they need help. This is a fact. None of this "I just want to be my kid's friend." Its pretty much impossible to achieve, and its that sort of bullshit which puts kids in the juvie. If you want to be a parent, then you have to act like a parent. Parents, by definition, are authority figures. When you attempt to undermine this basic aspect of your family, the child will latch onto other authority figures to fill this gap. And you certainly have no control over who this might be. The kid is then victim to circumstance.

If you expect for them to trust and confide in you, and for that matter even care what you say, you must establish yourself as an authority figure. Fear is a necessary part of establishing this.

Fear has a perfectly legitimate function in humans, and to write it all off as inherently bad is pretty much the worst start to a parenting philosophy this side of Dr. Spock.



Getting topical again: I don't think I'm going to have kids. I would probably fuck them up too much by never arguing consistently from any viewpoint; one day I'll be arguing from some buddhist point of view, and another day I'll be explaining things from a nihilist point of view.

Jam it back in, in the dark.