I will say, all the talk about the Sign of the Peace has been embarrassing for me, because mine is overly excited about it, and we were kind of okay with it- it's good to be excited to lovingly greet others, right? He always finds a friend a pew or three away and rushes off to "give them Peace" before we can tell him that is probably too far. We bring him up with us for Eucharist and he gets a blessing and loves that. He will say "Amen" when he is supposed to, and "and with your spirit", and "Lord, hear our prayer", he knows the Our Father and loves the Sign of the Peace. When he is interested and pays attention and says responses we let him know how great that was. I encourage him to pay attention and follow along, which he sometimes does, but pushing it would result in a fight that is just not worth it. I allow him to bring his Children's Bible, and expect him to sit mostly still in the pews, and be mostly quiet- though he whispers questions and that is okay. My son is 5 but my goals are more in line with a two year old- probably because he isn't used to going and hasn't learned what is expected of him, which is our fault- or maybe circumstances. I think we will allow him to go to that, too. My Parish also has a Children's Liturgy of the Word for kids from 4st-3rd grade. I was able to figure out what was going on and learn the responses and nuances within a few weeks once Sunday School started. It was super helpful while we were converting to attend Mass "without" our then 4 year old. We are newly Catholic and have been attending Mass regularly for about a year and a lot of that year he was in a Sunday School. Never underestimate the power of the donut. Always taking them to the bathroom before Mass, so I don’t have to stress about not letting them go during Mass.Moving around between seats or between parents.Kids saying they have to go to the bathroom, because mostly they don’t.I don’t usually have to take kids over two out of Mass for behavior, but if I did, I would.We bring “stuff” for kids under two, but two and ups in our family don’t get things in Mass. They make my kids noisier than they would otherwise be, and they keep them from participating in the Mass. But, at this age, we do let our kids go if we happen upon one. We avoid regularly attending a Mass with a children’s liturgy, because we’d really rather be together as a family for the Mass. That they’re probably sitting next to a sibling.
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