Your kids are so good in church!
Concordian Sisters of Perpetual Parturition: Your kids are so good in church!
People tell me this fairly often. I’m glad if they think this, because most weeks, I disagree. But if it’s someone my age saying it, it’s usually followed by, “That’s why we don’t come very often. Ours just won’t behave.” I want to ask them why they think my kids are good in church. Could it be because I take them, without fail, at least twice every week (once on Sunday, once to the Wednesday night Low Mass which is of course shorter, but without any of those helpful musical breaks to drown out some shouting)? Furthermore, it takes some effort to get them to be good. Most days my “Thanks be to God” is in reference to the wrestling match ending almost as much as it is for all that salvific business. It is tiring to keep a very little person happy enough to be quiet for an hour, and trying at the same time to make it really be church for the older ones (helping them sing, say the Creed, fold their hands, etc.).
