My oldest brought up an interesting happening at dinner the other day. During his class’s birthday snack, one of the other students had to say no thanks to the treats. The big guy explained that celebrating birthdays was against the student’s religion (*).

“I wonder why that was,” he said.

My wife explained that different religions have different traditions, and that there’s nothing wrong with not celebrating birthdays.

“But he’ll get to decide when he’s older, right?” my son asked.

“Yep,” I said. “Just like you guys.”

He laughed. “Oh no. I don’t want to change. I like parties.”

“Hmm,” his little brother said, considering. Then he nodded seriously. “I think we can stick with it.”

* Writer’s note: I want to take a moment to say that this situation was handled perfectly by the teacher. There was no drama or big deal made of the child’s religion. In fact, I think the only reason my son knew about it was because he’s friend with that child.]