Does your church have a nursery or cry room?

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Mrs_Sally

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I’m wondering how common actual nurseries are in Catholic churches. When mine where very young, we did have a nursery in our church for a brief time - run by a wonderful Muslim woman. 🙂

I know many churches have cry rooms. I wonder if there is a region of the country (or other countries) where this is more common. When did churches start having them? We lived in the UK and then Asia when I was a baby/young child and there weren’t any to be had there.
 
Neither of the parishes I attend here (UK) do, but in my old parish (Singapore) they did have a cry room at the back of the church. It had a glass front wall so that those inside could still see the Mass, which I thought was excellent. That was a very new church though, they did a massive refurbishment about five years ago. My current parishes are much older buildings.
 
We have both, and the church was built in 1911. The nursery is actually in a different building (parish hall) and is run by two young women. The cry room, which I do not believe was originally intended as such but was a storage room, is at the back of the church by the doors and is a plain room with some chairs. You can still see into the nave, but there is no window.

There are plans for a new church and a cry room will be a feature as well. I believe there will be a window.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
I’m wondering how common actual nurseries are in Catholic churches. When mine where very young, we did have a nursery in our church for a brief time - run by a wonderful Muslim woman. 🙂

I know many churches have cry rooms. I wonder if there is a region of the country (or other countries) where this is more common. When did churches start having them? We lived in the UK and then Asia when I was a baby/young child and there weren’t any to be had there.
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My parish the mother church of my archdiocese was built in 1882 and seats close to 800 parishioners or 1000 if you pack-em and rack-em to the rafters. My parish has gone through numerous renovations (“two major”) in 1965 and 1998. The Crying Room as we call it was formerly a Baptismal room which became a closed-in Crying Room in 1990.

I’ve been through many parishes throughout my home country Canada and the United States and I’ve seen similar allocated rooms for families with infants and toddlers.
 
We have had a nursery in the past but we don’t at the moment.

We don’t have a cry room but we do have a very large large narthex where parents tend to hang out with unruly children. We also have some alcoves of the church where quiet but active toddlers can move around without distracting people.

We have speakers in our prayer garden at the side of the church so parents can always step out there when the weather is good. (And in California that’s probably 75% of the time.)
 
We have a cry room, but other then Christmas and Easter where every seat in the place is taken, I’ve only seen it used once. Most people with crying babies just take them to the back, bounce them a bit, then sit back down. Once I was cantoring and I noticed the cry room light was on, which I’d never seen before. Through the glass window, I could see two women and about three or four school-aged kids and one infant that one of the mothers was holding. I don’t think it occured to these women that it wasn’t one-way glass and other people could see them. During the course of the Mass, the kids got up several time and ran around the room. One of them had another in a head lock. At one point, one of them started smearing their face on the glass. Everytime I looked over, the two moms were facing each other and having a very animated discussion about something. I never saw them stand, kneel, tell their kids to pay attention, pick up the hymnal, or attend to the Mass that was going on in front of them. I’m surprised they noticed when it was communion time.
 
No cry room.

No nursery.

Church built sometime in the mid to late seventies.

We do have a large “gathering space” with hallways between the three entrance doors into the main church.
 
We have a large and rather luxurious cry room on one side of the church facing the sanctuary. It can hold about thirty people and has nearby restrooms and changing stations. The problems we encounter are:
  1. Many parents simply won’t get up and take their screaming toddler in the cry room, and often permit their kids to roam and run around the church during Mass.
  2. Parents already in the cry room allow their kids to run and play. Sometimes they even bang against the glass.
  3. Parents who wish to quiet their crying children are forced to go into the vestibule because the cry room is too disruptive.
  4. People who come late to Mass slip in the cry room from the side entrance.
  5. Signs are posted and the topic is regularly discussed in the bulletin and announcements, to no avail.
 
Allegra said:
We have a cry room, but other then Christmas and Easter where every seat in the place is taken, I’ve only seen it used once. Most people with crying babies just take them to the back, bounce them a bit, then sit back down. Once I was cantoring and I noticed the cry room light was on, which I’d never seen before. Through the glass window, I could see two women and about three or four school-aged kids and one infant that one of the mothers was holding. I don’t think it occured to these women that it wasn’t one-way glass and other people could see them. During the course of the Mass, the kids got up several time and ran around the room. One of them had another in a head lock. At one point, one of them started smearing their face on the glass. Everytime I looked over, the two moms were facing each other and having a very animated discussion about something. I never saw them stand, kneel, tell their kids to pay attention, pick up the hymnal, or attend to the Mass that was going on in front of them. I’m surprised they noticed when it was communion time.
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:eek:

Cry rooms do seem to end up just being play rooms too often.
 
In my Church the nursey room is the room were Confessions take place
 
Cavaille-Coll said:
We have a large and rather luxurious cry room on one side of the church facing the sanctuary. It can hold about thirty people and has nearby restrooms and changing stations. The problems we encounter are:
  1. Many parents simply won’t get up and take their screaming toddler in the cry room, and often permit their kids to roam and run around the church during Mass.
  2. Parents already in the cry room allow their kids to run and play. Sometimes they even bang against the glass.
  3. Parents who wish to quiet their crying children are forced to go into the vestibule because the cry room is too disruptive.
  4. People who come late to Mass slip in the cry room from the side entrance.
  5. Signs are posted and the topic is regularly discussed in the bulletin and announcements, to no avail.
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We don’t have too many who let their kids roam. Although the back walls are lined with people (some families, some not) during most Masses - even when there are seats. 🤷

Our cry room has one door into the ladies room where a changing table is. I suppose people could sneak in through the ladies, but hopefully dad won’t be with them! 😊
 
Cavaille-Coll said:
We have a large and rather luxurious cry room on one side of the church facing the sanctuary. It can hold about thirty people and has nearby restrooms and changing stations. The problems we encounter are:
  1. Many parents simply won’t get up and take their screaming toddler in the cry room, and often permit their kids to roam and run around the church during Mass.
  2. Parents already in the cry room allow their kids to run and play. Sometimes they even bang against the glass.
  3. Parents who wish to quiet their crying children are forced to go into the vestibule because the cry room is too disruptive.
  4. People who come late to Mass slip in the cry room from the side entrance.
  5. Signs are posted and the topic is regularly discussed in the bulletin and announcements, to no avail./QUOTE
The ones in one, two, and four, most don’t believe they are the cause of number three and number five does not apply to them!!! :eek::bigyikes:😛
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My church, which was built in 1959, has a cry room. In addition, there is a room for the children’s liturgy, aka Sunday school.
 
tabycat said:
Cavaille-Coll;9863162:
We have a large and rather luxurious cry room on one side of the church facing the sanctuary. It can hold about thirty people and has nearby restrooms and changing stations. The problems we encounter are:
  1. Many parents simply won’t get up and take their screaming toddler in the cry room, and often permit their kids to roam and run around the church during Mass.
  2. Parents already in the cry room allow their kids to run and play. Sometimes they even bang against the glass.
  3. Parents who wish to quiet their crying children are forced to go into the vestibule because the cry room is too disruptive.
  4. People who come late to Mass slip in the cry room from the side entrance.
  5. Signs are posted and the topic is regularly discussed in the bulletin and announcements, to no avail.
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Some churches in our area have a glass walled “cry room,” or family area. One has an outside area with loudspeakers and chairs set up on Sundays. Some have no designated area for young children.

If the church lacks a place for parents with crying or unruly children to be, there is always the cry room called “home, with a babysitter!”:cool:
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Faithdancer said:
tabycat;9863335:
If the church lacks a place for parents with crying or unruly children to be, there is always the cry room called “home, with a babysitter!”:cool:
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That might not be an option for some people. For my wife and me, even if we were inclined to do such a thing (and we are not), we don’t really have a Sunday morning option for leaving our son with a babysitter we would trust.
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My parish is a small Eastern Catholic parish, which has neither. I seriously doubt that our current pastor would approve of the use of either. Several times a year, my wife and I visit her former RC parish, which has a large cry room, which is generally used by several families with small children for the entire Mass. My wife and I generally sit there with our son for the entire Mass when we go to Mass there.
 
The Mass we attend is in the crypt of the cathedral and there’s no cry room or nursery available.

There are a lot of kids, especially ages 0-5.

When kids act up they’re taken to the back by mom or dad and held and hushed until they’re ready to go back to their seats (or they stay back there, as our two year old has being held by DH on her more unruly days).

There are occasional gurgles and baby sounds, and occasional toddler voices, but all in all it’s pretty quiet.
 
For those who have been parishes with and without, which do you prefer?

My son was a very wiggly toddler. We used the cry room some but found it was more like a play room. He did better in the front pews - wiggly still but not wild.

I like the idea of broadcasting the service to the narthex or an outdoor space. Has anyone used that? How does it work out in real life?
 
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