When Hindu Meets Catholic and the Children That Follow "Only after I became a parent," P. writes, "did my spiritual self matter to anyone but me." Raising children in any interfaith household presents particular challenges. The less religious parents are, the easier it seems, until you're faced with the choice to abandon certain rituals, or watch your children enter territory you don't (and sometimes don't feel welcome to) share. P. was raised in a conservative Hindu family. As she grew older, she held onto the core beliefs of her religion, but neglected the rites and rituals. She writes: Fast-forward a few years and in medical school, I met and married a Catholic. Religion and I have had a rocky relationship since. Initially my husband and I tried to keep our religious leanings intact. We went together to both the temple and the church, and celebrated Hindu and Christian festivals alike. It was easy because we did not follow the rules of our respective religions very closely. We were neither of us a model-Hindu or a model-Christian. We agreed on broader principles enough that our disagreements on the fine print did not matter. Or perhaps, it did. Over the years, we went to our houses of worship less and less till eventually becoming what we termed "festival Christian" and "festival Hindu." I think this happened because neither of us really believed any of the stories to be anything but. Perhaps we were too mundane in our thinking, having spent years immersed in logic and reasoning. Perhaps we were becoming "closet-agnostics." ... We lived in a zone of religious limbo. Religious limbo, not reproductive limbo. Now, P. and her husband would like their children to develop a firm faith in God, "even if they decide to question this later in life." But which kind of faith? For our children, we try repeatedly to pray together at home, but it feels forced. We try discussing our views, but can never find a common ground for child rearing. Should we baptize, should we not? Go to church and temple alternately or choose one place as the primary and visit the other occasionally? Which then should be the primary? My religion because it is the one they'll see practiced more often or their dad's because we live in the U.S.A.? Will they be grounded? Won't they be confused? While still wearing rose-tinted glasses, we had hoped that our children would have the best of both worlds. They would celebrate Diwali, Janmashtami, Easter and Christmas. They would grow up knowing all that we knew, and decide as they grew what path suited them best. The tinted glasses are off. Decisions waiting to be taken loom large in front of us. The weighing scales are tired, weighed down by egos, confusions, practicalities and opinions of parents, grandparents, etcetera. "I can't," concludes P., "see through the fog." It's an amorphous quandary, but a quandary just the same. How do you balance two faiths, two cultures and two histories, and raise children who feel balanced?