Monday, November 9, 2009

Reverently, Quietly

Every Sunday, I am reminded of why I dread Sundays.

I LOVE going to church. I have a stronger testimony of the gospel than I have ever had. I love to partake of the Sacrament to renew the covenants that I have made with my Heavenly Father. I enjoy teaching the sweet CTR 8 class (the 7 year old kids that have almost all turned 8 by this time of the year). I love socializing with the other members of my ward. I am happy to have a reason to dress up nicely, do my hair and wear make up. I love having my husband with me nearly all day long.

But....I don't like trying to keep Bug reverent and quiet during Sacrament meeting. The hubs thinks Sundays are great now that Bug is old enough to go into nursery for the last two hours of church. Unfortunately, nursery doesn't take care of the first hour.

I bring assorted snacks. A full sippy cup. Books. Puppets. Pens. Paper. LDS action figures (which are actually made by a Brother in my very ward!). And other toys. They don't work. Bug throws things. Whines. Screams, sometimes. Crawls around. And does everything he can to be generally disruptive and very irreverent.

I struggle to keep Bug as quiet and reverent as possible. Then, when my hair starts to get too messed up, and my face is flushed with the effort...Bug gets taken out to the hallway, by either the husband or myself. It is so embarrassing to have to leave the chapel so often. Because, you know when you come back in, Bug will only last five more minutes before he needs to be taken out again.

Sometimes, I feel like I am the only mom with a psychotic non-reverent, non-quiet kid. Please tell me you guys have irreverent kids, too!!!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Let me tell you about my "reverant" children....
Two Sundays ago we were actually a little early to church (usually we are late). We got to sit in a pew and everything! We sat in front of our neighbors who live across the street. They only have one baby about 6 months or so. Daija is old enough to be kinda good, except for the constant jibber jabber. Kyla likes to lay on the floor or sit on Chad's lap. This particular Sunday Chase decided it was his duty to pick on our backyard neighbor who was sitting in front of us. He threw his diaper wipes container at him. When I grabbed it from him it became a game to see how many times he could try to hit the guy with something and if I could catch it before slamming into the back of his head! If I try to hold him he screams this high pitched extremely loud scream! Talk about reverant...my kids are the best! :)

TopHat said...

I don't think toddlers can be reverent. It's just not how they're wired. :) Margaret likes to run out, so we've found that sitting in the middle of the big pew is effective for keeping her from running down the aisles. She's fairly afraid of strangers and having strangers on both sides of us deters her from leaving.

But yeah. Sometimes there's not much you can do.

Mimi Collett said...

Don't be embarrassed about leaving the chapel! You wrote "so often," but I'm sure no one else knows how many times you come and go but yourself. Jill always sounds a million times louder to me than she does to other people (or everyone is just trying to make me feel better haha).

Sara, Nick, and kids said...

my kids are perfect. sorry. totally don't know where you are coming from

Sara, Nick, and kids said...

i totally hope you know i was just kidding! since you guys sit in the front... you probably don't notice mine... but the back half of the congregation does:) that's why i always sit in the back... i don't think people care very much and all the others whos kids act like mine sit in the back with me.
hey i totally am bringing gold AND silver ornaments so make sure you are there!!

Scotty said...

Our issue with sitting in the middle of a middle isle is that bug isn't afraid of strangers. In fact that would be the most enjoyable thing to him having all these new people to terrorize...

Hercules Family said...

Mallory, just wait until you have 2 kids that are not reverent!! We have a backpack diaper bag packed with stuff, and some times it's still not enough. But now, Joshie blows rasberrys the WHOLE time. So everyone turns and looks at him. What do you do with that? It's not like he is crying, it's quit the opposite, he is to happy and wants to share his happiness with the whole congregation! haha... I guess we just have to enjoy these moments while we have them right? Oh, and we are driving to OH right after church on Sun. 22, so planning on being there Mon. night, and then leaving that Sat. Will you guys be coming for Thanksgiving so we can see you?

Rachel Sue said...

My son loves nursery so much that I have, more than once, had to carry him out of the chapel screaming, "Class! Class!"

Jessica said...

um, i PROMISE that our 3-ring circus at the back of the chapel is MUCH more distracting than yours is! :) seriously, though, church is hard with kids. you are definitely not alone in feeling that way.

Science rocks! said...

Oh Lily can be the worst! She won't take nap because she has usually slept in the car on the way there... so she is up and ready to go. OR, she is HUNGRY, and want to eat, then she's up and ready to go! Either way, she doesn't want to sit still. We are almost always late, so we sit where ever there is space... and I hardly ever get to enjoy a service anymore, because Lily wants her mommy to hold her... (sigh)