Do you bring your children to church? I don't mean taking the to the building on Sunday morning and hiding in a cry room or hall or bathroom or the steps outside. I mean do you actually take your children into the church to worship? I take the ninja to church (almost) every Sunday, and the looks of shock and awe I get for arriving on time and staying through the service astound me. What else would I do? God has given me responsibility for this little precious soul, why would I ignore the spiritual nourishment that is the church?
All too often in Orthodox circles I notice mothers being made to feel like they have to remove their children from the liturgy for making a peep. Children are noisy,inquisitive, and active beings that learn about the space around them by participating in it. Parents either arrive in time for Communion, or they arrive late but scamper off to the hall with their children until then. People joke with me that my 12 month old has better church attendance than most of the adults they know. It's a strange phenomenon.
I know firsthand how much of a challenge it can be to keep a child quiet enough to be respectful in church when they are just too busy being children to care that mama needs them to hush. Ninja baby has never been a quiet child. She was born howling at the top of her little barely used lungs, and she's hardly been silent since. She cried for her entire 45 minute baptism service, she cried for her churching, this child even cried when her Godmother took her to communion the first time. She did stop crying when they put the spoon in her mouth though. Come to think of it, at 12 months old this is still the only point in the service when I can guarantee that she will be ok. I guess she just loves communion!
These days I still spend a good deal of time pacing out into the breezeway with a fussy ninja, only to pace right back into church the moment she is happier. I can't count the number of times I have seen a parent setting up camp in the church hall-through the breezeway and double doors- having full plans to stay there with their child until communion.What I find most frustrating about these parents is that they are the ones who are treated as "normal" by my parish. Everyone seems to understand being in the hall, or breezeway, or outside until communion, but being present during the worship is seen as abnormal. "I don't know how you do it" they tell me, with a shake of their head. I also get disapproving looks because I allow ninja to venerate the icons repeatedly throughout the service (which is totally and completely permitted outside of the Cherubic hymn, the Our Father, The Creed, and the Gospel reading), for allowing her to walk around while I follow her(We have no pews! everyone paces a little!), I even get looks for letting her make a little noise now and then- she wants to sing along to the music too!
What do you think, am I oversensitive? Do I put too much stock into participation? Or is the trend of keeping your child isolated from Christ's community not as bad as it feels to me?
