S/o Kids and church

[Joyful Tie Dyes]

DO you force your kids to attend and to sit quietly in church.

Someone in another thread posted they they expect their kids to sit through church under the threat of of dire punishments. This seems somehow counter to teaching them to love church.

Most churches I have been to have an alternative (children's activities) to sitting through the whole service for kids. Is this not common?

[eguisgirl]

I teach my children with clear expectations and positive reinforcement how to sit still in church. They have all attended since infancy and we do not have a problem with being quiet during the service. The 4 and 8 year old go to Children's liturgy for about z20-25 minutes during the readings and homily but then during the Eucharist they come back to the main Church. My 16 year old stays with us the whole time.

ETA: Just the other day they all sat through over 3 hours of Easter Vigil and did just fine with the exception of me saying "shhhh!" as a reminder to the older 2 on a couple of occasions.

[addicteddad]

Originally Posted by Joyful Tie Dyes DO you force your kids to attend and to sit quietly in church. Someone in another thread posted they they expect their kids to sit through church under the threat of of dire punishments. This seems somehow counter to teaching them to love church. Most churches I have been to have an alternative (children's activities) to sitting through the whole service for kids. Is this not common?

To the bolded, no I don't.

[Nerissa]

The boys attend church with me. I expect them to be as quiet as they can for thier age. I do not expect a 5 year old and a 3 year old to sit perfectly still and be completely quiet for an hour. They each have a small coloring book/colors to help them.

I do not use threats of punishment to make them sit still. Heck-- I have trouble sometimes sitting still and paying attention the entire time. Our minister is okay but gears his sermons more towards the older generations.

During normal church services we have singing time and then the boys go to "childrens church".

But during special services like Easter they had to sit during the whole thing. They did very well. We had to be there early so I packed them each a cup of milk and a small container of dry cereal and dried fruit. Plus they had their coloring stuff. I was pretty impressed with how quiet they were. They had thier moments but nothing horrible.

[JackieLyn]

Originally Posted by addicteddad To the bolded, no I don't.

me either...

[charise820]

Heathen here but dh has taken the older two to church a few times and hasn't had a huge issue but he has left early a few times one church he left in the middle of and they were 2 hours in to the service. Yes it was rude to leave but it wasn't a fit either.

Dh doesn't take dd or ds3 because we don't expect them to sit still they are children. this is why we only do drive ins for movies as well too because they can bounce around the car all they want while we watch a movie. and it's cheaper 10 a car load!

[charise820]

PS my kids are in my church all the time and not expected to be still but then again my church is nature

[syfitz]

If they come with me into the adult service they are expected to sit quietly. They have the option of attending the "children's church" service where they sing, dance, and play games. Sometimes they like to sit with me though, and they are quiet. They would be punished if they were disruptive.

[Joyful Tie Dyes]

OT but Charise I am SO jealous that you have a drive in!

[wordmama]

Our 5yo and 2.5yo sit through the first 15-20 minutes of singing and announcements before going to Sunday School. We bring snacks and small coloring books to help them stay quiet. They're mostly very good and I think it's a great chance to practice being quiet and still for short periods of time.

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