I don't know what to do.... :(

Hey all,
I have been reading this forum for quite sometime.. so today finally decided to post my own problem and look at it from others perspective.. please read and tell me your frank opinion\advice objectively.. any questions you have.. i'll be more than happy to answer those..

Little bkgrnd: we are inter-religious/inter-state couple.. with two little kids (1B- 5yrs, 1G-2.5yrs).. we live in UK currently (were in US sometime back).. very happy family of four.. touchwood!! husband is a non-practicing catholic and I am a Hindu.. we both are highly God fearing and neither of us claim that one's religion is better than others. We do lot of charity, but both of us are strictly against donating to any religious institute..
The way we have decided to bring up our kids is - to bring them up as good human beings with very strong values and have a feeling of 'There is God' not 'This is only one God'... I have a small mandir in my home (per my husband's permission..) me n kids do pooja once in a while and go to mandir... this all is there for my own mental peace .. since kids are mostly with me so they also come along.. He is ok with that.. But later in kids life, they want to explore some other religion, we will be ok with that. My husband is one of the most open minded person I have met.. Thank God for him

my family: very supportive/loves my husband irrespective of his religion/ have always been there for us in good\bad times and most importantly never ask\tell me about my religious preferences for myself or kids.. infact they always say that we (DH&I) are the best people to know whats best for kids n us.. so do that.. overall.. absolutely loving n non-interfering.

his family: orthodox catholics.. he has 1 bro n 2 bros-in-law .. and all of them are pastors/priests [I must mention that- they are pastors because they could not find any other jobs, so chose this route of living.. most of their life is spent in attending conferences .. we think, if they really want to do service to God why not go and do some real work.. like helping others etc..].. 1: nice people, but everytime we talk to them they bring up their religion and start preaching us.. which neither of us like. and have told them.. 2: have never supported us in hard times.. only contact us when they need money from us.. 3: treat me like a total outsider even after so many years of marriage, i m ok with that.. 4: badmouthing about us possibly to every relative in this world .. I am cool with that too.. who cares what others think about me as long as my husband loves me.. i dint marry to please this whole word..

current situation: We are not in talking terms with them at all... !! No calls, no mails.. nothing.. but do get\see updates from others or from orkut\ facebook .. MIL swore that she'll never talk to us until we all convert.. which is a strict no for DH & I .. we tried to pacify her couple of times, but then gave up and moved on .. so, yes basically no communication for past one year atleast.. and rest of his family is following mom's decision.. his dad passed away long time back.

My Question: I am ok with the current set up.. frankly, i like it this way.. we have lot of like-minded friends and really enjoy life with them..But life is just not about me.. I am not sure whether the current set up is right for my kids or not .. they love their mom side of family.. and i want them to at least know their dad side of family too.. But I do not know how to go ahead in this chaos.. am all confused..

Last thing I want to hear from those people is - oh she came to us.. our God worked in their life .. her God is ......... and all that etc.... (No offense to anyone in the forum) believe me, they are pretty good at offending me at every opportunity they get .. which DH also senses and strongly disapproves... I think, most of the problems can be resolved if people have open communication.. but in this case, noone really wants to talk to us.. if we try they backfire with the same thing.. ask your wife/kids to get baptized first.. I am not going to do that..

DH doesn't really care.. when i bring up this topic, he feels bad about this situation.. but doesn't spent too much time worrying about this.. he has focused all his energies towards working hard and giving good life to his kids who are his real responsibility.. and advises me also to do the same..

but, me .. still think about it once in a while n worry


dear friends, your thoughts are welcome..

thank you,
Garima

 

Hey All,
Thank you for responding to my post.

You all are right, I should probably stop worrying about this and focus on good things I have in my life.

Its just that I grew up in a close knit huge joint family.. with about 50 first cousins from both sides .. so, sometimes wonder, because of me, my kids should not be deprived of the fun I had as a kid..

But, I guess, that's the path we chose.. so kahin tau compromise hoga hi ..

But writing to this forum really helped me.. sometimes putting thoughts on paper really helps and then hearing others opinions clears up things better than just keeping it in mind.. as DH said and you all agreed with him.. enjoy the moment, and let other things unfold with time ..

Thank you so much,
love you all,
Garima!