<< wave: welcome to the forums!
My mass no-no: parents who bring sippy cups and cheese & cracker snacks for their 5 year olds. >>
First of all, welcome, Suppliant! This is a great board. I’ve learned so much here. Secondly, your post Carol Marie, reminded me of this past Saturday at Mass. There were two very cute little kids, a boy and a girl, probably around 3 and 4 years old who, between the both of them, were playing with the missle, eating something that appeared to be a granola bar, holding or maybe eating candy, having sword fights with some pencils or whatever they had in their hands, just to name a few things. The mom finally tried taking the missle away from the boy and he was pulling the other way. I think at one time he raised it like he was going to hit her with it. At one point the little boy started coughing like crazy and his mom had a Kleenex up to his mouth. I thought he was going to throw up and figured he might have been choking on some of the junk they were allowed to eat during Mass. Someone took him out of church, then the little girl wanted to know where he was going and wasn’t happy that she couldn’t go too. Her dad or whoever was trying to keep her in the pew, while she was pulling away and trying to get out of the pew. When the boy finally came back, wouldn’t you know it, he layed down on his mom’s lap and was quiet for the rest of the Mass – as Mass was just about over.
Another kid behind me, who was probably about 5ish, spent that same Mass talking, albeit whispering, to her mom and her mom was whispering as well. The girl was also softly singing. Softly singing her own song, not one that was being sung during Mass. And it wasn’t when anyone else was singing, either.
There’s this other little kid, about 3ish, whom I see most weeks though I didn’t see him this past weekend. He and his mother are usually there in the front row and he never just sits. He’s always climbing around or on his mom’s lap where he still won’t sit still. I once saw him sitting on his mom’s lap leaning backward, almost doing a backbend over the rail-thing.
Weekend before last, he must have decided that the pews just aren’t for him because he chose to sit in the aisle. Of course, his mom let him sit there for a short time before finally trying to get him to sit in the pew. He refused. She tried whispering to him and I think pulled on his arm. He refused. He finally got up. Then sat back down. Eventually, he got back in the pew.
Almost every Mass there’s something like this going on with at least one family and every week I notice the cry room door open and the chairs are either empty or have maybe one or two parents in them at the most.
Oh, and every week now for about a month and a half, someone’s cell phone rings. Sometimes phones ring several times during Mass.
welcome to the forums!