Comments on: More on Babies and Church-Going

By: Nicci

Nicci — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:05:25 +0000

Just wanted to pop in and say while I agree on various aspects of your parenting ( I am a mother to 4 children all naturally spaced by breastfeeding, ages ranging from 1-6, who cloth diapers, and doesn’t feel comfortable outsourcing my parenting to those I don’t know VERY well), I am not sure I agree 100 percent on the church having to accomidate you. Our ideas are just that you do what you need to for your child and continue attending church. If you must step out a few times and miss part of the sermon, this was in God’s plans. Sometimes I think he is working on training us in these situations. Even though we selfishly want to continue to listen to the sermon for our own good, our child needs something, and we must self sacrifice in order to do that. Sometimes, the sermon isn’t the lesson; the baby is the lesson. While yes, it would be easier to have a seperate nursery and area to ourselves, we are not entitled to that. I have been taking 4 kids (all born within 5 years) to church with me since they were babies, and while there are times when I must leave because someone is crying, someone needs diciplined, someone needs changed, I do believe that our children are learning self control. I would say just continue to go to church like you do and nurse in the service – use a blanket and be discrete, exit the service if the baby is being blatently dissruptive (cooing to me is not dissruptive), you may miss a couple of sermons, but in the long run you are a more patient and sacrificial mother. Just my two cents.

By: Children in Church

Children in Church — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:48:09 +0000

[...] More on Babies and Church-Going [...]

By: Life on the Road | Baby at Church - the Ongoing Saga

Life on the Road | Baby at Church - the Ongoing Saga — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:06:10 +0000

[...] have posted several times on the issues surrounding babies and church-going (the latest is here). Recently, a comment was added, reading, I hear your stated needs, but I just wanted to say that [...]

By: shi

shi — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:42:19 +0000

I hear your stated needs, but I just wanted to say that a cry room doesn’t seem to me to be any better than having a recording of the service played at home. There is no opportunity for you to sing, haul out your Bible and read, greet, and share in communion when you’re behind glass or in another room. I just can’t see how this is teaching kids anything…

Forgive me for being so forward, but I say let the nursery and children’s church workers teach your kids in those “age appropriate ways”. Your baby doesn’t want to be in church. He wants to play on a floor somewhere. Let him. And let the other people worship uninterrupted.

Church is supposed to be a family, too, and that family deserves the chance to be together, focused, for just one hour a week, don’t they? That’s hard to do with babies crying and children making even innocent disruptions. Satan will use any distraction he can to get people away from hearing the word, even perfectly innocent ones.

I just wanted to put out a counter argument here. It’s a hard, gutwrenching issue for some people, and my heart goes out to you.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:36:06 +0000

Thank you for writing this!

It seems like everyone makes me feel like a weirdo because I think it’s important for our family to worship together, as an entire unit. For the past two weeks I have left my daughter (3 mo) in the nursery, and I hate it.

I did it so she wouldn’t distract other parishioners, but I really feel like I am being forced to compromise my beliefs on how important it is for our family to share the worship experience as a whole.

As she gets older, I would also like her to learn appropriate behavior in the church setting, as opposed to attending a type of Children’s Church (which in our church goes thru 12th grade!).

It’s just so nice to know that I’m not alone in wishing there were a compromise available. A “cry room” would work perfectly!

By: Kidcessory Haven

Kidcessory Haven — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:27:08 +0000

This is such an important subject that I’ve never seen touched on before.
I cannot tell you how frustrated I was not to be able to attend church services when my two children were babies.
I am going to copy your letter to send to my own church.

You have a great blog and hope you can check out mine too!

Lisa

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:36:25 +0000

I wanted to write about how young children are accommodated at our church here in Noblesville. The nursery, about 50 ft from the Sanctuary, is only for children 3 years old and older. Parents of younger children either sit with the general congregation or in the “Cry” room, which is located on the back wall of the Sanctuary. The wall facing the altar is glass. From what I’ve noticed, furniture comes in assorted sizes and includes adult and child size rockers, etc. Changing tables are in the ladies rooms about 50 ft from the sanctuary. I suspect that nursing mothers go to the back of the room to nurse because of privacy issues. I know there is a sound system in the room. What I find interesting is that the nursery will not care for infants but does accommodate wiggly toddlers until they are old enough to go to the Children’s Liturgy when they are in Kindergarten. In our tradition, children enter the sanctuary with their parents, are invited to leave – K-grade 5 – the Sanctuary to go to Children’s Liturgy before the Scripture readings begin. They then have their children’s version of the appropriate readings and an activity that relates to the reading. They return to their parents after the sermon – they’re gone about 20-25 minutes total. Seems to work. Most Catholic churches use the same model so you probably could call around and find the people – usually women – who put this together in each parish.