Religion was an important topic of conversation between mothers and their children during the pandemic, according to an annual “State of Motherhood” survey from Motherly, a website focused on millennial motherhood.
The report, released earlier this month, showed that some 31% of mothers said they had discussed religious issues with their children last year. This trailed only gender equality (33%) and racism (46%) as the most discussed issue between children and their parents in 2020.
“Every family has different religious beliefs and differing ideas about how to pass those concepts along to their kids,” said Liz Tenety, a co-founder of Motherly.
Some 23% of millennial mothers said they wished there was information available that reflected their “values, religion or spirituality.” The highest topics of interest were balancing family with career (49%) and the stages of life (43%).
“Millennials are in a record number of interfaith marriages, including those with varying religiosity between partners. In a world where faith is often expressed more personally than shared communally, parents have an opportunity to share their unique beliefs and practices with their kids or to evolve the religious beliefs and traditions in which they were raised,” Tenety said.
Data from the report showed that 12% of mothers surveyed said they had discussed Islamophobia or antisemitism or both with their kids. While not a huge share, that percentage represents a greater swath of people than the combined Muslim and Jewish population of the United States, suggesting the issue is of broad concern for mothers.
