absolutely everyone has the right th their belief, even the non believers
I don't expect kids to be quiet exactly, but I guess I wish parents would stress that everyone has different ideas about it, that's fine... My kids believe...I guess I wish other kids would just say "I don't believe" and not things like "Santa is your parents." Just like I don't argue with religious people...
Butter told some friends last year that God was boring and they should go back to worshiping the Greek gods, who are more interesting...I DID tell her to not say things like that because I actually thought it was a little disrespectful/dismissive of her friend's beliefs...initially they were just curious why she didn't go to church with them...but I was worried that if their religious belief is literal (as mine was at that age) they would be anxious about not seeing her in heaven when they die...it caused quite the stir in the classroom...
Also, she has never had a fear of the magical scary type things. Now she believes vampires are real, but Frankenstein is a made up story...either way, she's not afraid...I agree, if there is fear involved and your child is more of the kind, I guess some want to say logical...I want to say concrete, but I think that implies a lack of imagination, which I agree, is NOT a prerequisite to creativity or imagination...maybe literal is the word?
I can't go back and see who had the bipolar sister...obviously that is completely dysfunctional and I would say not representative of my child's perceptions. That's really sad actually and I wonder if your mom might have had undiagnosed mental illness as well. There are still people who seek exorcisms for things like epilepsy...
