Take a 20 month old and let the fun, begin! We went to mass* with the big kid's school today after a 4 month hiatus. The wee one would fuss and squirm to an extent I wasn't willing to endure. With the Baron's recent departure to the European continent, I told the big kid we'd give it another go. She's missing him and needs all the extra support I can muster.
The difficulties begin with a drop-off time that is 20 or so minutes prior to mass. I need to keep the wee one content that much longer. No small task, I assure you. As soon as we enter the absolute soundless church, my anxiety begins. This silence won't last long. As if on cue, the lights are raised. The wee one takes to announcing the brightening of each of the 20 or so hanging light fixtures. "Liiight! Light! Liiiggghhht..."
Then, the silence is broken again by the charming guitarist. Apparently, the wee one isn't a fan of soft strumming as she announces, "Noisy!" a dozen or so times. Through all of this, I'm smiling and nodding at the turning heads. Once her sister enters the sanctuary, with her class, everyone is introduced, fifty times over, to "Big Kid!" The big kid sheepishly lumbers over to sit with us.
The entire congregation is then treated to the wee one's rendition of "O, Holy Night" (which she is still singing, as I type this.) She babbles through most of the service. Something sparks a series of "Eeewww!"s and "Nuh-Uuuhhh!"s that can not be quieted. At one point, the big kid NEEDS to go to the bathroom. I am almost certain the priest waited until we were back in our seats, on the other side of the room, before continuing.
Because she is talking, loudly, through the Holy Gospel, I try to reason with the wee one by explaining everyone else is being quiet and blah, blah, blah. She screams, "NO, Mama!" in my face and then goes about chattering some more.
As a grand finale, the entire bag of cereal I brought to keep her busy, is dumped, on purpose, all over the floor. It kept someone busy, but it wasn't the wee one.
*I am not Catholic which is why we sit in the back. I try to avoid sticking out because I don't know all the "stuff" Catholics do during their mass. So much for being inconspicuous.
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3 days ago
2 comments:
Yeah... stuff like that is exactly why I gave up on trying to take our family to Mass, and we started going to a loud, noisy, crazy evangelical church. Me, personally? I still prefer the quiet and ritual of the Catholic Mass, but I just got so stressed out trying to shush everyone, etc. that it wasn't worth it. I remember when it was time to kneel, one of the kids decided it was a great time to bounce on the calves of the elderly people in the pew with us.
This is exactly why we stopped going to Mass, as well. But, now E requests to go and I just leave C with D. However, he may be leaving soon so we'll go back to being bad Catholics. Sigh.
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