Here’s the burden all us good church-going women have to bear: getting children ready for church on Sunday mornings. I HATE it. Hate hate HATE it. Adding to this burden is the fact that the church people always want our good church-going husbands to be at church early, to say, practice with the worship team or prepare to teach Sunday school. So, we must get our little Christians-in-training (not to mention ourselves) ready all by our lonesome. To me, this task is torture. To be honest, trying to get makeup and hair done with two kiddos pulling at me is always torture, but it’s worse on Sunday, because when it’s time to leave for church, it’s also Sophie’s naptime and she’s usually spent the last 15-20 minutes of my toilette screaming her head off. All this crying makes me crazy and I become “Mean Mommy”. Before we left for church this morning, Joshua says to me, “Mommy I’m having trouble at my house today.”
“Why baby?” I ask.
“Because you’re yelling at me all the time.”
Ugh. Knife. To. The. Heart.
But you know what? He was right. I had been, not yelling exactly, but snapping at him all morning in my stress and my haste to get the three of us ready.
Really puts you in the mood to worship.
You should really give yourself credit for making it to church on a regular basis!
My hubby and I said we were going to find a church after we got married and before we had kids. (Since I was raised Catholic and he grew up going to Church of Christ, we decided a middle ground would be United Methodist.) Ummmm, well, were coming up on our 4 year anniversary and our son Bryson is 11 months old, and we still aren’t going to church, much less even belong to one yet! We really need to get a move on it! Here’s the funny part…..the church we have been to a few times, that we will more than likely join, is right across the street from our house! That should be motivation enough right there!
Oh yes, I forgot to mention, our church IS down the street from our house. 🙂 But it’s still hard!!
Ugh. So glad we don’t have to worry about church. I’d say skip it. They have forever to go to church, but only one time to be kids with a relaxed mommy and a happy naptime.
I’m right there with you! And then I also have to get all 3 kids to church, deal with an extremely squirmy, distractable 6-year-old during the service (since Sunday School is not held during the service we go to) and get them all home afterward – by myself, as well. My hubby doesn’t go to church with us (although I wish he would). I miss the days of actually being able to enjoy Sunday mornings and enjoy the service without getting frustrated with at least one of my kids.
It does get better. My kids are 10 and 13 and I can tell them to get ready while I get ready. Of course, sometimes that means sweatpants with holes in the knee for ds and he has to go back and change. 😉
HAIR? MAKEUP? Maybe that’s the difference…..I don’t do those! 😉
That is why I am on the worship team and my hubby has to get the girls to church on Sunday. Needless to say, they come in “interesting” clothing combinations with even more “interesting” hairdos. Whatever, as long as I get to give “mean mommy” one day off a week.
It is hard but soo worth it. My kids are actually getting to the point where we can sit through the entire sermon with out having to leave with a screaming child. I find that I prefer to get up early so that I can be more relaxed with the preparations. You can also try laying out stuff the night before. I make sure that shirts are ironed and that I have picked out my clothing so that there are no “I have nothing clean to wear to church” emergencies.
ugh. I feel your pain. this just might be why we stopped going!
Good ideas ladies! I could definitely do better about getting things ready the night before.
Once again, the tables have turned. I remember my mom screaming at my brother and I on the way to church about making her a) late for her Sunday School class or b) choosing clothes that she did not want me in (but she soon came to her senses and realized that wearing jeans to church isn’t a sin) or c) anything else she had been saving up the whole week long to be upset with us for. Now I am the mom! I AM that lady who barks commands at her children and/or husband to get us out of the house in time… and then I am able to switch into nice mom mode the minute I walk through the church doors.
It is nice to be reminded that this goes on in other households around the world on Sunday mornings! And I think I am going to start praying that my church will start holding services on Saturday night so we can just sleep in on Sundays.
AHHH sunday morning. The one morning my husband is nOT at work or on his bike. 🙂 Our strategy…which is not without mean mom/wife moments….ALL children except our 13 year old showers the night before. All clothes are laid out and the oldest 4 are responsible to feed themselves while I – MOM – feed the youngest 3. My husbands other strategy is to put kids in the car about 15 minutes early so “crazy” mom/wife can finish getting ready. We usually make it – the benefits are endless……do not give up…get the kids in the habit NOW before they become teens who WONT get up….
PS….lots of churches have started saturday services….look for more to come I am sure of it….including BIG church on WHIPP road in Kettering.
We used to go through this every week too. It but all of us in a bad mood for church & our hearts were not in the right place either. Then we discovered Saturday services at our church! What a life saver! No more scrambling to get ready on Sun morning! Everyone is already dressed for the day so all we have to do is go! Makes things SO much easier & our hearts are ready for worship! The bonus is we get to sleep in on Sunday!
I remember pointing out (with my oh so wise teenage perception) the hypocrisy of Sunday morning stress to my parents on the way to church. In an effort to avoid getting my comeuppance in about 10 years, I really try to make getting to church with my own family as streamlined as possible. Saturday night: baths, outfits picked out down to the shoes, ironing. Sunday morning: I get up early as ever and get myself ready before waking anyone else, simple breakfast (fruit/bagels/cereal–nothing involving a pan!), no TV for the 3 year old until he is fed and fully dressed (in that order!) We’ve only been going to church regularly for about 6 months; before I followed this system, we missed more than we hit.
Oh, I have been there so many times. It has helped somewhat that the two older ones are getting themselves ready, but I still have to oversee what they put on their bodies. They always pull the ugliest, most worn-out clothing out so that they look like orphan children when we are going to church. I then have to ask them nicely (yeah, right) to change their clothes. It is a fight, but well worth it after I get to church and begin to worship. Have a good day!