Sunday, March 8, 2009

It Had To Be Said, also know as "A Rant"

My children are not well behaved in church. I am under no delusion that they are. They are fidgety, bored, antsy, and sometimes, yes, loud. I would greatly prefer to skip attending church from approximately age 2 to age 5. I am also of the belief that if they don’t attend, they won’t learn how to behave as well as not get in the practice of going to church.

Lauren, at 5 3/4 is just being able to mostly sit through mass without great incident. Tucker, however is another story. Idle threats and cajoling most certainly do not work with Tucker. It is sometimes a constant battle to keep him quiet in mass. It is not fun and is embarrassing at times.

However. This morning in mass, I was absolutely shocked when a lady in church turned around and loudly shushed Tucker. I was so caught off guard and offended that I gave her A Dirty Look, to which she saw and added "Please" to her shush. I mean, really, lady? Shushing a two year old, who you do not know and are not otherwise involved with? You think that will correct the behavior? It royally pissed me off. What I envisioned saying to her, had we not been in church and all, was the nicest and ugliest thing I could think of: "I’m so sorry. I sincerely hope that one day when you have children, people will be a little more understanding." (if only I'd had the chance to say it...)

It is just a reminder to me to always think before you speak (or shush). You don’t know what someone else is going through. Especially with parenting. Parenting is hard, and if you haven’t been there - as this lady OBVIOUSLY has not - you cannot possibly understand the effort involved in doing something as simple as attending mass on Sunday.

Can I get an Amen?

1 comment:

The Hookers said...

Amen, Amen. What a bi*ch. I can't handle people who do such tacky things in church. Once a lady fussed at a kid for bringing a bottle of water into church with him. I glared at that lady because, I could assure her, there were alot more places that that teenager would probably have rather been. Jesus loved water, anyway. Jesus loves kids, for that matter. He would much rather play with Tucker than socailize with the pharisees.