For Families

TUUC honors the vital role of parents and caregivers in the lives of our community’s children. We embrace a diverse, inclusive understanding of family, celebrating the many forms families take.

We understand that parenting and caregiving come with deeply complex feelings—filled with moments of joy, love, and heartbreak, often all at once. Navigating these emotions is a personal and profound journey. TUUC is here to walk alongside you, offering a compassionate community to support your family’s caregiving team, as well as the children they nurture.

Families are encouraged to bring their whole selves into the community, contributing their unique perspectives, experiences, and talents to the collective life of the congregation. See our page on Children in Worship for more information about how TUUC welcomes the movements, sounds, and contributions of children to Worship Services.

Our programs for parents and caregivers are always open to anyone who plays a meaningful role in a child’s life. This includes parents of all variations, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, niblings, titis, cousins, friends, and more. In our UU faith, every family is sacred, and every caregiver’s role is integral to our thriving community.

Parents and Caregivers as Religious Educators

Parents and caregivers play a powerful role in shaping the spiritual and moral development of the children in their lives, often through everyday actions that may go unnoticed. Parents are a child’s first teachers, and kids learn best when parents model their values and foster their own spiritual growth.

Consider creating an intentional “curriculum” at home, incorporating rituals and celebrations that honor UU traditions, such as chalice lightings, meditations, or acts of service.

Support and Community for Families

We offer opportunities for families to connect, share their experiences, and support one another, empowering families in their spiritual journeys. Through multigenerational services, celebrations of life’s milestones, family-friendly social events, and small group programming designed specifically for parents, our congregation is committed to walking with families.

Continued Reading for Families

  • Family Pages in UU World
    Four times a year, the pull-out section of UU World magazine presents a timely theme in stories and activities, often drawn from Tapestry of Faith curricula. The Family pages offer inspiration, motivation, and hands-on activities for parents and caregivers to share with children and seekers of all ages to explore.

  • The Gift of Faith: Tending the Spiritual Lives of Children, by Jeanne Harrison Nieuwejaar, shows how a religious community profoundly serves a child’s natural need for spiritual growth and religious grounding. It explores the crucial role of parents as their children's primary religious educators in an accessible, inspiring book.

  • 100 Diverse Voices On Parenthood: Ideas, advice, and anecdotes for new parents by Jelani Memory

    This book cannot tell you how to raise your baby, because no one can tell you how to do that. This book is meant to be a supplemental guide to your own inner voice, your gut, and the relationship you build with your baby as they grow. It's meant to be a reminder that the parenting community is huge, and no matter what those parents look like or where they come from, we all share a united goal: to raise happy, thriving humans.

  • To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings by John O'Donohue

    To Bless the Space Between Us is a compelling blend of elegant, poetic language and spiritual insight to offer readers comfort and encouragement on their journeys through life. John O’ Donohue, Irish teacher and poet, looks at life’s thresholds—getting married, having children, starting a new job—and offers invaluable guidelines for making the transition from a known, familiar world into a new, unmapped territory.

Questions?

Contact Kara Tyler, Director of Religious Education

Phone: 410-825-6045 ext. 4

Email: tuucdre@towsonuuc.org