"If I ran the crying room..."

[The_Rigbys]

(Hmm, talk about an opportunity for a petty dictatorship. )

For parents who sometimes use the crying room at your parish: What do you like/dislike about the way it’s set up? What would you change, if you could?

Right now, we aren’t using ours at all, since it doesn’t offer any benefits (in terms of spirituality or convenience) over walking around the vestibule. Here are some ways I think it could be “fixed,” in descending order of importance:

• Decorate it to look like a place of prayer. (Right now, it looks like a “country casual” living room. )
• Have “quiet toys only” and “no adult chit-chat” rules.
• Provide a clean, gated area for crawling babies.
• Provide a bouncy seat for small babies.
• Provide a nursing pillow.

I plan to approach my pastor with these suggestions, but wanted to see what others had to say about it.

What would you like to see (or not see) in your crying room?

 

[kmktexas]

Dislike about our cry room:

Can’t hear anything said at the altar unless the door is open, which kind of defeats the purpose. (only the ambo has a mike)

No place to kneel in there.

Located in the front and to the side. So it is hard to adjorn there without being disruptive.

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At another chuch near me, the cry room has rocking chairs. Only rocking chairs. Not only is this great if you actually have a crying infant but it keeps the room from becoming a play room for older kids.

 

[Catholicforlife]

My church offers a few rocking chairs which is nice for nursing infants. I would suggest a cut off age. There is no reason for 7 year olds to be sleeping in there with mom and dad. If you have no little ones (under age 4) you need to sit in the main church. Kids have to learn some time. Having kneeling pads would be nice.
There should be nothing above a whisper with the exception of course of an unruly one year old who just can’t help it. I refuse to go into our cry room, I walk in the foyer of the church and suffer out there. We thankfully have good sound out there too. It is total chaos in the cry room which makes it even more difficult to get my toddler to behave.

 

[loyola_rambler]

I love our crying room. The high school students painted scenes of Jesus as a child that my little ones love focusing on. The speakers are also the right level so that mass can be heard, but the kids aren’t frightened. But the best part is that there are a pair of beautiful screens and big comfy chairs for nursing moms.

One other thing I really like is that there are a pair of HS students who volunteer at every mass so that parents with many kids can get a little help if more than one needs attention.