As many of you may be aware, American Girl puts out a series of excellent books about girls and girl-specific dealings. I picked this one up for Lucy with the intent of reading it together to discuss good hygiene. Perhaps my purchase was premature in that part of the book deals with more...er...delicate maturing issues. Issues that aren't relevant to a 7 year old girl. Alas, unbeknownst to me, this is the book that Lucy brought to church yesterday to read during sacrament meeting. Sigh. We were about 3/4 of the way through the entire meeting when I looked down to see the topic of PERIODS in gigantic bold letters big enough to see from outer space. Bad enough. The next page shows a fairly detailed CARTOON showing how certain aspects of a period are dealt with. Not to be indelicate here. Worse. We put the book away (for now) and turned our attention to the speaker. Yes, the worst was yet to come. A good friend of mine came up to me afterwards and mentioned how about 1/2 through the meeting her husband (from several rows back) pointed to the book Lucy was reading and asked: "Did I just see the word breasts in the middle of church?"
Things I learned yesterday: more closely monitor my children's reading material...and a close second, I'm going to try out a seating chart for church next Sunday. Does anyone have any ideas that have worked for them regarding kids sitting in one place (let alone still) at church?
Between breasts, periods, and corralling Calvin, I worked up a sweat.
8 comments:
Awesome. I'm grateful for the heads up on that book. That story is hilarious. Maddie has an American Girl book on managing money and one on manners. They are a good read. I am interested in some ideas for making it through sacrament meeting. Currently we try to situate ourselves near an exit for the least disruptive quick escape possible. In the past year, we have made it through sacrament meeting as an entire family three times. I'm beginning to think that nothing short of a couple of child size straight jackets and a couple of gags might get us through the meetings. Fortunately, though, two of those three times of making it through sacrament meeting have been this month so here's to hoping!
So, I have a little experience in this. We have started sitting in one of the side pews, just far enough forward that my kids can't see the door closest to them. Then they don't think of exiting as an option. John and I sit on the edge and middle of the pew respectively and put 2 kids on either side of us. This keeps the fighting and exit access down. And, I am proud to say that since the beginning of the year we have only taken kids out when they have had to use the restroom. I really am such a pillar of righteous living and skilled parenting, aren't I? Remi
I'm crying I'm laughing so hard! When you get the good tips on keeping them still through sacrament let me know. I'm at a loss.
I spoke yesterday and they were angels for their dad. The running ward joke for the rest of the day is that it must be me...not the two crazy boys.
I'm so glad that I could be your heads up. I just wish it didn't come at the expense of the entire overflow at church. Sigh.
Ok, so the key may be the side pew. We'll try that. This is the configuration I'm going to try on Sunday: aisle - Mackey, Jon, Calvin, Me, Lucy. And bribery: whoever stays in their assigned seat gets a treat! Calvin, though. Wow. He is the busiest kid I've ever seen. We start every meeting with a bet on how many times he'll crack his head, try to hoist himself into the laps of the people behind, or who he'll hit in the head with a projectile of some sort.
You are too funny! Glad I have a few years until I have to deal with that stuff!!!
Oh, it gets better. I picked Lucy up from school and one of the teachers in our ward obviously saw the HUGE print and told ALL the teachers at lunch - including Lucy's! She also told me how half the guys passing sacrament saw it, too. Oh, and a high councilman. Apparently the talk of church, but no one mentioned it to me for fear of embarrassing me...Little do they know that this is just PAR for the course.
We have also bought that book for Hannah - but after looking through it myself, I decided it would be more appropriate to give it to her at about age 10, when they begin the little "maturation" talks at school. I know the PERIOD pictures you were talking about, and they were definitely not sacrament meeting material, so I got a huge laugh out of this post, but also found myself blushing in embarassment for you.
Here's our Sacrament meeting trick - we've told our two oldest (8 & 10) that we will take them out for ice cream each month if they read the Friend magazine from cover to cover as well as read two stories to our 4 year old from it. They spend much of the meeting reading the magazine. It's working good and may be good for Lucy if she's as good a reader as I imagine her to be.
Hilarious! I am having flashbacks of when my husband's coworker came over for a late dinner with her husband and, in a panic of not knowing whether it would be more embarrassing to try to put my toddler to bed with them there (he would scream for hours) or just let him watch a movie (Beauty and the Beast), we opted for the later. Unfortunately, the lull in the conversation came precisely when Gaston is attacking the Beast with a knife and then plummets down a sheer rock face to his death. "This really isn't a movie for kids," commented the husband, also a doctor, of the coworker.
Sacrament Meeting idea for toddlers: scary stories. Well, maybe "thrilling" is more correct. Ours involve wolves (see beauty and beast reference above). Scared straight is right. I don't get to hear much of the meeting, but those around me do.
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