Jetlag and the Crying Child...

I'm sitting in the basement of my parent's house in Calgary, seeing if my daughter Megan will eventually succumb to the lure of sleep. At the moment, she's not, and proclaiming rather loudly from my old bedroom as to exactly how displeased she is with her present situation. I suppose it doesn't help that being as far North as Calgary is, sunset isn't until well after 9pm... so it's not dark out so therefore she shouldn't need to go to sleep. It's an anxiety that one has as parents about at what point do we let our children cry it out. She's clearly tired, she needs sleep... and unfortunately, she won't fall asleep if I go in there... but I do worry that she'll scream out a lung if I don't. Jetlag and children don't often get along... putting Megan to bed these past few days has been a real challenge.

There is a common atheist argument that children are born atheist. I disagree. Children are born experiencing their parents in terms of the divine... because they are completely dependent upon their parents for absolutely everything. It's been shown anecdotally that an adult's theological stance is heavily influenced by the experience of one's parents. If your parents are strict, then your view of God will be strict... If your experience of your parents is a distant one, then God will seem distant... I would need to investigate if anyone has done a controlled sociological experiment on this. I've often said that the first theological crisis that a child ever faces when they cry and their parents don't come.

I must admit as a parent, listening to my daughter cry and knowing that if I give in and go in there it will prevent her from getting some much needed sleep. I wonder if that's how God feels sometimes?

Sigh... even after typing this, she still hasn't stopped... Maybe I should go...