I gave a dirty glare to an elderly woman. And her husband. I gave them about a 30 second mean glare-in Church!
Here's what happened. You see, we've been avoiding the cry room with our son. At our church, the cry room tends to become a play room. Ds doesn't settle in the cry room. He does the OPPOSITE. We're trying to teach him that you don't do that in church.
So we sat where it had previously worked out with ds. It's to the right of the altar, kind of where the old choir loft was. So it's not directly in front of the priest or anything, and it's less intrusive when ds acts up.
He was out of sorts in church. It bugged me, but he is only two. Well he had 2 tantrums in a row. As I was picking him up to take him out when the second one hit, this elderly woman and her husband both turn and give me this mean old look, as if to say "can't you control your child!"
And seeing their glances at us earlier, I got pissed. Truly irritated. So I held my son and glared back at them. Immature of me, not very Christian, but I did it.
Is it just me? Or does anyone else get sick of people staring in Church when your child makes noise? Our son isn't being obnoxious or terribly disruptful. I definitely remove him from distracting others at that point. But we are ALL examples in church. Like it or not, when these people glare at us for our son's noise level, they're teaching him to stare. And they're sending me the message that they don't appreciate us being there. What? Would they rather us NOT bring our family to church?
I have such low tolerance for this. Staring doesn't help. It's already bad enough my son is acting up. Adults should know better than to draw more attention to the situation. And on top of it all, they are making me feel unwelcome.
This is one of my greatest pet-peeves.
5 comments:
I'm not a fan of cry rooms either, for the very same reason. We don't have a cry room, so my husband or I just go to the back of the Church, but then my two year old son currently has become great entertainment for the ushers.
I don't like crabby old people. Happy old farts are fun, but the crabby one's can stay in their houses and stop hogging the grocery store isle any time they want!
I couldn't agree with you more!
The same sort of thing happened today during Mass. I kid was sitting directly behind me and was playing with his parents' keys. Immediately, many older women turned around to look at the kid. Since he was sitting directly behind me, it looked as if they were looking at me. Let me say, that is not a comfortable feeling! I wish I could just say, "Hey! There is something quite a bit more important going on in the other direction--you know, at the altar!!"
My grandparents are like that. I love them immensely, but they can be downright rude at times. Why are so many older people like that? I plan on being a very happy older person!! LOL!
Stick with your plan to be a happy old person! I fully support it! lol
These people just don't remember that their children were probably just as "terrible" as your kid was. A thousand years definitely clouds a memory. Every generation likes to say that they were better than the current crop of youngsters... but really, it's just the same drama, different century.
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