My bishop is awesome: assigned seating

[FMCoug]

Originally Posted by jay santos

I don't make an effort to "control" my kids. I let kids be kids. Sometimes I even take a sadistic pleasure in watching old people freak out when my toddler tosses his cheerios at them. They grow out of it over time.

My parenting opinion: the more you "control" them at a young age the more problems you create for them at a later age.

Am I the only one who thought "Oh, one of THOSE families" when I read this? Every ward has at least one. Yikes.

[Mormon Red Death]

Originally Posted by jay santos

I don't make an effort to "control" my kids. I let kids be kids. Sometimes I even take a sadistic pleasure in watching old people freak out when my toddler tosses his cheerios at them. They grow out of it over time.

My parenting opinion: the more you "control" them at a young age the more problems you create for them at a later age.

In my parents old ward there would have been a couple of people who would come up to you afterward with "are you going to spank that kid or am I going to have to do it?"

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by FMCoug

Am I the only one who thought "Oh, one of THOSE families" when I read this? Every ward has at least one. Yikes.

I suppressed that initial reaction.

BY's axiomatic statement comes to mind, "in the chapel, crying children, like good intentions, should be carried out."

We had a great family who adopted Jay's hands-off policy, the son would run through the chapel during sacrament, ruffle through the curtains, pull on the linens, and make a ruckus. Loads of fun for the parents.

I don't know where he is now.

[SoCalCoug]

Originally Posted by danimal

Wow -- we missed a great Sunday. We're chronically late and the only place there is to sit is right up front. I hate doing the walk of shame up to the front -- dragging our rowdy 5 year-old along the way -- and then dragging him out to the foyer when he tries to play spiderman on the front row. We'll see you in the back next week

Quick hijack.

I've got a story about the "walk of shame" into church.

My parents had seven kids at the time, including a new baby. My dad dropped my mom and the kids off at the front door and then went off to park the van. We went into the chapel just before the meeting started and sat up near the front on the far side of the chapel. My dad came back from parking the van and sat down with us. Sacrament meeting was just starting.

Then my mom leaned over to him and whispered, "Where's the baby?"

So, while the announcements and opening song were going on, my dad had to stand up, walk down the aisle and then across the back, go outside, grab the baby in the infant seat from the van where he had left him, and then carry the baby back into the chapel, all the way across the back and up the aisle to our seat.

I don't think anyone had to ask what happened.

[danimal]

Originally Posted by SoCalCoug

Quick hijack.

I've got a story about the "walk of shame" into church.

My parents had seven kids at the time, including a new baby. My dad dropped my mom and the kids off at the front door and then went off to park the van. We went into the chapel just before the meeting started and sat up near the front on the far side of the chapel. My dad came back from parking the van and sat down with us. Sacrament meeting was just starting.

Then my mom leaned over to him and whispered, "Where's the baby?"

So, while the announcements and opening song were going on, my dad had to stand up, walk down the aisle and then across the back, go outside, grab the baby in the infant seat from the van where he had left him, and then carry the baby back into the chapel, all the way across the back and up the aisle to our seat.

I don't think anyone had to ask what happened.

Hilarious -- well, except for the baby. Reminds me of a time our hometeachers visited. One of the guys had a new baby. About half way through the visit he says "oh crap," gets up, and runs out of our house. He came back in a minute later from the car with his baby.

[MikeWaters]

I read about babies dying in cars all the time. Scares me to death even to consider the fact it is possible.

[FMCoug]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I read about babies dying in cars all the time. Scares me to death even to consider the fact it is possible.

The scariest part about it is every time I hear one of those stories, I can imagine it happening. Busy mom, running around, bunch of kids, baby falls asleep, etc.

Seems like for a while there this was happening annually here in DFW.

[danimal]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I read about babies dying in cars all the time. Scares me to death even to consider the fact it is possible.

Way too often there are stories about dads forgetting their kids in the car. It freaks me out too. When I was a stay-at-home dad I used to freak out sometimes when I would drive without my son because I'd think I accidentally left him somewhere.

[non sequitur]

Originally Posted by jay santos

Why do I feel like I'm being set up?

It's my wife's theory more than mine. We both came from extremely strict LDS famililies. She studied Child Development at BYU and was influenced there. I would probably be tougher on them at a younger age if left to my own doing. But she believes in almost no discipline under the age of 2 or 3. And then slowly adding on discipline starting about then, but much less than typical. That the concepts of being loved unconditionally are much more important than teaching discipline at that age. Our kids seem to become miraculously well behaved once they hit 4 or 5, so it seems to work for us. Knock on wood because we're just hitting the teenage years. And my theory is more that they come to you from heaven with their personalities and they're going to be who they are going to be no matter what you do to them.

P.S. I probably come across to much bragging in this post that I have the key to child raising. Far from the truth. I think I'm mostly lucky I just have good kids.

That's a fine parenting philosophy as long you don't let your kids out in public. If you allow them in public and you refuse to control them, then you're just being rude. It's not just about your kids. It's also about the rest of us who have to suffer your kids.

[MikeWaters]

If the parent of the kid in my ward hadn't run over to grab him, should I let him pull down the sacrament cloth? I half got up to grab him, but the father finally stood up.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Touch someone else's kid, or let a huge disruption occur.