Advice on how to Raise our Child in a Cross Culture family? Advice?

I am American Born and come from a HUGE Italian American family.


The majority are Catholic.( I was adopted German child but still honor my family's heritage) But I am still your Typical American female.


My husband is an Only child of a Russian family. Him and his mother were born and raised in Russia. His father was a ';Sperm Donor'; is what his mother calls him.


My husband was born into an Agnostic/Communist very very Liberal family.


I of course was a Deacons Daughters, attended Christian school and was a devote Christian and very conservative.


My husband and I met and we shared the same values together about purity, family and our Roles in a Family....





Here we have trying to start our own family. We want our Son/Daughter to be raised in a Christian home but we also want to keep my Husbands Russian culture in the family. It's important to both of us, that our Children know about both sides of the family.





How can we gracefully enter parenthood without upsetting both of our Families.


In the Christian Religion, the son is to be Circumcised but in the Russian culture, men are to be kept ';whole';.





Most of the Drama will come from Naming our Child, to Baptizing our child,Circumcising our child. Some of these like Naming our Son is Very sacred to the Russian people, but really not as Life altering to my family.


But Baptizing and Circumcising is.





My husband and I both agree that it's our Choice but we also are held to the beliefs that we have grown up with.


Advice on how to handle this?Advice on how to Raise our Child in a Cross Culture family? Advice?
I can help you with the circumcision dilemma- circumcision is NOT a Christian requirement, and most Catholics in the world are actually not circumcised. It clearly states in the New Testament that circumcision is of no value to Christians. More info-


http://catholicsagainstcircumcision.org/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcisio鈥?/a>





I suppose I would say just take every issue one at a time. Do research into the background of both cultures customs in each area, and then decide which one should take precedence for that milestone. Where you can, it may help to honor both cultures. You'll have to compromise, but i think you'll be richer for it. :) -NebAdvice on how to Raise our Child in a Cross Culture family? Advice?
Do what you both agree to. To hell with other's opinions. Who's going to check your baby's penis, anyway?
You yourself said it, that the choice belongs to you and your husband. A third choice is this - allow the son to make his own choice when he is old enough. Who says that a baby has to be baptized/circumsized? Keep in mind though that circumcision may be more painful as the child is older but he will be able to make his own decision about the procedure.





As far as family, nicely tell them to butt out. As a courtesy, you may wish to tell them ';This is what we have decided to do...';





It's obvious that you are not too held to your individual beliefs else you probably wouldn't have gotten married :)
Personally I think you should do what the two of you think is best for your children. It is very easy to raise your children in mixed religion family, that is if you make sure to let your child see plenty of both sides of it! I'm christian, my husband is muslim. Our child goes to church and to mosque! We celebrate both the christian holidays as well as the muslim holidays. Far as baptizing and circumcising, if you and your husband are ok with doing it, then do it. The rest of the family doesn't necessarily have to know about the child's private area! That is normally done in the hospital and is healed up very quickly.....But you can name him a Russian name, since that doesn't really matter to your family. Just keep everything a happy medium and both sides will be fine. All that really matters is what the two of you think should be done with your child. Any new couple, regardless of different religion/culture in the family, has tough decisions to make since we are all raised differently from one another......we just have to blend together as one and do what we think is best. Good luck! I'm sure everything will work out just fine. (and just one last thing, some things are best not told........)
I think the key here is to choose your battles wisely and to understand that ultimately this marriage is only going to work with lots and lots of compromising...both at your end and at his end. Dont do something because either side of your family wants you to do a certain thing...select that action because it is ultimately important to you and your partner. You are in charge of the decision making, not your individual familes. They can guide you, they can tell you what is important to them, they can persuade you, but in the end the decisions must be yours. Decide which of these actions is more important to which side of the family...for example, if the naming of the child is sacred to russian people as opposed to being only really important to your family, then obviously you must respect the russian side of the family on this one and perhaps there will be some other ceremony that is much more important to your side of the family. In some cases it may even be possible to mix two ceremonies and form a unique ceremony of your own that incorporates bits and pieces of the heritage from both sides of the family.





Decide what is important to you as a couple and go with that.
It's your family and when you're blending religions, it's important that you and your husband are united on how to raise your children. Inform both sides of the family how you plan on raising your children and stick with it. You shouldn't have to give up your lifelong beliefs, and you seem to have found a good way to incorporate both of your religions into your new family. As long as you guys agree and stand together on this issue and are united, nobody can interfere. Name your children after both sides of the family-pick a unique first name and select two middle names, one for each side of the family. Circumcision is important for a child for sanitary reasons as well as religious reasons, so circumcise the boys and maybe baptize them into both churches (if that's possible). Or baptize them into one church and hold a religious ceremony for the other church. Attend each church each month-2 Sundays at one church and 2 at the other. Your families must understand how important each of your heritages are to you and that this is a good compromise. Whatever happens, stay united with your husband.