“I would NEVER”
Before being blessed by parenthood, I had a mental list of things I would NEVER do as a parent.
I would NEVER put my kids in the basket part of the shopping cart. The label on the seats CLEARLY say not to do such things. But with three kids under the age of 4, one of which is faster than the speed of light, and shopping carts that usually only hold one child (expect at SAMS and some supermarkets), I have relaxed my stance on this one.
I would NEVER send my kids to the nursery during Mass. We’re the parents. They’re the kids. Shouldn’t we be able to control our children for 2 hours for Mass? Any good Catholic parent should be able to get their children to sit during Mass–or at least be quiet, right? Well, after recently being outnumbered, and realizing that someone’s screaming can be heard by the people in the front of the church when we’re in the cry room some 40 pews back, AND being blessed with a husband that was serving as an acolyte this morning, we tried out the nursery. And you know what? It wasn’t so bad. I only had to “shh” one child and I actually heard the readings AND the homily!
Bless your heart Adam and Sharon. I know what you’re going through especially in church. There are a few stories I could tell you about our five childrens church behaviour but what the heck; as long as we didn’t run out of cherrios or fruit loops we were in good shape. All in all though they weren’t to bad and I bet those three little angels you have aren’t to bad either. Did you hear about the little boy who was so onery in church and finally his dad and mom had had enough. Daddy picked the boy up and as daddy was making a fast pace towards the rear door of the church, the little boy could be heard saying “PRAY FOR ME, PARY FOR ME”.
Love you all
Grandpa G.
P.S. Bet I know which one of the three angels who is faster than light.
Both of my babies have a knack for “talking” really loudly during the quiet parts of the Mass. Alex used to love to say “yeah!” after the singing was over which everyone laughed about, but the other day Sammie (who is now one) babbled something loudly during a quiet moment, which wasn’t well received. We love the nursery at our school, and if Sammie doesn’t come, the director asks “where’s my baby?”-they love to play with her. I really do wish we had a cry room. It would be so nice-we call the Narthex the “children’s waiting room”. What makes it really tough is that we have a full size baptismal font that they all want to climb in to. Maybe during the next Capital Campaign, we’ll get a cry room.
I think all moms with more than two kids have had a breach in their “I Will Never ____” lists. Before we had Gabriel, I was somewhat annoyed with babies making noise in Mass. I would NEVER allow my child to even semi-disrupt Mass. I would NEVER bring toys to Mass for my kids. I would definitely NEVER bring snacks. I would ALWAYS make my kids go to the bathroom BEFORE Mass. Don’t you know it’s rude to walk out of Mass?
So fast forward five years… We have some pretty noisy moments in church. If it’s not too bad, I just pray for the people who are bothered by them! We usually have at least a small snack for the kids since we go to such an early Mass. Sometimes we leave crumbs. We bring toys and/or books to keep the kids quiet, but one time a nice lady got kaboshed in the back of the head with a squeeky crinkly butterfly. And Gabriel regularly says “I don’t need to go to the bathroom,” until just before Communion. Then he does the pee pee dance until we take him. Ahhh, kids. They make you do things you never thought you’d do. But love does tend to stretch our hearts and our wills!