Re: Love match - What’s the best way of breaking it to the parents?
Except for Judaism, where traditionaly, the mother MUST be Jewish in order for the child to be considered of the faith…there are some variances of course (converts, father is practicing etc…), but for the most part "According to the Mishnah, the oldest codified normative definition used by Jews for self-identification, a person is matrilineally a Jew by birth, or becomes one through conversion to Judaism…
OP…I’m not going interject anymore religious doctrinehere, because obviously you are an educated adult, and are capable of making decisions in your own best interest…I will, however, caution you that “the grass is not always greener on the other side”…it’s very easy to neatly plan out what course your marriage will take when it comes to child rearing, holidays etc, however, it doesn’t always work out that way…for instance, I am first generation born and raised here in the US (may parents came in the early '70’s), we are a moderate thinking, practicing Muslim family, however, in the “early days” as we like to call them, my parents and their limited circle of friends from back home never really distinguished between eating *zabiha *meat only, we all grew up eating McDonalds, going out for steaks, Chic Fil A, etc…now my husband came to the US at age 17 in 1990…he has never eaten any chicken, beef etc out that was not zabiha, and is very strict on the matter. Ours was a “love marriage”, so I made the decision to stop eating non-zabiha meat, as I knew he wanted to raise the kids in that matter and it would only confuse them…fast forward 13 years, I know work full time, run my own business, have 3 kids under the age of 8 and sometimes, it’s just easier to go through the drive thru and get them some damn chicken nuggets instead of having to cook at home virtually every single day…I don’t see harm in it occasionaly,for convenience sake, however my husband is standing firm, so now it’s starting to create some tension…my 8 yr old cries when he sees his cousins eating KFC or a cheeseburger, and he can’t have it, and when I try to explain to him zabiha vs non zabiha, he says “well they are Muslim too…”
So,my point is, even staying within the faith, there are sooo many different schools of though, it’s tough to make those compromises…by going into the Hindu/Muslim territory, that’s a whole different can or worms…what seems practical and easy now, may not be 10 years down the road…you may not mind hearing the Gayatri Mantra now, but what happens in the future when Ramadan & Ganesh Chaturthi fall in the same time again…are you going to be able to handle bhajans while you’re praying Fajr??? I’m not judging you by any means, or trying to make you feel guilty by any means, but you have to think from you head, not from your heart…
Good luck, I wish you well in whatever you decide…