Noisy kids in Sacrament

[paw722]

I wonder if this would be ok to do. The kids are so noisy in sarament meeting I was thinking about making little bags for each of them with some crayons, pape,r fish crackers and maybe a few other things. Would mothers take offense to this gesture?

[Eowyn]

I'd probably look at you sideways a little. But then I'm one of those anomalies that actually takes my kids out as soon as they're loud, and tries to teach them to be quiet in meetings. The moms who are clueless about how disruptive their little angels are would probably be just as clueless as to why you'd hand them a bag of stuff.

But yeah, I think you might be overstepping a bit to do that. You don't know whether they want their kids coloring in meetings or eating fish crackers, anyway. When I worked in nursery in my old ward, there was a family who didn't want their kid having anything with artificial colors or flavors. That was fun.

[beefche]

I learned to sit closer to the front to avoid the more disruptive kids.

[Jennarator]

I was in a ward that you could never hear the speakers, ever. I wish parents would get a clue. Take your kids out when they are loud!

[MasterOrator]

No offense, but that is a horrible idea. You will surely offend people... Instead you might wish to exercise a little bit of understanding.

I am a parent who makes the choice to wait a bit before I take them out. Mainly because I actually want to hear the talks. I find it difficult to cut a good talk off and leave with children.

[anatess]

Originally Posted by Jennarator

I was in a ward that you could never hear the speakers, ever. I wish parents would get a clue. Take your kids out when they are loud!

The ward here in Texas is the same way! Check this out... they have close to 100 kids in Primary with about 30 of them in nursery... and there's only 2 Young Men that is eligible to pass the sacrament. Everytime I turn while walking from class to class I see pregnant women.

Anyway, if they had to take the kids out everytime they make noises, you'd have half the meeting out on the hallway.

In the Catholic Cathedral, the ceilings are so high, the walls stone, the microphones booming. Children noises gets swallowed up in the cavernous place and the echo of the mic.

So, I'm thinking we can get the speakers heard by just setting the microphones to LOUD.

[Eowyn]

Originally Posted by MasterOrator

I am a parent who makes the choice to wait a bit before I take them out. Mainly because I actually want to hear the talks. I find it difficult to cut a good talk off and leave with children.

What about all the people who can't hear the talks because of your kids?

It's our responsibility as parents to teach children to be considerate of the people around them. We do that by example. Part of that example is taking them out when they're being disruptive and telling them why: they're not being reverent, and they're making it impossible for other people to hear.

And for goodness' sake, make it less enjoyable to go out of the meeting than it would be to sit quietly and color or look at books.

[MasterOrator]

Originally Posted by MasterOrator

No offense, but that is a horrible idea. You will surely offend people... Instead you might wish to exercise a little bit of understanding.

I am a parent who makes the choice to wait a bit before I take them out. Mainly because I actually want to hear the talks. I find it difficult to cut a good talk off and leave with children.

I guess I need to exercise understanding myself . Having to deal with two baby daughters has conditioned me to zone them out. I am sure parents are like that in your ward also. From now on, I will try to take them out more.

My daughters are 18 months and 5 months. In addition, I usually pass the Sacrament. Nonetheless, my wife and I will try harder to take them out.

[Gwen]

It would upset me.

I intentionally don't bring a lot of stuff for my kids to play with and no snacks. Maybe it sounds mean but I've always gotten compliments on my kids behavior at church and even my 4 yr old sits reverently for sacrament.

There were RS sisters that would give my kids candy while I was trying to teach them to be quiet. I finally asked in RS that they not do that. In effect they were rewarding bad behavior. However, I didn't mind them bringing a little something and making church a treat for the kids, so if they would like to give them something after church if they were reverent in sacrament meeting then I was ok with that. They reacted very well to that. Every Sunday the kids knew who had the treats and then the sister would say "go ask your mom if you were reverent" and the kids would have to get my permission first. Then the sisters took it a step further and stopped bringing treats on fast Sunday to further teach them, I loved that.

Then our branch combined with another and a lot of ppl from that branch eat the entire 3 hrs and pass out food. It was a rough transition. Instead of correcting them like I did before (because my kids are older now) I talked to the kids about saying no or asking "can you hold it until after church?". That went over amazingly well. I had a couple of sisters come to me about how my kids politely corrected them about food in church. The eating still goes on but not near as bad as before.

We have more kids in the branch than we did before. My kids are self monitored well enough that I will take other ppl's kids out for them so they can enjoy the meeting.

One thing that happened recently that made me proud is a sister brought her grand-daughter that was about 4 yrs old. My 4 yr old went to her before church and they were talking, my daughter asked if she could sit with her. I said "only if you can show her how to be reverent". She sat with her and they were sooo reverent. Then later grandma came to me and said that her grand-daughter didn't want to go to primary and was scared when she got there but my daughter being so kind to her really changed things and she went to primary and had a lot of fun. She is hoping she will come again.

If you really want to change things bring a bag of candy. Ask the parents before if you may reward kids you see being reverent after church with one piece. Then watch the meeting for the good kids, make a note of who they are and then after church go to them and say "I saw you being sooo reverent during sacrament. Thank you" and give them the candy. I promise you word will get around and you will have a better result than bringing treats for the noisy ones.

[paw722]

When my children were younger if they didn't sit quiet I would take them out swat them on the butt and go back in. They learned to sit quiet. My ward is very small and I find it hard to listen to the speakers because of screaming children. They do have quietrooms in the bathrooms with speakers so one could listen to sacrament meeting in there. I just feel discouraged and like I don't want to go anymore just to listen to noisy children.