Kids in Mass are distracting!

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my favorite distraction this time of year is training new altar servers, they try so hard, and sometimes are just a bit too short to carry out some duties properly.
 
Karen - Thank you for posting this. Although it is true there are times when you do have the monster children who seem as if their main goal is to disrupt everything, it is also true that there are wonderful, well-behaved children doing the things that you described. On the whole, it’s wonderful seeing children and babies at mass.

I will always remember my former boss at a Catholic school I used to work for. He was the pastor of the parish and the only priest there. It was Christmas Eve and the little church was packed with the tightly-knit community of parishioners - many of whom were part of this parish for generations. You heard lots of sounds made by children and babies. Our pastor was fairly conservative and kind of “gruff” - a very tall man who could be intimidating just by looking at him, but when you knew him, he was very loving - he just took faith and reverence very seriously and rightly so. Anyway, during the homily, one of the first things he said was how much he loved hearing the sounds of all the babies during the mass, how it reminded him of the future for our Church, etc. It was so touching. I wasn’t married yet and wasn’t even thinking about children then, but it really put things into perspective, especially when being “distracted” by kids - although they never really distracted me much unless they truly were “monsters”.
 
I had a little stinker (about 7) in front of me at Mass last Sunday. Of all things…he turned around gave me a smile and a wink.😉

Made my day…🙂

Jalengrma
 
one of my favorite distractions came back after a few weeks absence, a profoundly disabled child who made first communion and was confirmed a few years ago (he is actually an adult now, never expected to live past age 10), and sang his favorite song, which is the only song he knows, with gusto, Glooooooriaaaaaa in excelsis Deoooooooo. He has probably evangelized more people than any other 50 people in this parish including the priests and sisters.
 
I am so glad to hear that some people actually enjoy children at Mass. My 18 month old loves to sing as loud as he can whenever the music starts playing. He actually knows how to sing the word “alleluia”, but that is all he knows. So, he sings and sings. The other week he was singing very loud during the entrance hymn and our priest was having a hard time trying not to laugh. Last week my 8 year old (new server) was falling asleep up on the altar. He was serving the 4:00pm Saturday Mass and just couldn’t keep his eyes open! I was praying to his guardian angel to wake him up and not let him fall over in his chair. Thank goodness he did make it through Mass without being embarrassed or disrupting the Mass.
 
LOL yesterday I was the only adult at Divine Liturgy. My two grandsons served and my granddaughter (age 4 years) was echoing my responses. Father still gave his Homily and had the three children sit on the steps at his feet. I love going to
Saint Mary’s. We feel so welcome and the kids are never considered a bother.
 
KarenElissa said:
What?! No one has any solution to my distraction problem? 😉 😃

I’m really grateful for my parish, we have tons of kids and as far as I can tell, they really are welcomed in Mass. We have a cry room, but there are still plenty of kids in the main body of the church. Even at the more “traditional” masses that aren’t as kid friendly as the more “contemporary” ones have kids. There are even a baby or two and a couple of older kids who I assume are home schooled that often come to daily mass. 👍
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There’s one family that comes to Daily Mass (at least First Fridays) and the mom and her 3 daughters (about 7-10) all wear a mantilla.
 
Great thread!!! 😃
I have a 2-year-old boy and another on the way. I´ve always been worried about how he behaves in mass, and last year, when he learnt to walk (and was able to cause much more distraction) my wife and I decided to go to mass seperately.

Last Sunday we were unable to do that, and I was terrified he would behave badly. However, I got the surprize of my life when we entered the church. He followed behind me, made the sign of the cross and genuflected!! I realized now how important it is to take little children to mass. Even if they don´t understand intelectually what´s going on, they learn things just by observing and copying their parents. That really made my day! I only needed to take him out for the homily when he started singing in a lowd voice. He talked about mass for the rest of the day!!!👍
 
Yesterday, I sat behind a father and his son. It’s not like I was paying attention to them, but because they were right in front of me, I could see from the corner of my eye or hear him whisper to him if I had my eyes closed. He looked to be a toddler - a beautiful, cherub-looking boy. At first he was fairly stationary, being held by his dad. As we got to the middle of the mass, he got a little antsy, which is normal for a toddler. But what I loved about the dad was that he was so lovingly patient and persistent with him. The boy would start to talk just a little and he’d shush him and then get him to try to partake in the mass. When he was kneeling at first the little boy wanted to climb over the pew, but then you can see that the dad was showing him that the proper way was to kneel. Since the boy was way too small, he had him sit on the kneeler with him.

Anyway, I just thought that this father’s patience with showing his very young son what to do during the mass even though he was too young to even comprehend or to do those things, was beautiful. He acted as a wonderful role model for his son and even for me when my husband and I, God willing, will have children.
 
Love this thread!

We had a very imposing pastor when I was little, but he was really good with kids. He must’ve been a wonderful great-uncle (or great-great-uncle; he was pretty old).

This is the Monsignor who told brides in pre-Cana that if their gowns were too revealing he’d send over to the convent next door for one of the Sisters’ black sweaters to wear over their gowns. (Some of my older friends insist that he really did it, at least once. Must’ve been pre-VII.)

This is the same Monsignor who also announced, many times, that the occasional cries and crows during Mass were how babies sing their praise to the Lord!

Peace-
-mdr
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I am brand new here, and I am the mother of 5 children. 2 of my girls are in the choir and my 2 boys are (newly) alter serving, but my youngest daughter is 2 years old and of course, sits with me in the pew still. She is absolutely the most rambunctious of all my children and has been known to be a bit distracting. My husband (not Catholic 😦 ) has just had an adjustment in his work schedule, and is now able to be home to take care of the 2 yo. I left her home one week, but didn’t feel right. I love seeing her genuflect at the correct times and sing and say prayers with us! She can be a handful and a little monster sometimes, but when I see her genuflect at just 2 years old I just tear up with love and pride! (guess I should go to confession for that:rolleyes: ) She will most likely be our last child, so I am trying my best to enjoy ALL her moments, and I really appreciate hearing that the people around us are not bothered by us.

I really needed this. God knew what He was doing when He guided me here today, as always!

Thank You! 🙂

Carol
 
I ❤️ this thread.
If I may add…my husband and I are always very ‘sensitive’ to any noises our 12 month old twins make in Mass.
And the father said to us one day ‘Bless you for coming. I can only imagine how difficult it is to bring your children, but here you are, every week, without fail. You’re a wonderful testament to the faith’

:eek:

Didn’t expect that.

And this really nasty lady who sits in the back of the church with us, who seems like she’s only there because she lost a bet, FINALLY cracked a smile when one of the girls just ran right up to her, and grabbed her leg and looked up at her and smiled.
She looked down at her and said, in a tone that almost sounded defeated, ‘Fine. I guess I’ll have a nice day today’ and she picked her up and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Also, didn’t expect that.

We went to another parish when we were out of town and I got this feeling that my children were…well, not entirely welcome.
Pfft.
We won’t be going back THERE any time soon.
 
MrsRoetto said:
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I am brand new here, and I am the mother of 5 children. 2 of my girls are in the choir and my 2 boys are (newly) alter serving, but my youngest daughter is 2 years old and of course, sits with me in the pew still. She is absolutely the most rambunctious of all my children and has been known to be a bit distracting. My husband (not Catholic 😦 ) has just had an adjustment in his work schedule, and is now able to be home to take care of the 2 yo. I left her home one week, but didn’t feel right. **I love seeing her genuflect at the correct times and sing and say prayers with us! **She can be a handful and a little monster sometimes, but when I see her genuflect at just 2 years old I just tear up with love and pride! (guess I should go to confession for that:rolleyes: ) She will most likely be our last child, so I am trying my best to enjoy ALL her moments, and I really appreciate hearing that the people around us are not bothered by us.

I really needed this. God knew what He was doing when He guided me here today, as always!

Thank You! 🙂

Carol
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Aww, she would be rather distracting too then! 😉 😃
 
MrsRoetto said:
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I am brand new here, and I am the mother of 5 children. 2 of my girls are in the choir and my 2 boys are (newly) alter serving, but my youngest daughter is 2 years old and of course, sits with me in the pew still. She is absolutely the most rambunctious of all my children and has been known to be a bit distracting. My husband (not Catholic 😦 ) has just had an adjustment in his work schedule, and is now able to be home to take care of the 2 yo. I left her home one week, but didn’t feel right. I love seeing her genuflect at the correct times and sing and say prayers with us! She can be a handful and a little monster sometimes, but when I see her genuflect at just 2 years old I just tear up with love and pride! (guess I should go to confession for that:rolleyes: ) She will most likely be our last child, so I am trying my best to enjoy ALL her moments, and I really appreciate hearing that the people around us are not bothered by us.

I really needed this. God knew what He was doing when He guided me here today, as always!

Thank You! 🙂

Carol
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Welcome. Your little one sounds just wonderful as do you other four.

My husband was non-Catholic for forty years. Last year my prayers were answered.👍 So just know everything is done in God’s time.😃
 
At DL on Friday at 10:30 we had a total of 26 children, five mothers and one grandmother. Of the 26 there were 7 helping Father (learning the how to’s for the Bishop’s visit) 10 more holding and processing with candles when not sitting in the pew or at the priests feet for the homily, 4 crawling on the floor, 2 climbing on the pews, and the remainder asleep in mothers arms. It was wonderful 😃 .

After the DL we had a, bring your own lunch, mostly peanut butter (it was Friday) and jelly sandwiches. Then the kids ran around and fun was had by all. I truly believe this is how a parish should be. Children welcome even when climbing in the pews. LOL
 
A little off topic, but speaking of kids:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

It just reminded me of it.
 
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