One of the issues with being a skeptic who happens to have reproduced is that you wind up with a kid who asks a lot of questions. Of course, every kid asks a lot of questions, but when you’re a skeptic you tend to have more of a dilemma about it. If I were a fanatic of ghost shows, and my daughter asked me what happens to you after you die, I’d have an easy answer for her.
As a skeptic, the answer I give her is a little more nuanced.
It helps to know other critically thinking parents out there. That’s why I’m so happy to see two new blogs out there for folks who have, want to, or may some day reproduce (and others who are just curious about it).
The first is Rational Moms, a group of skeptics of the XX type. Started by two women in LA (one of whom I’ve met at Amaz!ng Meetings past) who were getting a little tired of woo promulgated by new parents. There’s lots of great advice they deliver (haha! Get it? Deliver!).
The second is not so much a blog as it is a blog carnival: Skeptical Parent Crossing. Carnivals are collections of blog posts on a given topic, and this one was started by – unsurprisingly – Domestic Father (I had originally said The Skeptic Dad, but have since been corrected).
I sure remember all the nonsense Mrs. BA and I were told when The Little Astronomer was a baby. We still hear it too, so I’ll be sending any such purveyors to these two blogs. Give ‘em a read, even if you haven’t spawned. I bet there’ll be interesting stuff there for you anyway.
