S
Sarabande
Guest
I wonder how some children’s sports and games can potentially start dictating the lives of families and affect their attendance at mass. This subject came up for me as I have a little cousin who plays hockey and has one or two games every weekend on Saturdays and Sundays.
My aunt has told me that they tend to have to put everything else on hold during the sports season since all the games are on the weekends. They have even actually missed mass because of the way the game schedule was made, which she says she hates. They have done their “best” to getting to mass as often as they can, but it doesn’t make up for the couple of missed masses.
The sad thing is that I know this is not just an isolated family. I know other families who have done the same thing with their children’s sport lives and have seen it myself when I was in school. I was in track my freshman year of high school. My family and church was more important to me than track, and I actually remember telling my coach that I would not do races on Sundays and that I would be away with my family certain weekends as we had a place in the mountains that we’d go to just for family time. I know my coach didn’t like it, but the family and God came first and I had my parents to back me up with this idea. Needless-to-say, I finished out my year with track and decided that it wasn’t for me in terms of sacrificing church and family.
It just seems to me that these games have taken priority over everything else. My parents were fortunate that my siblings and I weren’t really into sport. But I worry about my own future children. What if I do have a child who is really into a particular sport and has the same kind of schedule as my cousin? I don’t want to deprive my child of doing something he really enjoys, but I also do not want to sacrifice family and church for sport games and skirmishes. The same would go for any other kind of activities - like the arts, etc. If it starts to interefere with attending mass, I would find that as a problem as well.
So, my questions are, how do families who are in these kind of situations balance their together time? How do you say no to a coach and the team without letting your child feel like he’s not “part of the team” and without getting kicked off the team? Have children had to give up their teams because it really was interfering with their family time and with going to mass? Thanks!
My aunt has told me that they tend to have to put everything else on hold during the sports season since all the games are on the weekends. They have even actually missed mass because of the way the game schedule was made, which she says she hates. They have done their “best” to getting to mass as often as they can, but it doesn’t make up for the couple of missed masses.
The sad thing is that I know this is not just an isolated family. I know other families who have done the same thing with their children’s sport lives and have seen it myself when I was in school. I was in track my freshman year of high school. My family and church was more important to me than track, and I actually remember telling my coach that I would not do races on Sundays and that I would be away with my family certain weekends as we had a place in the mountains that we’d go to just for family time. I know my coach didn’t like it, but the family and God came first and I had my parents to back me up with this idea. Needless-to-say, I finished out my year with track and decided that it wasn’t for me in terms of sacrificing church and family.
It just seems to me that these games have taken priority over everything else. My parents were fortunate that my siblings and I weren’t really into sport. But I worry about my own future children. What if I do have a child who is really into a particular sport and has the same kind of schedule as my cousin? I don’t want to deprive my child of doing something he really enjoys, but I also do not want to sacrifice family and church for sport games and skirmishes. The same would go for any other kind of activities - like the arts, etc. If it starts to interefere with attending mass, I would find that as a problem as well.
So, my questions are, how do families who are in these kind of situations balance their together time? How do you say no to a coach and the team without letting your child feel like he’s not “part of the team” and without getting kicked off the team? Have children had to give up their teams because it really was interfering with their family time and with going to mass? Thanks!
What a wonderful witness to your children and others. Thank you for your comments. I believe you are right. You can find a way to get mass. I know in my area and where my familiy lives, it’a highly populated Catholic area with tons of churches, so I know there are evening masses on Sundays at many churches. But as you say, parents do make excuses.