{"id":763,"date":"2003-09-22T10:21:20","date_gmt":"2003-09-22T15:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/?p=763"},"modified":"2003-09-22T10:21:20","modified_gmt":"2003-09-22T15:21:20","slug":"let-the-little","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2003\/09\/let-the-little\/","title":{"rendered":"Let the little children…."},"content":{"rendered":"

Eloquent reflections from Alicia<\/a>, Steven<\/a>, and Steven’s commenters <\/a>(don’t miss MLynn’s comments) on taking little ones to Mass.
\nI wish I had something to add. Even when alone, I fall so easily into distraction and sloth at Mass, and now I am struggling with keeping my child from running berserk in the Church as well. For a while my husband and I took turns going to Mass, but we missed going as a family. We also suspected that leaving Hambet at home wasn’t going to teach him a thing about behaving at Mass, and was depriving him of whatever baby graces the Lord has for His littlest ones.
\nIt is<\/i> getting better. Hambet is getting older, and that helps a lot. Having only a few rules, enforced swiftly and consistently, seems to help too:<\/p>\n

Whisper voice!
\nStay with Mommy and Daddy! (no running in the aisles)
\nand the newest, Sit on the seat! (no crawling under the pews)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yesterday was a particularly bad day (three ejections.) I hate the feeling of the glares in my back: Why can’t she keep that kid under control?<\/i> Maybe I am just imagining that part, but I know Hambet has become widely recognized around the parish — whever I attend Mass alone, people come up and ask me where he was!
\nAnd as I haul him out for the second or third time, I always see other little boys his age sitting placidly on the seats. Sometimes it’s because they’re munching their way through a bag of Cheerios, but often they’re just sitting there. (I see this other places — Hambet simply refuses to sit still and participate in organized activities, such as a story hour at the library. He’d much rather run around and check the place out.) I always wonder if I have an atypical child, or whether I’m just a bad parent….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eloquent reflections from Alicia, Steven, and Steven’s commenters (don’t miss MLynn’s comments) on taking little ones to Mass. I wish I had something to add. Even when alone, I fall so easily into distraction and sloth at Mass, and now I am struggling with keeping my child from running berserk in the Church as well.… Continue reading Let the little children….<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting-and-family-life","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}