Ashleigh Savage's Church Rules:
- Alexsi is allowed to play with anything in the diaper bag during sacrament meeting, as long as she stays in our pew.
- Alexsi is allowed to empty the ENTIRE diaper bag if she so chooses, as long as she stays in our pew.
- Alexsi MAY NOT leave the confines of the pew and wander the chapel.
- Alexsi MAY NOT leave the pew to go up to the stand to sit with her dad.
- In the circumstance that Alexsi is throwing fits and needs to be removed from the chapel, she will not be allowed to leave her mom's arms and wander the halls. Leaving sacrament meeting is a punishment, and will not be rewarded with wandering free, playing with toys, etc. If she can't handle herself in sacrament meeting with all the toys her mom brought, she certainly isn't going to be allowed to play in the halls or mothers' room.
- Alexsi goes with her dad during the second hour of church so her mom can teach Sunday School.
- Alexsi can wander the Relief Society room to her heart's content during the third hour of church. It's past nap time, and it's best for everyone if she's given a little freedom.
Seems pretty reasonable, right? Most days it works out just beautifully.
Today was not one of those days.
I think I took Lex out of sacrament meeting 5 times. IN ONE HOUR!!!! That's ridiculous. I don't take her out of the meeting when she's reading or playing with her babies a little too loud... only when she throws fits. She threw 5 fits today. So ridiculous. True to form, I did NOT allow her to get down on the floor and play when I took her out. I refuse to allow her to think that throwing fits is a good idea so she can do what she wants out in the halls. It's simply not going to happen in this family. But man, sometimes it's hard to hold that line! It would be soooo much easier just to give in and let her have her way. I won't do it, because I believe in setting boundaries and keeping them.
Sometimes it seems like it would be easier to just take her home and put her to bed. But I want her to know, from the time she's tiny, that this is what we do on Sundays. We go to church. For 3 hours. Whether your tired and grumpy or so happy to be there. This is just what we do. Some day, she'll be grateful for it. Some day, I'll be grateful for it. Doing the right thing today even when it's rough is always the best option, even when it's not the easiest.
Can I get a huge AMEN!!!! Those sound pretty much identical to our family rules, but man, oh man, lots of days church is just ROUGH!
ReplyDeleteI used to think like that when we had Blaine, when we had both Blaine and Bekah, and then still when Cougar came along. Things started to get a bit more lax when Sarah entered the picture, and this has continued to be the trend with Sam. I'm not saying we don't have boundaries, but we don't have the manpower (womanpower?) to enforce things as much as we used to so we have learned to focus on the things that matter most to us and chill out more about the rest. It has made life better for all involved. That said, we go to church to worship God and increase our faith in Christ/discipleship. As long as people are attempting to achieve those ends for themselves and their families, I gots no beef with anybody.
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