Nicole Steele Wooldridge is a Seattle churchgoer and mom who ponders whether it’s worth the effort required to take her small children to church. Responding to a friend’s Facebook rant about families who arrive late and leave services early each Sunday, she writes:
The fact is, children at Mass are distracting – to those around them and, most especially, to their parents. Prayerful reverence is not easily practiced with a fussy baby in your lap and a squirmy preschooler at your side. There have been multiple occasions in which, nerves frayed and feeling far less peaceful than I did before the start of Mass, I wonder if it was even worth it to attend.
Yet something inside me always answers “Yes!” I believe there is value in attending Mass with kids… Even when it means enduring the walk of shame up to the only open pew (at the very front of the church, naturally) during the Gospel Alleluia, or spending the entire hour shushing and chasing my two-year-old, or willing myself not to engage in a glaring war with a man who disapproves of nursing in church.
Read her full post at messyjesusbusiness.com. During services at our church, some families choose not to leave their small children, however noisy, in the nursery. What is the best way to respond to the noise and hubbub that ensues?