I don't want to brag, but if getting kids ready for church in the morning was an Olympic sport, I would own a million gold medals.
If it were the Grammy's, I wouldn't have to rush the stage like ODB from the Wu Tang Clan to grab the mic from Shawn Colvin and yell, “Wu Tang is for the children,” because I'd already be up there accepting an award.
If it were the Oscars, I'd have a veritable army of bald headed golden men marching across my mantle.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, "I'm good at getting my kids ready for Sunday School."
I wasn't always though. I used to fumble my way through the morning, duplicating efforts with my wife, putting on shoes backwards and creating pony tails that jutted out from odd angles off the side of my daughters' heads like lighthouses made of hair.
But can you blame me?
For some reason, every kid on the planet is wired to go crazy on Sunday morning. They might have been beacons of joy and helpfulness and flexibility all week, but come Sunday morning they turn into slippery little spider monkeys who are determined to make you late to church.
So what's my secret? How did I become a ninja of Sunday School getting readiness?
Simple, I mastered these 5 steps:
1. The Pre-Game
You know Sunday is coming. It's been in the same spot on the calendar for as long as you’ve been alive, so don't act surprised when your head pops off that pillow and you think, "Oh no, I have to get the kids ready today." Pre-game the night before. Lay out bowls and clothes and shoes. Make sippy cups the night before. (I can't wait to retire the words "sippy cup" and "tinkle" from my vocabulary.) Prepare before the day actually arrives so that you're ready for the storm.
2. Sell it to your kids
One of your biggest jobs as a parent is to play the role of studio audience or laugh track. In the same way that a studio audience will laugh on cue to let viewers at home know it's time to find a particular scene in a show funny, your job is to back up whatever your husband or wife says with raucous enthusiasm. Here's what it looks like in my house:
My wife: "L.E. and McRae, aren't you excited about Sunday School?"
Me (Immediately after she says that): "Yay Sunday School! You'll get to see all your friends and have goldfish and make a craft. Yay!"
Before they have a chance to even think about putting up a wall of resistance I piggyback what my wife has said, adding details, amping up the excitement, laughing on cue if that's what the moment requires.
3. Hustle them to the bathroom like a SWAT team.
I can't prove this, but I think my children have entered into a silent pact with each other to see who can use the bathroom the least amount of times in any given week. Roughly 72% of my creativity/energy at home is expended trying to convince them to use the bathroom. So, to avoid this "no bathroom liberation front" my wife and I try to shuffle our kids to the bathroom as soon as they wake up. Before they can give each other a secret handshake or a head nod and remind each other "viva la revolucion" we've grabbed them right out of bed like a SWAT team and marched them into the bathroom.
4. Distract them with stories.
It took me years to learn this, but if I want to get my kids to do anything, and this is for those rare times when they are refusing to instantly follow my Godly, fatherly advice as the leader of the house, I'll tell them a story. It usually involves an animal. And the plot unfolds as they acquiesce to what I need them to do. For instance, "And do you know what your grandfather did with that bullfrog when he brought it home? Go ahead and take another bite of Cheerios and I'll tell you."
5. Use a series of aerobic moves to get them dressed.
Is it lying if you tell your kids that you want to see how high they can raise their hands in the air just so that you can slip a dress over their head? Is it lying if you made getting on tights a jumping contest in which you bounce them on the couch as high as you can all the while pulling the tights up? Is it lying if you make putting on shoes a fun race? I hope not, because otherwise, I'm a wicked huge liar.
On most Sundays my wife and I are the first couple to drop our kids off at Sunday School when the classrooms open. Then we go sit in the sanctuary for 20 minutes and have a "mini date." After all, they play Coldplay songs through the loudspeakers before church starts, we sometimes have a coffee with us and we get to have 20 unadulterated minutes of hang out time. It's the little things.
How about you?
Do you have any tricks you use to get your kids ready for Sunday School?
Any horror stories you want to share?
Tights? Really? In Georgia in the summer? Call Child Protective Services....
ReplyDeleteIn our house, it's the shoes. The shoes always get us. We can get people fed and clothed but the shoes allude us. I can find them the day before and lay them out (pre-game!) but in the morning, one will have disappeared. And no one will be able to find it. Of four kids, one will always be barefoot as we walk to the car. And shocked when I say,for the gazillionth time, "we cannot go barefoot to church". Which is an arguable point actually. Because we are missionaries in Africa and sometimes people do go barefoot to church. :-) BTW...that 20 minutes of coffee and spouse with cool music and no kids...now that is the way to start worship! I am officially jealous.
ReplyDeleteI tell them we live in a fallen world and that if they don't go to Sunday School they're going straight to hell. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Okay that's a lie. We soft pedal it. No big deal. Sunday School. It's what we do. They don't know any different.
ReplyDeletelol.
ReplyDeleteMy son, Stephen, is a few months shy of 2, so he goes to Waumba Land (pre-sunday school?) in in Cape Town SA.
So maybe I have it easier, maybe. But pre-game is big.
He has a T-Shirt and the old activity take-homes - both of which he sees during the week and gets excited.
And when we get there I talk him thru it, saying that it is going to be fun and that I will come back soon.
He still struggles but settles in quickly. No sense in dropping and running when he is distracted.
Unfortunately both my Wife and I are involved on a Sunday morning so we play tag big time from the early morning till WaumbaLand :-O
Normally, I'm not a "cusser",
ReplyDeletebut I was thankful Sunday School was only 1 day a week because there always seemed to be a word just sitting on the edge of my tongue waiting to be used while trying to get 3 rowdy boys ready for Sunday School.
There was ALWAYS a missing shoe! Each week. Different kid, different shoes, same word sitting on the edge of my tongue as we all frantically searched the house well into the Sunday School hour.
I'll never get any awards because sometimes it's just easier to leave my two little guys home with their non-churchgoing dad. And I teach their Sunday school class. ::/
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy two sons are both grown, but I don't recall having major issues getting them ready for Sunday School and church (and I was the one who did that). Keeping the youngest in his class was another issue, however.
ReplyDeleteMy wife, however, was another story. After many years of struggle, I finally grew incredibly wise and solved the problem of chronic lateness: I accepted it.
Our house backs up to our pastor's house. So, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure they've witnessed a few Sunday morning "get-in-the-car-you-miserable-child" yelling matches in the driveway as Satan tries to mess us up before worship. Sad thing is, my kids are in college now and manage to get themselves to class and church on their own, but the minute they get home they revert to old patterns and I have to cajole, nag, trick, beg them out of bed on Sunday mornings. I should make them sippee cups. That'll teach 'em.
ReplyDeleteGetting kids ready for (fill in the blank) in my household, is a battle of epic proportions.
ReplyDeleteI have 3 daughters ages 10 and under. Our middle daughter is like me; she will wake up early, get ready and is anxious to go 30 minutes before we have to leave. My youngest is easy going, so you have to prod her a bit to move. The oldest will be a politician because she will lobby, stall, change the subject, etc. Bribes work well with her.
Keep up the effort, and I pray they'll all eventually see the Light.
Blessings on your day and holiday weekend!
Well mine is only 7 months old so the big challenge is just timing everthing so he's awake, fed and doesn't spit up until I hand him off to the nursery volunteer. What is that bad?
ReplyDeletewv - Graceser: now even the wv is holy sounding, Jon you've really upped your game. We all know this is one of those progressive, emergent, and relevant names for Jesus. I had a great quiet time with the Graceser this morning.
I admire you Jon. This is one of the things I'm afraid of, becuase it's especially important for the pastor's family to look like they have it together. Did you make Sundays difficult for your mom and dad, since he was a pastor? I think my brother and I were pretty good.
ReplyDeleteMy dad says that his parents trained him and his brother by making a race out of everything - getting ready for bed, getting dressed for church. That stopped when dad started cheating by wearing his PJs underneath his regular clothes. He was ready for bed like David Copperfield!
To Cheryl and all the others worried about finding shoes - this has always been our battle, too, until the day I issued the ultimate threat: "if you don't find your shoes and have them on your feet in 2 minutes, we are just leaving without them!!!" I am here to testify that all the senior citizens thought it was the cutest thing to see a little barefoot 7 year old traipsing around the church, and we suffered no full frontal dirty looks. I can't tell you if there were any behind the back ones, and I don't care.My youngest will wear shoes into the church building and then lose them as soon as we get there. I place a lot less importance on the value of shoes in church now. Just let it go...I'm a lot less stressed now :)
ReplyDeleteMelissa in Raleigh
i loved this! i never thought (pre-parenthood) that i'd have to plan for sunday morning on saturday night, but it sure makes getting to church on time a lot easier.
ReplyDeletewe actually left the house last weekend with our almost-2-year-old barefoot, but i noticed before we left the neighborhood so we corrected that...
the line about retiring sippy cup and tinkle had me laughing, too...
As a teacher/discipler/wrangler of 2-year-olds on Sunday morning, I respect your efficiency.
ReplyDeleteBut you need to stop giving everyone ideas about dropping off their kids 20 minutes early! We have a hard enough time convincing them that their parents are coming back for them after an hour.
So true, so true. I have four and the oldest three can pretty much get themselves dressed now, but I remember the days of the mad rush.
ReplyDeleteI have 3 boys (twin 2yr olds and a 4 yr old). I think God really wants me in church. The boys LOVE sunday school - so all I have to do is keep saying "come lets go to church!" they run around like little mad men trying to get ready so they can go!!
ReplyDeleteMonday through Saturday it takes at least an hour to get the boys ready (and that is with a huge fight) Sunday morning: 30 mins tops and so easy!
We have five kids age 8 and under. Sunday mornings are a proverbial mess. For years, we didn't even bother with SS, but the church went and hired my husband as the children's ministry director...so it looks kinda bad if our kids aren't there for SS.
ReplyDeleteWe have three little girls (and two boys) and my husband, bless his heart, still hasn't mastered the pony tail. Most of Sunday morning is spent with me redoing his attempts at fixing their hair.
And shoes...ugh...my standards are clearly slipping because I took the two-year-old to church with bright pink crocs on (that did not coordinate with her dress) because her church sandals were MIA. And I didn't even care.
When we finally pull in the church parking lot, my husband commences with the "you will not embarrass me" lecture through clenched teeth that he so lovingly gives his sons every Sunday morning. Then we walk in like we have it all together.
LOL @ Maggie - Amen! I only fill in once in awhile and I know where you are coming from!!!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness...sometimes I don't know how my mom did it (I'm the oldest of seven kids).
ReplyDeleteFor a while, it was just my sister and I. My dad was in the Navy and on deployment, so my mom had to get us ready by herself.
Well, she got my sister and I all dressed, with our poofy hairbows (as required by law when you're in first grade, I swear!), and tights (yes, in Florida!). We were sitting in the front hallway waiting for her to frantically throw her dress on so we could leave.
By the time she got there, no more than three minutes later, my sister and I were sitting there, naked as a pair of jaybirds.
Yes. It is a conspiracy among children for Sunday mornings. And yes, there should be gold medals awarded.
crackin up...
ReplyDeleteMy kiddos are 10 and 7 now and the drama has MORPHED into something new and strange. Once I finally felt like I had the sippy-cup-world under control, they go and grow up and give me a new set of obstacles. Sheesh.
My 7 year old (girl, duh) has a very keen (read: strange) sense of style and I'm going thru that how-much-do-I-control-w/o-giant-dramafest question about what she wears. There are MANY accessories involved and varying types of shoes...and, a closed door as she dresses. Key is (I'm learning)to get her to lay out the BASE of the outfit and then give her about 30 min to accessorize and hairdo it up. I'm tired just thinking about the emotional struggles that ensue...truly.
As for 10 yr old boy...biggest thing we struggle with these days is, "did you REALLY brush your teeth?"
I thought self-sufficient = easy. Uh...no. Enjoy sippy cups...
I work at a church and have to get their 2 or 2.5 hours early to help set up things in the movie theater where we meet. My two oldest kids (8 & 4) almost always want to go early to help with setup! So they get themselves up early to do this.
ReplyDeleteAll I have to do is say, "I'm leaving in 20 minutes. You better finish your breakfast and get dressed unless you want to wait and come with mom." And then I go do my getting ready and they're waiting on me when it's time to walk out of the door.
It's great that you and your wife work as a team that way. That is important for your kids to see.
ReplyDeleteI love the 20-30 minutes before the service. You're right, the cool music, the crowd, the coffee, the pseudo-alone time with my wife.. great thing. Hope that, when our Starting Point group is done (Sundays at 11), we keep up that habit.
ReplyDeleteWe have no kids so I don't have much to say on that matter. Sorry.
The shoe problem was the WORST. I have 4 boys and a little girl (absolutely done, btw). I'm kind of OCD about some things, so all my boys shoes match or coordinate. This makes for cute outfits, but continually caused chaos between my boys getting their shoes confused. I solved the problem of the the phantom shoe by making sure the laces of each pair were tucked into it's mate BEFORE putting in it the closet/bin where it stays until used again.
ReplyDeleteI hate being late, so obviously this situation HAD to be fixed.
Good luck to all you shoe searchers!
Very funny. And very true to life. I always had to get our three kids ready and to church by myself because in the early days my husband was on staff at church and I was not so he had to be there earlier. And I always marveled at the families where two adults who could not get ONE child to church on time between the two of them! And BTW, you will miss the sippy cups and babyish potty words when you see those girls driving away from your house one day...Fun post!
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids yet, and I can't imagine what it will be like... I have a hard enough time now getting my husband ready. When we were little, my sisters and I put my parents through the ringer on Sunday mornings. Three girls - two parents. They were outnumbered. By the time we got in the car to go to church, my parents were so stressed out, they yelled at us the whole way there. Oh the yelling! And crying! But when church was all over, we'd go eat at Luby's and be a happy family again. I now feel bad that I made it so hard for them back then.
ReplyDeleteI always have hair issues with my daughter on Sunday mornings....I wish I could do the tight braids and fancy hair doo's but it just isn't happening. On the days that she goes to church with ragamuffin hair, which is a direct result of me spending too much time attempting to make perfect pk hair,I want to safety pin a sign to her frilly little dress that says "my Daddy did my hair" but I've never mustered up the nerve to date.
ReplyDelete"when your head pops off that pillow and you think, 'Oh no, I have to get the kids ready today.'"
ReplyDeleteBrian Regan reference?
"I think the worst day was the day the science project was due. Waking up that morning…that was fun, huh? Your head would pop off that pillow, 'Oh, no! That’s due today.' I had nine months to work on it; I did nothing."
wv: minsphe- a tiny or hardly detectable amount. "I'll have just a minsphe whipped cream on that piece of pie. No, no, more. More. Just a minsphe more... there, that's good."
Little kids=easy to get ready for church
ReplyDeleteIntermediate kids= "you didn't ask if I used soap"
Teen kids="yes, I showered. Oh, no, not last night."
Miss the days of littles when getting them ready was never a fight! I picked the clothes, I dressed them, I combed their hair. EASY. Now, teen comes down and sits waiting to go...with teeth not brushed, hair unconbed, no shoes or belt in sight, no Bible in hand and does not think of any of these things until 30 seconds before it's time to leave for a 35-40 minute drive to church.
Tinkle, potty, peepee...some words never leave your vocab.
WV:rermony-that special harmony every church going family has on Sunday morning while getting ready for church.
The rermony at the Acuff's house was punctuated with shouts of "Mommy," "*!?•^%*!?!¥ tights" and "sit still honey so I can make you beautiful like a princess."
Growing up, it was the after- church stress that would ensue. After getting through sunday school, children's church, youth group and/or a sermon, depending on the church and our respective ages at the time, my three siblings and I would be HY-PER! We wanted to run around, chat, play, anything to celebrate our liberation from the watchful eye of deacon, dad, or Jesus himself. Dad, however, wanted all of us to maintain our decorum while he watched football, baseball or golf. It never failed that Sunday afternoons were a highly anxious time where dad at some point would yell/whine: "We just got back from church, didn't you learn ANYTHING?!"
ReplyDeleteNow grown, I still want to run and play after sitting through a whole sermon and worship. It just seems like the right thing to do.
-Jess
I don't have any kids, but my youngest sister is seven, and it wasn't too long ago that I was the child making life difficult for my parents on Sunday morning (I'm twenty and never give my parents any trouble on Sunday mornings any more...ok, sometimes I still do. It adds a whole new level of excitement to the missing shoes dilema when you can "borrow" your mom's).
ReplyDeleteBut when I was still a single-digit age, my parents were big on the pre-game. I remember every Saturday night we not only had to pick out what we were going to wear so that my parents could see that 1. the clothes we picked out still fit, 2. there were none of those stains that are invisible until you actually put the dress on, and then they're glaringly obvious, 3. our tights didn't have any holes in them. Even now, at college, I get nervous if I don't have what I'm going to wear to church on Sunday planned out Saturday night; some things never quite go away.
@Melody: I think the "my daddy did my hair" sign is a good idea.
Some friends of ours always had hectic Sunday mornings that ended with them arguing in the car all the way to church over whose fault it was that they were late to church. After one especially bad morning of car-arguing, the family was sitting in church when the preacher invited anyone who needed prayers to go to the front and share their prayer need with the church. This couple's junior high-age daughter got up, walked to the front and proceeded to tell this congregation of 2,000 to pray for her parents because they were having "marital problems" because they had been yelling so much at each other. My friends were mortified, and to make things worse, my friend was the preacher's secretary at the time. He made a very awkward call to their house that afternoon to ask if everything was OK. My friends learned to make Sunday mornings a little more peaceful.
ReplyDeleteI cheat. They spend Saturday night with their Nana, so she has to get them ready for church! Unfortunately that usually means they get to wear whatever they want :( Dirty sweats? Really?
ReplyDeleteGrowing up my Dad was outnumbered. Three girls plus Mom, all of whom run chronically late. We had a sound system with speakers in every room, he would blare music through the house to wake us up. "Wake up you sleepy head. Get up, get out of bed! You've got a lot to do to-day!"
Loved this one - it's right on. I think I'm a lot more relaxed about getting the kids ready now than I was when I started 5 years ago.
ReplyDeleteMy first Sunday as a mom was like 4 days after birthing the child. My husband was very excited to show off his daughter at church, so I had the pre-game ready to go the night before. Of course, the next morning we're getting all dressed up ready to go and on the car ride to church, she spit up her entire breakfast all over her clothes. Nice.
So yeah, I now have three kids ages 5, 3 and 1. Getting ready for church has become a lot more mellow over the years. I try to make sure the kids all have clean shorts & t-shirts ready, with bonus points if the boys' shirts have collars.
The biggest tip I've discovered for our house - leave the shirts off until after breakfast. I don't know how it's possible to make a mess when they're eating a waffle straight out of the toaster, but it's easier to leave them topless than to dig up another shirt on the fly.
Mine are 13 and 9 - i bribe them with donuts at Tim Horton's(if you've never been to Canada - ask someone who has, Tim Horton's is an institution here.) I don't feel guilty about it either. To be honest there are some Sundays that i would prefer to stay home and the coffee is enough incentive to get me out the door too.
ReplyDeleteAny tips for getting the husband ready on Sunday?
ReplyDeleteI can get myself and the kids up and ready no problem. We're always in the car waiting - diaper bags packed, cups full, shoes on - and my husband is the one running around looking for his wallet/shoes/sunglasses. And they're all in a pile right next to the door. But he's still 10 minutes behind the rest of us.
There is something about Sunday that makes kids act crazier than normal. I think it because they know you're in a hurry and you have a time limit, so they go crazy or don't even try to get dressed for church. Don't ask me why they do this. Apparently it's
ReplyDeletefun.
I don't have kids yet, but this is what my wife had to say to this post:
ReplyDeleteApparently SHOES happen to go missing A LOT with people and their kids. Aaron, We will “pre-game” the shoes at the top of our own closet and when I say, “GO!” You’ll go and get them. I think we have a plan! LOL!
I'm the worship leader at our church (yes, I have "hair gunk", no, I don't own Puma's) and I'm the one who is perpetually late. I've been trying to be better about it and have made SOME improvement, but I'm still late to work every day.
My poor, poor children.
"Let’s just say that their reaction suggested something different than delight. At least that’s how I interpreted their screams and crying. Terror, not the joy of swimming with a Mick Jagger frog was the response..."
ReplyDeleteJon...please tell me you were one of the two in the tub...this is a hillarious story! I'd like to hear your side of the whole bullfrog fiasco.
WV-resswin - the act of wrestling your brother out of a bathtub when your father dumps a huge bullfrog in. It's the knee-jerk response to terror when you're naked and under age five.
"After pa dropped that bullfrog in the tub, I was resswin Jimmy to get out of the tub! I was terrified!"
We have 7 kids, it's always still the shoes. So this is what we do: church shoes stay in the car.
ReplyDeleteHuge props to a dad getting the kids ready well. I remember working in the Sunday school in college and we always knew it when the women's retreat was without ever being told. It was the week all the kids would come in with wackiest outfits and messiest hair.
ReplyDeleteI have a 2-yr old daughter, so I always do my best to make sure that I take my shower on Saturday night. She often wears sandals that don't match her dress, because I've realized that arguing over shoes is stupid. So what if they don't match her dress? She's 2 and takes them off when she gets to the nursery anyway.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if there is a promise of donut holes, she is an absolute angel, because her ability to disobey is gone due to how preoccupied she is dreaming of a carton of chocolate milk and a couple of sugary holes of sweet, sweet wonder.
Her S.S. teachers love us...
@blisteredseoul
ReplyDeleteYou're right, moms do often get stuck doing most of the work. The one time I can remember my mom going on a retreat, my little brother emerged from his room 5 minutes before church started wearing a blue dress shirt and tie and fire engine red sweatpants. And my dad saw no problem with that because, by his reasoning, pants + shirt = outfit. I laugh at it now, but at the time my sisters and I could have died.
My dad used to "race" me getting dressed and ready on school mornings . . . i'm sure that he was patting himself on the back at how fabulously it was all going . . . until it was discovered that i started getting dressed the night before and sleeping in my clothes in order to beat him! HA!
ReplyDeleteFunny, now that my kids are grown!My daughter never could leave the house on the first trip out - always had to go back for something. By the way - someday you will not be able to et them OUT of the bathroom.
ReplyDelete@Jen C -- We ate breakfast topless on Sunday mornings, too. There are pictures of us on Easter Sunday wearing undershirts/slips and digging into our baskets, because that was the easiest way to keep from getting dresses dirty.
ReplyDeleteMy family drove about 45 minutes to church, so as a teen, I got really good at doing my makeup in the car. Hair, sometimes, but that's a bit more difficult.
I still do that, to this day. I make my fiance drive on Sunday mornings (or if we're going to work at the same time, I get him to drive) so that I have that extra bit of time in the car and I don't have to do it at home before I leave.
Also, my family would often do special music, so I have many, many memories of warming up/rehearsing in the car. Sometimes, that long ride came in handy!
Oh we have always gone with/sold our kids with the "BBD"
ReplyDeletebigger,better,deal
completely exaggerating and selling them on whatever we wanted them to do.
worked pretty well for the most part :)
ps laughed out loud on the "spider monkey" reference.
"slippery little spider monkeys"
ReplyDeleteLOLOL That put me on the floor!!!!
Getting toddlers ready for church is an Olympic sport that requires a detailed plan. We aren't there quite yet. You can't make a plan for infants. No matter how perfectly you time your morning, a diaper blow out (up the front, up the back, and somehow in the armpits) is inevitable, frequently resulting in an extra bath, and usually a change of clothes for Mom too. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, this is so funny!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little, I got myself ready for church in the mornings. My mom would pick my outfit (and help me into my stockings if needed), but I got myself ready, and then say downstairs and waited for my mom to make breakfast.
I was kind of an independent kid.
Shoes -- why not put the shoes in the car the night before as part of the pre-game...
ReplyDeletean abundantly nice post.
ReplyDeletePraise the Lord for Saturday night church, which felt weird for us for, oh....let's say about 2 weeks before we realized it was the best thing EVER. After spending a muggy Saturday creating a combination "slip 'n slide / bike ramp", my 2 boys are happy to slow down for a little air conditioned goldfish cracker eating on Saturday night.
ReplyDeleteAnd may I say, thank the Lord for casual Mega-churches where my boys can show up in mis-matched mud-splattered shoes and cargo shorts and no-one blinks an eye. Back in my day (always have wanted to say that) I slept on pink foam hair curlers on Saturday night and woke up at 5am Sunday morning to buff my shiny white shoes and iron my ruffly dress.
I posted on this here:
ReplyDeletehttp://jamsco.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/getting-to-church-one-time/
And remember - if you get everybody there on time, but they are all angry, you've still failed.
We usually leave the kids home while we go to church. But don't freak out. We always make sure to leave them a note to tell them where we're going and when we'll be back. Next to the note we leave a sleeve of Saltines and 2 cups of water.
ReplyDeleteMy child wakes up at 6 a.m--every single morning. We have 2 hours and 45 minutes to get him dressed and fed before leaving the house! With an early riser--getting to church on time isn't usually an issue. However, leaving in time to stop for coffee for the sleep deprived parents is another thing all together.
ReplyDeleteWith 3 and 5 year olds get moving in the a.m., we dress our 7- and 17-month olds the night before. We figured we can compromise fashion for comfort on the little ones.
ReplyDeleteBut with syrup and milk and the occassional blow-out...it's a gamble, really.
Genius!
ReplyDeleteWe sing in the choir, so we leave our 18-month old in the care of the nursery for the better part of 2 and a half hours. She loves it when I take her to play with her "friends."
ReplyDeleteJust don't ever send mommy to take her to the nursery. I did once and we almost got away with it.
haha, I'm a PK (pastor's kid) of a somewhat small church! I can wake up five minutes before church and, BOOM, I'm there with my cup of coffee and I'm ready for antything.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem finding the shoes. The socks are a whole other matter. The seams in the toe of the socks are killers.
ReplyDelete"But they don't FEEL good, Mom!"
After readjusting the sock seams one-billion-catrillion times, I've been known to say, through clenched teeth, "Forget it! Just grab your flip-flops and head to the car!"
So when is the first annual awards ceremony for this??? I could REALLY use the challenge :) My husband would be vying for the gold- he's a rockstar when it comes to getting them ready. I'm Deacon of Children's Ministry... we have 5 kids 9 and under. We lead worship once a month. We live at the church. SS is still the HARDEST thing to get ready for. I LOVED the "sell it to your kids." I teach parents about this all of the time- it's all in the way you present it!
ReplyDeleteNot to be the nit picker although I'm sure to be labeled one but... you forgot to pump the kids up that they'll learn about Jesus along with the goldfish and seeing their friends... and also... they pump coldplay into your church? really? coldplay?
ReplyDeleteas happens sometimes when i read too many comments... i want to tell people to stop judging (comment yes, judge no) , but it sounds judgmental... so i'll leave it at this...
ReplyDeletereally? don't get self-righteous... just buy some extra flip flops and stick them in the car in the event you are unable to locate the sunday school sandal. the pavement is hot, esp. here in texas. does that sound judgy?
ugh. i hope not. now i need to go locate all of my backup flipflops for my 4 kids...
to jon and all the parents out there: im sorry. i was a terror to get out of the door to sunday school as a child.
ReplyDeletenevermind the kids. what about the pets? our dog buster saves all of his "bust out the front door at the least convenient time energy" for sunday morning. so here we are finally out of the door and there goes buster, leaving us flustered on the front lawn and yelling at each other. It's a great prep time for worship.
My husband is a very talented - out-the-door-getter - but for himself only. He will literally get up 15 minutes before we walk out the door, and be showered, dressed, and coffee-in-hand, wondering why the two babies and I aren't ready after 3 hours awake (darn that 6am "peepee" call!). But my pre-game includes the full outfits SHOES INCLUDED waiting on the dining room table! Myself too! It's one really good shortcut. Clothing doesn't happen until after food - and often the newest edition doesn't get clothed until 5 minutes before leaving the house. I've also perfected the :car make up routine: because I can never get two seconds to myself on a Sunday morning.
ReplyDeleteI'm a PK and we were also having to be at church an hour or two early for set up ... my mother woke at unearthly hours, and dressed/coifed would wear her apron like a first defense shield the rest of the morning... Smart woman!
My husband was the pastor and already at church one Sunday. All I could do was laugh when it was my turn to get the kids in the car and go. My 6 year old got into one of her defiant moods and screamed over and over as I carried her kicking to the car. . ."I don't want to go to church!" I am hoping the neighbors got a laugh out of the preachers family. Got to keep my sense of humor!
ReplyDeleteFor those of you with the shoe issue: my sister has a small bin next to the door used to hold shoes. My 4 yr old niece leaves a trail of shoes all over the place, but at the end of the day, they all go back in the bin. Then when they need to go out the door, they can always manage to find something to wear.
ReplyDeleteSonofmine
ReplyDeleteWaumba Land isn't copyright of NorthPoint.
hmm
My husband is Minister of Music and deserts me early every Sunday to go it alone with the kids - all five of them. We've arrived at church more than once with no shoes. The first time, I freaked out appropriately, and then realized this was my pride kicking in. Now, I remember that I'm on holy ground, so no shoes? No problem!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'd like to see a post about kids being left at church. This happened to me several times growing up. My dad lost every bit of his religion when he had to turn around and come get one of us. I'm still traumatized. So much so that my husband and I always do a head count before either of us leaves on Sundays.
Evenshine: God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. Just as God telling Noah to build an ark doesn't mean everyone is supposed to be in the ship-building business, neither should you assume everyone is commanded to have kids. Adam and Even have done a pretty decent job of "filling the earth and subdo"ing it. Its overpopulated and beat down enough already! ;) Being married without kids for over a decade by choice, I was able to do so much more in ministry and impact so many more lives for eternity than had I been at home wiping noses (which I now am due to an oops, which everyone assumes was an answer to prayer - it probably was, just not my prayers! LOL)
ReplyDeleteLea: adopted kids should not be blamed for their parents' failed marriages! Yes adoption tends to bring a harder parenting road due to attachment difficulties but stress doesn't cause divorce; only selfish parents cause divorce. Also who says God's will is found passively? God's will was for Canaan to fall to Israel but God still sent them to march. And to suggest God's will is to let parentless children suffer alone, often malnourished and neglected...wow. Not the God I serve!
(side note: I was on the path to adoption - licensed for 2 weeks - when we became pregnant with our oops. Yup we got a lot of those "it always happens when you stop trying" comments. Ha! It happened because we forgot the birth control on our vacation!)
Funny... By the time I get my kids ready for church, I NEED CHURCH... I have officially gotten angry and yelled and fought and thought mean thoughts and wanted to "kill" my kids all before 9am... I will definately take these thoughts into consideration.. Maybe I can go to church one Sunday without being stressed and angry.... LOVE the advice...
ReplyDeleteI have three kids and managed to solve this problem quite easily. I tell them what time to be ready. If they choose not to be ready they come to church just as they are. The only potential issue with this strategy is that you have to have enough self confidence to not believe that you are a bad parent because your child is in their PJ's and their hair looks like a colony of mice live in it. Ahh... it's what's in the heart that matters. (Also a little, secret note on their back delaring that 'I did not dress this child' may help.)
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