4Real Forums: Mass & 2 yr olds!

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

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Topic: Mass & 2 yr olds!

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melanie
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Joined: June 28 2007
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Posted: June 29 2007 at 9:44pm \| IP Logged

My two year old will be three in October. Until he was about 18 months old, he was good as gold in mass. People used to come up to me after mass and ooh and ahh over how happy and content he was in mass all the time. They don't do that anymore...lol. The 18 months-2 years age was worst for us. He was hauled out of mass every week. Now he usually makes it through, though not always. But it's always a struggle for sure, and I feel like we disrupt everyone around us. So I sympathize. We do bring a spill proof sippy cup of milk. Probably shouldn't have started that, but it's become a crutch now and until he's three I will probably let that go. We don't take any toys. I will take a couple of the little Father Lovasik books or something like that and break them out during the readings/homily and encourage him to look through those. When they can read even a little, we move them onto the childrens' missal instead. We also attend a weekday mass on Thursdays and this goes much better. Oh, and we sit right up front so that they can see what's going on as well.

For what it's worth, they do learn eventually. :) My 10yo was just as rowdy a toddler in mass, and by 4 or so she was doing great. My 7yo nephew had never been to a mass before when he came to live with us a year ago, and with his severe ADHD and general 6 years of lousy parenting, taking him to mass was nothing short of a nightmare. Many, many Sundays I hauled his shrieking 80 pound rear end to the car...lol. But he is now nearly as good as the 10 year old.

SeaStar
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Joined: Sept 16 2006
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Posted: July 01 2007 at 7:09am \| IP Logged

Also chiming in late here-

At our church, we have to arrive 15-20 minutes early to get a seat, so that extra time added on to the regular mass makes it very hard to make it through the whole service with a 2 yo. I find that dd usually is good for 40-45 minutes, and the rest is a struggle.

The cry room is a wild circus of kids running around, playing, yelling, talking, eating... my kids get upset if we have to go in there. And it is so hot in the summer here and buggy that we can't go outside or sit in the car. I have stopped bringing toys and books- that was just making things worse: dropping crayons, books, spreading them out all over, etc.

Now we have a "try it and see how it goes" attitude. Every Sunday we go to mass, and if the 2 yo is very rowdy and we can't go outside with her because of the weather, we quietly leave mass. We do our best to make it through- I hate leaving. But some days it's all too crazy. I should add that our church is very crowded- seats are set up on Sunday in the vestibule, so there is no indoor place to retreat with a toddler other than outside.

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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)

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