Emmy,
I noticed you indicated that children who have made their First Holy Communion are eligible to be altar servers. Yikes! Here that means they could be as young as 7. WAAAAYYYY too young in my book! They are fidgety and easily distracted at that age. I believe children in my parish have to be 5th grade and above to serve.
We have way too many young girls serving in our parish. Here’s another case in point for slightly older boys only serving at the altar. At the gospel reading our servers hold candles on either side of the priest or deacon as he reads. Now, these are elaborate candles in very heavy holders. In the weeks leading up to Easter, it seemed they had the littlest girls holding the candles. They were quite panic-stricken as the gospel reading went on and on. They were not nearly strong enough to hold the candles for the entire reading! I’m not sure I heard much of the Gospel. I was too busy praying for the little girl trying not to drop the candle!
common people! why the hell is such a big issue? My brother and sister are small but they serve well every mass carrying the heavy things.