I have four kiddos, ages 7 through 2, and we've been on the receiving end of glares and even people going out of their telling us how loud our kids were.
We exiled ourselves to the cry room for a year until my wife and I decided we had enough and that the only way our kids would get better at Mass would be to sit in the main sanctuary with everyone else.
We still have to deal with some meltdowns but to a lesser degree, which gives me hope.
We’ve reaped such grace and benefit from families like y’all who are doing that! It’s so easy to get discouraged with even just one or two kids, but seeing families who bring four or five and work through the challenges and reap the rewards has been such a powerful witness to us.
“ Toddlers are little copycats, imitating everything they see. If we are prayerful and reverent, they will be prayerful and reverent. If we are acting bored, distracted, or irritated, they will model that behavior as well. In other words, we must first pay attention to our own sense of reverence, our own attitude, our own degree of focus and self-offering”
This is exactly what my wife and I discussed when we decided to take our 2-year-old out of the church nursery and into the sanctuary. We decided it would be in our community’s best interest if we took it upon ourselves to teach her out to be in church. And she’s done so well! I believe children will always shine if we just let them.
Someone told me when I was coming into the Church, "A church without crying is a church that is dying". All those shrieks and babbles are the future of the Church. It really shifted my perspective (not that it ever bothered me) and it's music to my ears now. It's an eerie feeling to go into a new parish and there's no children at all making noise. There's no future there.
You hit the nail on the head--if you want to teach them the hard stuff you have to take them to the place where they will learn it. My friends kids were genuflecting at a young age because they saw people doing it and were imitating it. It's like learning language--they have to be immersed in it to understand it.
There's a lot of people who focus on the bad things and bad news in the Church but this kind of stuff gets me fired up for the future. We're going to be alright as long as we have parents willing to endure the temporary struggle and priests willing to address it head-on like Fr. David!
Fr. David is the real MVP.
I have four kiddos, ages 7 through 2, and we've been on the receiving end of glares and even people going out of their telling us how loud our kids were.
We exiled ourselves to the cry room for a year until my wife and I decided we had enough and that the only way our kids would get better at Mass would be to sit in the main sanctuary with everyone else.
We still have to deal with some meltdowns but to a lesser degree, which gives me hope.
We’ve reaped such grace and benefit from families like y’all who are doing that! It’s so easy to get discouraged with even just one or two kids, but seeing families who bring four or five and work through the challenges and reap the rewards has been such a powerful witness to us.
“ Toddlers are little copycats, imitating everything they see. If we are prayerful and reverent, they will be prayerful and reverent. If we are acting bored, distracted, or irritated, they will model that behavior as well. In other words, we must first pay attention to our own sense of reverence, our own attitude, our own degree of focus and self-offering”
This is exactly what my wife and I discussed when we decided to take our 2-year-old out of the church nursery and into the sanctuary. We decided it would be in our community’s best interest if we took it upon ourselves to teach her out to be in church. And she’s done so well! I believe children will always shine if we just let them.
Yes! Absolutely this - I’m so glad that y’all have seen her thriving in church!
LOVE THIS.
Someone told me when I was coming into the Church, "A church without crying is a church that is dying". All those shrieks and babbles are the future of the Church. It really shifted my perspective (not that it ever bothered me) and it's music to my ears now. It's an eerie feeling to go into a new parish and there's no children at all making noise. There's no future there.
You hit the nail on the head--if you want to teach them the hard stuff you have to take them to the place where they will learn it. My friends kids were genuflecting at a young age because they saw people doing it and were imitating it. It's like learning language--they have to be immersed in it to understand it.
There's a lot of people who focus on the bad things and bad news in the Church but this kind of stuff gets me fired up for the future. We're going to be alright as long as we have parents willing to endure the temporary struggle and priests willing to address it head-on like Fr. David!
Yes! Our two year old genuflects and then gives us this big ol’ grin like, “Look mommy I did it too!!” It’s so so sweet.