Crying Plastic Baby at Mass

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Jennifer123 said:
You apparently didn’t see the “within reason” part of my post. I don’t necessarily find the situation all that out of hand considering I do this all the time with my own children by myself since my husband works odd and long hours.

Frankly I don’t appreciate the ridicule.

Good luck OP on your assignment.
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I didn’t read any ridicule in that post but I do read personalizing your situation equating it with a class assignment.
It’s not a baby and it’s never going to be a baby.

You have babies and please don’t think that you are the only mother to handle babies at mass. I did many a mass with my kids while my Protestant husband stayed home.
 
CathMass said:
I am taking this Child Development Class and one class requirement is that I take home for a weekend a plastic baby doll that cries, coos and does other things (some wet). My teacher told me I had to take it to Mass on Sunday with me. I have some problems with that. One problem is that I go to the Tridentine Mass, another thing is I serve the Tridentine Mass and another thing is that I am male and I would look goofy with a doll at church. I am thinking about leaving the baby at home with someone when I go to Mass or leaving it with a kid in the church while I am at the altar. However, these babies are expensive ($300-$400).
Please give me your opinions
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Having a plastic doll at mass, unlike a real baby, would look silly and be distracting to the people around you who are there to worship. It is not right to interrupt the mass. Your teacher does not seem to know, or care, what a Catholic Mass is all about. Find a “sitter” for your piece of plastic. Do not take it to mass.

I don’t know how I ever survived my teen years without being a temporary ‘mom’ to a plastic doll! I guess it was just dumb luck that I didn’t starve and abandon my child without the school system to wisely guide me in the ways of parenthood!
 
Bear with me here a minute, but it suddenly struck me as a type of religious persecution for this teacher to make a demand that would violate your right to worship in the way you wish to.
Am I totally off base on that? I mean it seems like religious intolerance to me.
Like this teacher is delighting in putting this student in a situation that she/he may or may not know is a gross request IMHO.
Cant you get the Priest to call her and talk to her?
Forget that doll sitter! You should be exempt for that one hour for religious reasons! IMHO. Why should you entertain his/her silly demands? Dunno just occured to me now.
What if this was a Muslim student? Would they take the plastic baby into a Mosque? Or a jewish student? Or whatever?
I dont know but I do know its overstepping some bounds here…even if it is not a legal issue it is bothersome. This teacher seems to have no respect for the sacred.

And yes parents have to deal with children at mass. But I am sorry many have with no plastic doll training, people seem to do it the best they can. You just do it.
 
Damascus said:
Bear with me here a minute, but it suddenly struck me as a type of religious persecution for this teacher to make a demand that would violate your right to worship in the way you wish to.
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I would certainly say religious insensitivity. I would be very surprised if the teacher attended the religious worship of her own faith regularly. Seems like anybody who did so would understand not to impose Crying Plastic Baby on other worshippers.

I wonder if teacher would insist that CPB be taken to a funeral Mass?
 
OP- assert yourself here. Demand respect or you will not get any.
Demand your rights.
 
I am completely amazed that there is actually a serious discussion as to what to do about Mass and this plastic doll!

It’s a DOLL. Leave it at home. Are you all crazy? Even if it is a required assignment, the teacher is totally out of line to insist on taking it to Mass.

OP - leave the thing on your bed, go to Mass, and when you get home, deal with it. I, for one, would abandon the thing - it’s not going to teach you one thing about looking after a real baby.
 
Joan_M said:
I am completely amazed that there is actually a serious discussion as to what to do about Mass and this plastic doll!

It’s a DOLL. Leave it at home. Are you all crazy? Even if it is a required assignment, the teacher is totally out of line to insist on taking it to Mass.

OP - leave the thing on your bed, go to Mass, and when you get home, deal with it. I, for one, would abandon the thing - it’s not going to teach you one thing about looking after a real baby.
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Ouch. We are all crazy? Oh my.

What about his grades? What about his rights? I dont think ignoring it like an ostritch with the head in the sand syndrome will fly well-
consequenses could insue.
Personally, I care about this OP and his grade and his rights.
If you think this is all silly then please, at least pretend to care for the LIVING BREATHING OP!!!:mad:
 
Let’s not go throwing around the term “Religious Persecution” so easily. Religious persecution is not giving a student a silly assignment involving a sophisticated doll that is very demanding, and doesn’t have two parents. 😉 I think it means more like Churches and Synagogues being burned, and their members tortured, raped and killed. It means rounding people up and sending them to Siberia because they read the Bible. It means suppressing basic human rights to persons based on their religion.
 
WenckebachCath said:
Let’s not go throwing around the term “Religious Persecution” so easily. Religious persecution is not giving a student a silly assignment involving a sophisticated doll that is very demanding, and doesn’t have two parents. 😉 I think it means more like Churches and Synagogues being burned, and their members tortured, raped and killed. It means rounding people up and sending them to Siberia because they read the Bible. It means suppressing basic human rights to persons based on their religion.
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In all fairness I also used the word intolerance.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Exercise_Clause

I do think the Mass is an intregal part of our worship. I am willing to be corrected on that.

If someone is impeding that in any way then you can call it what you wish.
 
As those awful little things have sensors in them to tell how long they were crying and if they were treated roughly I would just find a sitter for the hour. I would hate to fail and have to redo it next year.

We had ones in high school with this stupid little plastic key to make it stop crying, one of the girls had one with a broken key so she stuffed it in her locker until she could see the teacher.
 
KittyKat said:
We had ones in high school with this stupid little plastic key to make it stop crying, one of the girls had one with a broken key so she stuffed it in her locker until she could see the teacher.
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LOL!
I can think of a time in my life that I wanted to stuff a baby in a locker. I wish they had a key!

My second daughter was colicy. She would start to cry at 5 and would not stop until my hubby got home at 7. For the first three months of her life, I was sure she hated me. I walked her the entire time, so a key would have come in handy.
 
Leave the dollat home, or in your car.
Who cares if a doll cries. You wouldn’t bring any other toys to Mass would you? What if you were taking part in an all-weekend gameboy marathon in order to study the effects of sleep deprivation? Would you play super mario bros during the consecration? Your duty is to God above all other things.
 
The assignment itself is valid.

There are a lot of young women who think having a baby to love them would be wonderful. They aren’t thinking of how hard it is to be responsible for one. They don’t realize at their young ages how a baby changes everything. Beyond the moral training they should be receiving from their parents, a little pragmatic touch of reality can be very valuable. When you have a baby, you can’t just run out to the mall or the movies with your friends. You have to plan and arrange and accommodate. This is something girls need to see for themselves. In most cases, it’s the girls who will have to deal with this.

The boys need to see what having a baby is like too even though they are less likely to be the primary caregivers. They need to realize what having a baby will do to their futures. This should all be coming from home, but even the best of parents’ intentions can fall on deaf ears.

However, this assignment can not be allowed to disrupt a Mass. Our young student will have to decide for himself which of his options to follow, but a crying baby – real or otherwise – should be removed from Mass. Missing Mass for this doll assignment would not be acceptable either. Talk to the teacher seriously, take the doll, find a sitter. Whatever you do, OP, don’t let a doll disrupt Mass.
 
I agree w/ everyone who says that you can’t miss Mass over this and it isn’t fair to everyone else to tolerate a disruption of a plastic doll mostly because they wouldn’t understand what is going on. If they knew what was going on, they would probably have the same reaction they would have if it was a real “child”.

However, I see three options:
  1. Leave the baby untended while @ Mass. But, you need to inform the teacher that you placed the “child” in danger and it should result in you getting a zero for the assignment.
  2. Or, you can make arrangements for the “child” to be properly cared for during this timeframe.
  3. Or, you can tend to the “child” in the cry room or sit in teh very back and be prepared to bolt upon the first indication of “trouble.”
 
Orionthehunter said:
I agree w/ everyone who says that you can’t miss Mass over this and it isn’t fair to everyone else to tolerate a disruption of a plastic doll mostly because they wouldn’t understand what is going on. If they knew what was going on, they would probably have the same reaction they would have if it was a real “child”.

However, I see three options:
  1. Leave the baby untended while @ Mass. But, you need to inform the teacher that you placed the “child” in danger and it should result in you getting a zero for the assignment.
  2. Or, you can make arrangements for the “child” to be properly cared for during this timeframe.
  3. Or, you can tend to the “child” in the cry room or sit in teh very back and be prepared to bolt upon the first indication of “trouble.”
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  1. The parents of the OP can write a note stating that they would not allow their student to bring the “baby” to mass on a religious exemption.
    If I were this person’s mother, that’s what I would do. It would make a point to the teacher that although the assignment is very important, it is also unreasonable to assign a “father” without a “mother”. Normally, we have nine months to think about how we are going to handle such situations.
 
netmil(name removed by moderator) said:
  1. The parents of the OP can write a note stating that they would not allow their student to bring the “baby” to mass on a religious exemption.
    If I were this person’s mother, that’s what I would do. It would make a point to the teacher that although the assignment is very important, it is also unreasonable to assign a “father” without a “mother”. Normally, we have nine months to think about how we are going to handle such situations.
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This does not sound PC enough for secular society, sorry.
You may have to say -assign a “father” with a “father” or a “mother” with a “mother” or some other non-christian terminology so as not to exclude anyone.
 
Damascus said:
This does not sound PC enough for secular society, sorry.
You may have to say -assign a “father” with a “father” or a “mother” with a “mother” or some other non-christian terminology so as not to exclude anyone.
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:rotfl:

Not in my house! The only “partner” or “spouse” they better be bringing around my dinner table is the one with the other Chromosome from their own.
 
netmil(name removed by moderator) said:
:rotfl:

Not in my house! The only “partner” or “spouse” they better be bringing around my dinner table is the one with the other Chromosome from their own.
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That’s a whole 'nother discussion. Let’s stick with the doll today.

OP, if you’re in high school, talk to your parents about this. You may need to enlist their help in dealing with the teacher.

What if you were on the football team? Would you have to take the doll on the field? If you were in the chorus or in the school play, would you be dragging a crying doll on the stage? I can’t imagine the other teachers tolerating that…all the work of putting on a play or concert ruined by a doll. There must be some kind of accepted procedure for someone else watching it for these kinds of activities.
 
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