This just sounds tacky. That is like saying “You have to come here for the sacraments, so we don’t have to do anything else for you, and you have to come here anyway!”
Then he should be reported to the bishop. That is against church teaching.
That still doesn’t explain why you said the nursery is for fun. It’s not, Full Stop. It’s there for the same reason you indicated above, someplace to take young children that are having a tough day.
No, being in a “quiet” environment with loud children stresses him out. He is fine with them, in say, Target - (okay actually he isn’t, if they get really loud he tries to quiet them there too, I don’t).
If the whole point is the Eucharist, why not provide a place for those who are not yet old enough to understand or participate? AKA nursery!
OK, I’m a little confused here. What does that have to do with the statement:
Ah, if only they’d stay in the pew!
As I’ve stated, go on Sunday and take them to Daily Mass on Monday. They will get the experience of Mass.Xanthippe_Voorhees:
No, being in a “quiet” environment with loud children stresses him out. He is fine with them, in say, Target - (okay actually he isn’t, if they get really loud he tries to quiet them there too, I don’t).
Honestly, I don’t like it because they think “Mommy has to go to church, we get to stay home and play!” and in the future, I fear they will resist going to church with me when they are older, because they have the option to stay home with daddy instead. When I was very little, my dad didn’t go to church - and we did that, we’d claim we had a sore throat or an upset tummy, to stay home and not go to church. Not often, but I know I did it - so what is to stop my kids from feeling the same way?
What training are you referring to? I had to go to a class VIRTUS, and then keep up with trainings, we filled out backround check forms at the class. Is there more checking, more training required?
Again, you are the one who changed me wanting to socialize with other catholic women into me wanting daycare.
Yes, when our two oldest were little, we lived in the city in an area where (although there were many parishes) there weren’t any cry rooms because they were older churches. A lot of them didn’t even have much of a narthex. It wasn’t an ideal toddler environment, especially as there were very few other children. We mostly gave up on going to Mass together and did split Masses, as we still do when we have illness in the family. We eventually moved to an area with a lot of cry rooms/bigger narthexes and started going together again. I’d say our oldest only got the handle of sitting in the pew at 5, middle kid at 3ish (right after big sister) and our youngest has gotten OK in the pew around 4 (with occasional continuing issues).
Yep. The blogger “A Blog for my Mom” Has 5 children under 6, two of them twins who play off of eachother like nobody’s business. This is how they work it for their family.Xanthippe_Voorhees:
Yes, when our two oldest were little, we lived in the city in an area where (although there were many parishes) there weren’t any cry rooms because they were older churches. A lot of them didn’t even have much of a narthex. It wasn’t an ideal toddler environment, especially as there were very few other children. We mostly gave up on going to Mass together and did split Masses, as we still do when we have illness in the family. We eventually moved to an area with a lot of cry rooms/bigger narthexes and started going together again. I’d say our oldest only got the handle of sitting in the pew at 5, middle kid at 3ish (right after big sister) and our youngest has gotten OK in the pew around 4 (with occasional continuing issues).
(One little note–a too big narthex can also be problematic, as it offers so much scope for running madly back and forth.)
We once made the terrible error of sitting with our one-year-old in the middle of a frail Jesuit preacher’s fan club at the front of one these old city churches with no cry room or narthex (there being nowhere else to sit). The one-year-old (who was not even being especially loud or mobile) literally got hissed at by one of Father’s admirers. In fact, if memory serves, we might have gotten rebuked by two different ladies during the same Mass.
That sounds terrible. That’s what my previous parish has devolved into. Nearly a decade ago, I babysat for my friend, a single mom, so she could volunteer at a Confirmation retreat. It ended in a Mass that I brought her daughter to while she was still chaperoning the teens. It was Advent, Gaudete Sunday to be exact. My friends 3yo daughter was ENAMORED with father’s vestments.Xanthippe_Voorhees:
We once made the terrible error of sitting with our one-year-old in the middle of a frail Jesuit preacher’s fan club at the front of one these old city churches with no cry room or narthex (there being nowhere else to sit). The one-year-old (who was not even being especially loud or mobile) literally got hissed at by one of Father’s admirers. In fact, if memory serves, we might have gotten rebuked by two different ladies during the same Mass.
It was a pretty harrowing experience. Fortunately, I’ve never had anything like that happen before or since.
The My Little Pony vestment story is hilarious!That’s how nursery caused a parish to devolve in less than a decade.
Granted, the priest was no help. Many parishioners shared the drive of elders to get them to use the nursery—when before they were welcome. After someone on the parish committee remarked she was getting a number of complaints when her very quiet, clingy 2yo experiencing separation anxiety joined her for Mass, Father finally listened and agreed to address it.
His announcement consisted of a brief platitude about children being welcome in church, then went into how the nursey was good for parents because it allowed them to focus on Mass and good for children so they could form healthy attachments to caregivers other than their parents.