Children And Sacrament

[shanstress70]

Luke 187:12 "And ye shall know my church by its abundant child care and hassle free sermons.

13 And if it proclaims the gospel in its fullness, having the priesthood and authority to act in the name of the Father and the Son yet it have no hassle free child care, it is surly of that evil one. Yay even the devil who wanted to take away the agency and free child care of man from the beginning.
[/b]

Not my point at all and I think you know that.

My point is that I learn during the sermon, my child learns during his lesson, and I don't get rude looks from bitter old ladies! However, I always have the option of keeping him with me, and do for about half of the service.

[ALatterDaySaint]

Of course I was just joking.

[shanstress70]

I know you were somewhat kidding, but I wanted to say that it wasn't about a 'hassle' for me.

[miztrniceguy]

wow....i guess i got a pretty good topic started...lol

seriously, tho...I think we are going to let my daughter start taking the sacrament, and we have started with having her learn about being reverent and sitting quietly until after sacrament has been passed. only then will she get to bring out her toys, etc

[Bob_oz]

A very interesting discussion, my wife and I have been through this 6 times and of course watched others do the same.

We decided to allow each child to participate as they desired and found if ma and pa were eating the bread and drinking the water they wanted to also, we made no demands just offered.

We taught that the Sacrament was a special time, toys or books came out only after the Sacrament and we selected a group of special items reserved for sacrament, quiet soft toys and gospel related books, there was always a parents knee and a cuddle and if they had to be taken out they came back in again or they sat quietly if we had to stay in the foyer. I am no expert but I have found children get to understand how to control a parent from a young age, do this and get that, we found that starting at day one you take control or else one day you wake up to a smiling child who is the new ruler of your life and don't they know it!

For the organised teaching of children we have Primary with some wonderful people but Sacrament is for all members to attend and is also a teaching opportunity and not just for those with children, those who show distaste at the conduct of others have an opportunity too.

I have found that in every sacrament meeting there is something for me if and when I am willing to listen to both what is said and what the Spirit has to tell me. All to often I depend on the quality speaker to reach me but I am slowly learning that those who are learning to give a good talk may some day have the quality if I give them my attention.

Sacrament meetings are 70 minutes of quality opportunity, I just hope I can do better this week and the week after to be worthy of the opportunity.

[Palerider]

We would always let our kids look at books or color after the Sacrament was blessed and passed....you just mentioned a great teaching method and that is.....children will do what they see their parents do....

[M98Ranger]

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Then they sit there with a screaming kid for the remainder of the passing instead of taking them out into the hall.

[/b]

This is a bit off-topic, but I was always bothered by the fact that I was constantly bothering someone when I was attending LDS sacrament mtg. When my child (notably between 12 and 18 months) would start being loud, as most kids do at that age, I would take him out in the foyer. The times I didn't, I got horrible looks. However, my MIL and others would give me crap bc "He will learn that all he has to do is be loud and act up, and then he won't have to sit there. He can go out in the hall." I felt like I could never win.

IMO, if you attend a church that doesn't have a nursery, you need to expect some moises and interruptions from children... it's just their nature. And do you really think Jesus would be annoyed by children making noise? No, I'm pretty sure he's look back at them and smile.
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I absolutely agree. And I don't beleive I am going against the science of child development/child psychology when I say that regardless of whether or not a child is able to be manipulative a child can develop behaviors based on the fact that a child finds out, "Hey, if I scream during Sacrement I get taken out and Mommy or Daddy plays with/entertains/takes care of me."

You do need to work with your children at home to get them to react better and quicker in situations such as church meetings. However, children cry. Thats what they do. Often times people have to take responsibility for themselves to feel the spirit regardless of whether or not there is a crying child in the background. Its difficult to not get frustrated when things like that happen. But as for me, I look at the development of my child and if I think that in order to teach them that it is going to help them more to stay in sacrament then to take them out then I will stay regardless of whether or not people want to allow themselves to focus on the annoying child behind them.

When President Spencer W. Kimball's Home teacher noticed that he didn't take the sacrament once, the president explained, [paraphrased of course] "My wife was at home sick and I was so worried about her I couldn't concentrate on Christ and his atonement for my sins. Consequently, I decided that it would be unworthy of me to take the sacrament and I declined."

The president took responsibility for his own actions of not thinking about the sacrament, even though it was for a very innocent reason not of his making and out of his control. I think that often others would benefit from his example in this instance.

I am not saying that I don't advocate taking a child out of Sacrament when they are exceptionally disruptive. HOwever, WHEN (I have children obviously) I do take my children out, they recieve a timeout and a remittance of some privelege or property (there is no good natural consequence for disrupting spiritual meetings when you are young, but you can certainly contrive some good ones ie. taking away a toy they like or some such for a period of time). So long as you let them know immediately what the consequence is, make sure the punishment fits the behavior and do not ever renegotiate on your "fitting punishment" the child will quickly (sometimes not so quickly) conform to the proper behaviors most of the time. My children consequently do not act out in sacrament but very rarely.

[kabah]

My wife and I are struggling. We know children don't need the sacrament, as they are innocent until the age of accountability.

The problem: my wife doesn't want our almost 3 yr old to partake since she doesn't need it. I agree, but it is getting to be a struggle keeping her out of the trays as they are passed. My problem....I am afraid that my daughter will feel excluded as she sees all the other kids her age partaking. I am afraid she will think she is being punished, as she is too young to understand she doesn't need it.

any suggestions?
[/b]

i have three daughters (6yrs 4yrs and 19mths) all 3 partake they even try for seconds! go with what you feel comfortable with

My wife and I are struggling. We know children don't need the sacrament, as they are innocent until the age of accountability.

The problem: my wife doesn't want our almost 3 yr old to partake since she doesn't need it. I agree, but it is getting to be a struggle keeping her out of the trays as they are passed. My problem....I am afraid that my daughter will feel excluded as she sees all the other kids her age partaking. I am afraid she will think she is being punished, as she is too young to understand she doesn't need it.

any suggestions?
[/b]

i have three daughters (6yrs 4yrs and 19mths) all 3 partake they even try for seconds! go with what you feel comfortable with