I asked a 5 or 6 year old boy to be quiet during mass

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I not only have no problem with a baby making noise in the Church I welcome it. I think cry rooms are a terrible thing. Children should be at Mass.

But a five year old isn’t baby. They should be able to behave. For the most part if they can’t then the parent isn’t making them. Saying something to the parent might not make any difference since the parent, or really lack of parent, is the problem. I don’t have a problem saying something to the kid.

At the same time there are children with disabilities. You can’t expect them to be able to behave in the same way a child without would.
 
Would it be possible for you to politely move to another pew - as far away from them as possible? I don’t see any problem asking them to be considerate of other people and respectful to God - if that would be effective. However, these two sound as if they need a heart to heart explanation at another time in another place.

In my experience most children are cooperative if an adult takes the time to explain patiently to them the whys and wherefores of how to behave. It’s too bad that evidently their mother has not taken the time to explain why and how to be considerate in mass, but that is not the children’s fault.

Two elementary school-aged boys moved into our neighborhood and proceeded to ride their bikes through my yard and my neighbors’ yards. There was a lot of complaining, hand-wringing, and talk of a formal complain to the police. I decided that these boys were unclear on the concept of private property so I decided to educate them. It took two lectures, but they got it. The second lecture took place on the sidewalk in front of their house. Their parents were home, but never came out to find out why I was having a long conversation with their sons. That said a lot to me. During that chat the younger one lied to me about something so I had to extend my instruction to the serious social consequences of becoming known as a liar - but never any sign of a parent.
 
BoomerangToo said:
The same thing goes on in my parish. The white children are fairly well behaved, but the Mexican kids are a terror. They yell, cry, throw toys, climb over the pews, run around the church while their parents seem blind and deaf. And they are not babies. These children are old enough to behave.

I’m glad someone else has observed this also. I’m so sick of the “racism” label being whipped out just because someone dares to make an astute and accurate observation.
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The person who educated me on this matter is a 90 year old bilingual Anglo who had considerable exposure to the Mexican-American culture. She has wonderful insight. It was great how the Hispanic community really listened to the parochial vicar from Spain.

Beware of one thing. “Mexican” is a nationality, not a race. There are plenty of white, black and indigenous who historically live in Mexico.
 
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BoomerangToo said:
All I can say is, the well behaved kids looked white and spoke English. The brats looked mestizo and spoke Spanish.
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OK, that’s fair. I typically refer to native English speakers as “Anglos” – not that they are necessarily British of course. I remember seeing two little Mexican-American kids wander into the sanctuary during Mass. It wasn’t the first time it happened either. Some thought it was “cute.” It wasn’t. The two kids just weren’t disciplined. The priest handled it well but it never happened again thanks be to God.
 
Duesenberg said:
OK, that’s fair. I typically refer to native English speakers as “Anglos” – not that they are necessarily British of course. I remember seeing two little Mexican-American kids wander into the sanctuary during Mass. It wasn’t the first time it happened either. Some thought it was “cute.” It wasn’t. The two kids just weren’t disciplined. The priest handled it well but it never happened again thanks be to God.
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I just got back from Mass. I was shocked to see a fairly large number of young white children between the ages of 2 through 8. See, this mass is nearly all gray-haired old people, all white with the exception of two or three Filipinos. Almost no kids. There was not a single peep out of any one of those kids. It was quite amazing. Not a peep.
 
MY father told my son, “see that man up there? If you don’t behave that will happen to you” My dad God Bless him, sounds rough but that about 45 years ago and you know it worked. Later my son was told what was appropriate behavior for Church. It is the time we live in, pray for the kids.
 
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