Attending earlier Mass -- What does your family do?

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Maria3m

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My family will be attending an earlier Mass starting tomorrow so our children can make it to faith formation classes afterwards.

To be honest, I’ve been attending Mass without DH and my younger two…just me and my 10yo son.

Tomorrow, everyone will be attending, and I’m nervous about getting out the house on time.

What does your family do to make it a smooth morning?
Just doing my daughter’s hair will take 20 minutes and most of that is a battle. I’m thinking of braiding it tonight so it will be easier to comb out in the morning.
We also have to eat before going. Cold cereal won’t cut it for my DH who is diabetic.

Can I cook bacon tonight until it’s almost done, then heat it in the a.m. ?

Any advice on what other families do you be wonderful!
 
Since no one replied to your thead yet I thougth I’d throw in my two cents. Oatmeal is quick and a good alternative for diabetic people. Fry an egg and make some toast with a glass of o.j. and you’ve got a nice breakfast. I wouldn’t cook bacon until it’s almost done. You can always microwave it (personally I don’t like the taste, but it’s ok if you’re rushed).

To make it smooth everything should be set out and ready to put on in the morning. Everybody should be up at least two hours before you need to leave to get to mass on time. There is a one hour required fast so don’t forget about that.

Congratulations on getting everybody going to mass and I hope it goes smoothly for you all!
 
Maria3m said:
What does your family do to make it a smooth morning?
Just doing my daughter’s hair will take 20 minutes and most of that is a battle. I’m thinking of braiding it tonight so it will be easier to comb out in the morning.
We also have to eat before going. Cold cereal won’t cut it for my DH who is diabetic.
Can I cook bacon tonight until it’s almost done, then heat it in the a.m. ?
Any advice on what other families do you be wonderful!
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I love going to 8am mass!
But it does take a bit more planning ahead.
Everyone bathed the night before.
Younger ones are dressed for Mass at bedtime. Older ones have clothes that look more crumpled easier, so they have theirs set out to get on first thing.
Don’t know what the deal is with the hair? Maybe just using a better detangler would help or just doing a simpler hair style? Otherwise, I’d braid it.
**We only have a little something for breakfast. Cup of milk and a breakfast bar or a couple biscuts. When splurging we do biscuts w/**those packages of precooked microwaveable bacon that great and quick. Then after Mass we come home and have a bigger brunch.
**Do not do the oatmeal with little ones - you’ll spend double the time cleaning them up before you go. 😛 **
 
I totally agree with doing as much prep the night before as possible. Choose and set out ALL the clothes - from underwear to jewelry and hair ties - the night before. Set the table for breakfast, and portion out food servings the night before as well (keep them in the fridge if they’re perishable, of course).

Get the older kids to help you, and make a game out of it. Time how long it takes you all from the time you get up to the time you get in the car. See if you can shorten the time a little each week. Maybe even plan a family reward (a picnic lunch at their favorite park?) if you get your time below 90 minutes. Ask the kids if they have any suggestions for making things go more smoothly. Kids always cooperate with better if they have a “buy-in” to the plan.

I’m a single mom of just one, but I know how those Sunday mornings can go! Blessings to you all.

Gertie
 
I’m the only one in my house who attends Mass and it’s a struggle to get myself out of the house some mornings! Some things that have helped me:
  1. Lay out your entire outfit the night before, that’s when to make sure that all buttons are on, all wrinkles are ironed out, you can find both shoes in a pair, etc.
  2. I don’t know if your parish has envelopes for your weekly monetary offering, but mine has them. If I don’t write the check and stick the envelope in my purse the night before, I’ll never remember it in time on Sunday morning.
  3. For quick eats, not much beats a slice of whole-grain toast with natural (no sugar added) peanut butter instead of butter or jam. If you’re feeling really fancy, you can top it with a sliced banana or some raisins. I’m hypoglycemic so cold cereal is also out for me, unless I want a sugar crash in two hours, but the PB toast always works.
  4. I’m not a mom, but…braid your daughter’s hair. You will have enough to worry about without “Mom, don’t brush so hard! Mom, it hurts!” Plus if it’s braided overnight, it will have pretty waves in the morning (this was a very big deal to me when I was little).
 
Everyone’s had great advice, and I agree with all of it. I only want to add this: it will probably be hard for a while, but keep at it. Eventually you’ll realize that everyone has settled into the routine and it has gotten much easier.

We go to a later mass, (11:00), but years ago when our attendance was sort of hit-and-miss, we had an awful time getting ready. We’d mess around in the mornings until we were rushing like lunatics to get out the door, and by that time we were all so cross that no one was even speaking to each other!😃

Later as we matured in our faith and began to attend mass every week, eventually we no longer had to argue with the kids about “why do we have to go???” because they already knew we were going. And we gradually fell into the habit of starting to get dressed and ready earlier. These days it’s as natural as anything for us to be there on time.

I know you’re saying “yeah but you’re talking about 11:00- anyone could do that!” Well we couldn’t, at least not well, for a long time. If we switched to early mass (ours is 7:30) it’d be hard for a while but I think that we could swing it once we got into routine.

Congratulations for getting the whole family involved in mass!!! I’m rooting for you. You’ll do fine.
 
p.s. re: breakfast- with an early mass, I’d personally just skip it until we got home!
 
just one more thing - make sure everybody gets to bed at a decent time the night before so they get up easier on Sunday morning.

We’re trying out going to 8 a.m. Mass instead of 10:15, so we’re still in the trial and error stage --some good advice people have given on the post!
 
Our church has 7:30, 9:00, and 11:00 mass. 9:00 always sounded good to us, but we can’t seem to give up the things we enjoy about the 11:00 time. We know more people there, and we are used to the music ministry at that time, etc. I’m sure we’d get to enjoy and know people at any mass if we did it for awhile but we really like the 11:00.

And it is nice to “sleep in” !!!
 
3boyzmom said:
Our church has 7:30, 9:00, and 11:00 mass. 9:00 always sounded good to us, but we can’t seem to give up the things we enjoy about the 11:00 time. We know more people there, and we are used to the music ministry at that time, etc. I’m sure we’d get to enjoy and know people at any mass if we did it for awhile but we really like the 11:00.

And it is nice to “sleep in” !!!
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Mmm…it’s especially nice to get that little bit of extra sleep in the winter. I’m all about getting up and attending 8:30 am Mass during the summer, when the sun’s been up for two hours and it’s nice and warm. But I always have a hard time getting up at 7am when it’s still dark out and chilly. Plus my parish has a fabulous choir that serves at the 10:30 Mass from late Sept. to early June, which is all the more reason to go to that Mass.
 
Well, we always went to 11:00 or later mass, until we moved here. Now the ONLY mass is at 8:30. So we skip breakfast until we get home–except for me, because I’m pregnant and get sick if I don’t eat. So you could do that–just let hubby eat an egg, or some other protein food to make it through until you all eat after mass (it’s only an hour, but I still have to have a little something, kids don’t–they’ll live). Also I agree with the lay everything out the night before idea. And as for hair–ponytail. Period. 20 minutes is insane. Wouldn’t happen here. My DD just gets a comb thru and if she’s lucky a ponytail. She can be extra pretty some other time, not on Sunday morning!
 
We just set our alarm…
I get up 2 hours before we have to leave… shower, dress, eat… THEN get the kids up and going at least an hour before we have to leave… plenty of time!

We’re used to getting up and going out of the house at 8am every day of the week… so I guess it’s just routine…

The 9am Mass is a nice break… we get to sleep an extra HOUR! 😃
 
It could have went smoother, but we made it on time. 😎

I knew what everyone would wear, but didn’t have it out, so when the time came to put on shirts… I spent my time ironing. :rolleyes: Next time, I will put everything out & I’ll get ready first.

My dd gave us the hardest time. She refused to go. Kicking and screaming for me to allow her to wear sweat pants or old faded jeans…that are too small. She stayed in her closet refusing to go.:confused: DH grabbed her and put on her clothes on her. So, we did end up upset heading there. She cried (quietly) throughout mass …needing to go to the bathroom 2x even though I took her at church before mass began…hungry, even though she ate before we left and our church serves a breakfast buffet after mass. I realize it’s because I’ve always just left her with DH when she wasn’t ready or I was in a hurry to get to mass. She isn’t used to going & let me know it. I literally had sweat rolling off me during mass. She’s old enough (6yo) to know better. She just wanted to see if I’d take her out of mass. NOPE!

It should go smoother next week. We were firm that this is something we are going to do as a family from now on.

Thank you all for your advice. I’ll be using a lot of it from now to help make Sunday mornings a time to look forward to instead of dread.
 
We scramble up a bunch of eggs to keep in the freezer for rushed mornings, works great.
 
By putting my kids in Catholic School, they got faith formation five days a week instead of just one. Then we can choose any Mass during the weekend!
 
I think its wonderful that you were stern with your 6 yr old, keep it up. If we miss even one sunday the next one is hard for everyone to get back into the swing of things because its been 2 weeks. Your 6 yr old is near the age of reason and may test you a lot but its so important that she learn now that she can’t miss mass and just how important it is to them. It may be the old catholic guilt but i remind them often that Jesus suffered and died on the cross for them and one hour isn’t much to give him.

We do eggs over easy. We call them wake up eggs. its gets the kids up in their seats and excited to eat. they get 1/2 a piece of toast and can dip it in the yoke. They seem to fill up with only one egg, whereas if i scramble them i have to do a dozen eggs and it barely feeds 2 adults, 3 kids and a baby.

I also lay out outfits in the living room any time we are waking early. my kids arnt early risers and i hate waking them up. the key for us it to have myself ready and coax my husband to get all ready before waking and getting the kids ready. If you are scrambling to get yourself ready in my case my family walks out the door looking nice i look a mess!

I dont always wake them up until we have maybe 30 minutes till its time to go and then they throw on clothes, brush their own hair and we give them a banana in the car. They also behave better at the earlier mass. 11am is hard on my younger ones.
 
As the second eldest of our seven children I make sure that every body prepares what they will wear to church before retiring or wake up very early to prepare in the moning if the Saturday has been ‘heavy’

I also now need advise, the challenge comes when it is the fourth sunday of the month or another day of obligation when we have to travel to the parish which is 5 km from my home. We do not have adquate means of transport yet my siblings always want to go with us to mass yet we have only a bicycle. The youngest is now 8. How should we manage transportation?:confused:
 
I guess I am kind of confused. :confused: From what I read from your posts I have figured out you have a 10yo and a 6yo. Don’t these kids go to school every day? Not sure about everywhere, but kids here are in school by 8am. Most people who work are at work by 8am (my DH is anyway). It seems like you would just do what you do M-F to get ready. Now if you are a SAHM then I guess you don’t have to be up and dressed by 8am, so you might have to get up a bit earlier to get ready.
 
For early breakfasts… make up some breakfast burritos ahead of time. Scrambled eggs, add in the meat you want (left over meat works great in these, or ham, cooked sausage, cooked bacon), cheese, veggies if you like, maybe some salsa. Roll these in the tortillas, wrap them in wax paper and then pop them in a freezer bag (if you want to freeze them) or just a zip top in the fridge.

You just pop em in the microwave and there is breakfast.

Maybe have DD pick out her Church clothes on Saturday - so there is no issue on Sunday AM.
 
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