My 4 Little Ones and Me.. Off to Mass?.. and then some

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morningstar16

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I am not sure where to begin.
I am a Mother of 4 young children, all under the age of 10. If I don’t take them to Mass, none of us get to go. Problem is, I can’t seem to bring myself to want to take them. I KNOW how important it is for all of us, but I am mentally checking out of it lately and just not having the patience to get us all ready to go to Church for an hour, just to spend that hour telling them to sit still, stand up, kneel up straight, be reverent, stop talking, stop hitting your brother, we are here for Jesus, can’t we please give him one hour?, I pull the little ones off from rolling on the floor or chase them down the aisle and am lucky if I can achieve one reverent prayer, or actually hear part of a reading during the Mass. I know that God desires the Children to come to Him, and wills that I seek strength, in Him to continue to bring them. I just don’t know how to surrender it all to God and overcome my feelings of defeat right now…
Side note:
Hubby has never been a church goer and probably never will be. He is also gone most of the time and when he is here, we all seem to compete for his attention and fail miserably. Or when he wants to give us attention, I find myself being too resentful to enjoy the time we have together.
I’m probably sounding whiney and ungrateful, maybe even a little selfish for not giving more to Our Lord, who gives us everything.
Please pray for me.
 
:flowers: Wow, that is a really difficult situation to be in. I said a prayer for you!

I can think of one or two suggestions on how things might be made easier for you, but I wasn’t sure from your post if you wanted advice or not. If you do, say so, and I’ll post them later on. If not, know that my prayers and sympathies are with you. That is quite a row to hoe. 🙂
 
Get the phone number for the youth group at your church and see if you can arrange to have one or more of the young people meet you at Mass to help you. You may need to attend the youth Mass, but if that is OK, I think you’ll find someone willing to help you out. If that doesn’t yield results, talk to your pastor and tell him what you’ve tried.

The issue with your husband is the more important one and you are not being whiny. I don’t know why he is gone so much of the time, but the two of you need more support for you than you are getting. I don’t mean to accuse him (that doesn’t help), but to put your heads together and address this problem before it does permanent damage to your relationship.
 
Thank you all for your thoughts, suggestions, and prayers. Any advice is helpful. I did decide to rush and get ready for 6pm Mass, and it ended up being a blessing. My 3 Year old fell asleep in the car and slept on the pew for the entire Mass. My 1 year old did a little bit of climbing and walking aisles, but was pretty quiet. And my oldest 2 were approached by the priest after Mass and were thanked for being there. The organist even introduced herself to me and helped me carry my 1 year old to the car!
Thank you God for sharing your light and love with us!
 
So glad that you had a good experience today.
It sounds like your priest really wants to support you. Perhaps talking with him would be helpful for you.
Easter Joy’s suggestion is also great – hire or ask a teenager to help you during mass. Your children will love it and it will be good for the teen also.

I used to feel exactly as if I had been wrestling an alligator after mass with my daughter when she was one to two, and she was only one child!
This morning a family with 4 children sat behind me, and the two year old kept bumping into me, but I was just glad they were at mass.
 
If it helps, I am inspired when I see a mother like you at Mass. I am a maiden aunt with no children and admire the effort it takes. I also like seeing little ones at church, even if they are squirming, etc. I never realize hard hard it is on a mother.

It sounds like an evening mass might work well for you, you never know.
 
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