Thread: How do you make children behave in church?

Originally Posted by monii222

I do believe that God has a purpose for all of us, and one of mine is to help the children in our church learn about God, weather or not they want to.

And this is why most people abandon religion, it is something that gets forced on them as children. You asked for suggestions on how to make your kids (obey) you and I gave you one. Stop forcing your kids to learn religion. Religion is supposed to be a choice. And even young kids have some basic knowledge of whats important in their life. And if you really must make your kids (obey) you, send them to obedience school.

The OP was wanting helpful suggestions on how to get children to behave at church. That simple, not why they won't behave in church. Whether you believe in God or not is not the issue. Christians are taught and believe that you need and want to teach your children about the Lord and all of his Glory, thats a Christians belief and a parents rights. If a person chooses to take their child to doctors office and there is a wait to see the doctor (sometimes the wait at doc offices can be an hour or more) and the child misbehaves in the office, you would still take him to the doctors, regardless of if he wants to go or not. When you are under the age of 18 then you really don't have to many choices. Thats part of the joy in turning 18, at which point, you can choose to go to church, the doctors, the opera whatever, until then the parents rule the roost. Had church not been the issue here I doubt many of the posters would have responded the way they did. I think too many of you tried to turn this into Church bashing instead of offering help to the OP in need. I am a Christian and very proud of it, and I promise you that you will never hear me bash or slam any other religion or belief, no matter how different our religions are, I would expect the same please. In being a Christian I will stand up for my God, by not doing so I am betraying him. My children were taken to church as little kids and they didn't have a choice, they are now 14 and 11 and actually enjoy church.
Moni22 I wish you luck in this situation, a group of kids no matter where are hard to settle.

I hear duct tape works well

Originally Posted by evrita

I hear duct tape works well

LMAO! I wish I could use that sometimes around here as well...LOL (J/K)

Originally Posted by Rocket Cowgirl

And this is why most people abandon religion, it is something that gets forced on them as children. You asked for suggestions on how to make your kids (obey) you and I gave you one. Stop forcing your kids to learn religion. Religion is supposed to be a choice. And even young kids have some basic knowledge of whats important in their life. And if you really must make your kids (obey) you, send them to obedience school.

thanks for also seeing my point. children should not be dragged to something that with bore them to death and they act up because of it. bribing children with prizes is very wrong. they need to have the choice if they want to go to church or not. or find someone to babysit them instead of forcing something on to them they want no part of. and by the way I am catholic, but will not practice anymore because I think it is a waste of time. If there is a so called god how come he has let my whole family die before I turned 30. Okay someone answer me that question. As far as I'm concerned this invisible entity does not exist. Also my sixteen year old daughter is a wiccan and I think that is wonderful

My MIL is a sunday school teacher for 1st and 2nd graders. Everything she does in her class involves the kids. They do hands on things like a craft time, they listen as she reads certain things from the bible and then every so often she'll ask questions just to make sure that they understand what she's saying.Every Sunday she does a game where she will ask questions about last weeks lesson and for every right answer they get points for the last Sunday of the month. She calls that day "Funday Sunday". They know that they have to earn points for the prizes. She just gets things from the Dollar store and such but they just love it. She is firm but fun. She tries hard to make it fun for all of them but if there is a child that just plain does not want to be there then she tells the parents that the child cannot be there because he/she is disrupting the rest of the class. Almost every Sunday whe has kids that she taught at one time or another visiting her after class just to say hi and tell her that she was their favorite teacher. She has passed along her ideas to other teachers that are now using them. Maybe you could try doing something like that? Otherwise if they continue to disrupt the class maybe you will have to just say that they can come back when they can behave appropriately. Good luck.

Originally Posted by mom2cvam

My MIL is a sunday school teacher for 1st and 2nd graders. Everything she does in her class involves the kids. They do hands on things like a craft time, they listen as she reads certain things from the bible and then every so often she'll ask questions just to make sure that they understand what she's saying.Every Sunday she does a game where she will ask questions about last weeks lesson and for every right answer they get points for the last Sunday of the month. She calls that day "Funday Sunday". They know that they have to earn points for the prizes. She just gets things from the Dollar store and such but they just love it. She is firm but fun. She tries hard to make it fun for all of them but if there is a child that just plain does not want to be there then she tells the parents that the child cannot be there because he/she is disrupting the rest of the class. Almost every Sunday whe has kids that she taught at one time or another visiting her after class just to say hi and tell her that she was their favorite teacher. She has passed along her ideas to other teachers that are now using them. Maybe you could try doing something like that? Otherwise if they continue to disrupt the class maybe you will have to just say that they can come back when they can behave appropriately. Good luck.

Thank you so much, I will have to do this. I think it will really help me. Tonight is my first Youth group class, by myself. I am really excited about this. The Funday Sunday thing sounds like alot of fun.

Originally Posted by monii222

Thank you so much, I will have to do this. I think it will really help me. Tonight is my first Youth group class, by myself. I am really excited about this. The Funday Sunday thing sounds like alot of fun.

Glad I could help. Good luck and I hope it works out for you!

Originally Posted by tmesser

thanks for also seeing my point. children should not be dragged to something that with bore them to death and they act up because of it. bribing children with prizes is very wrong. they need to have the choice if they want to go to church or not. or find someone to babysit them instead of forcing something on to them they want no part of. and by the way I am catholic, but will not practice anymore because I think it is a waste of time. If there is a so called god how come he has let my whole family die before I turned 30. Okay someone answer me that question. As far as I'm concerned this invisible entity does not exist. Also my sixteen year old daughter is a wiccan and I think that is wonderful

I completely disagree with these statements, as children are not bored in church so much as their attention span is not as long as an adults and they get restless which some connect with "boredom" or misbehaving. Small children need different activities to continually keep their attention. As for asking a small child if he/she would like to attend church....this also floors me...they are not capable of making a sound decision at such a small age....(of course they would choose watching Scooby-Doo over attending church)the choice comes as the child passes into adulthood and makes the choice for themself on if religion is the right choice for them.

And in my home, my six year old daughter will obide by my rule, which is to attend church....(until she chooses to move out on her own) and I have yet to quarrel with her about it and do not see it becoming an issue anytime soon.

Originally Posted by YankeeMary

In being a Christian I will stand up for my God, by not doing so I am betraying him. My children were taken to church as little kids and they didn't have a choice, they are now 14 and 11 and actually enjoy church.
Moni22 I wish you luck in this situation, a group of kids no matter where are hard to settle.

ITA!!
Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

When I had a bible club, we would make differnt things for the kids so they would have stuff to do, such as:

One week I had made a huge log cabin with one of those projecter things that makes things big--and blew it up on a peice of paper, then traced around it, and then make puzzle peices out of it, and the kids got to each put in a different peice of the puzzle...they liked that..also, we had coloring contests with differnt themes that we were studing, for example, if we were studing Noah, the picture would be of Noah.....stuff like that...we sang, and did marching songs, and had different contests..heck, even a lollipop in theirs mouths keep them quiet! We even had a "p" bag, where we had put different things in a paper bag that started with the letter "p" such as popcorn, pop, peanuts, when the kids guessed what was in the bag (if it was in there) they got the prize--has nothing to do with church, but kinda breaks the cycle...of always having to sit like a statue..we even did that one too, how long can you sit like a statue...Lol anyway, good luck!

I admit. I bribe my kids to behave at church. During the summer months, the 'kiddie bible class' isn't in session, so they do hafta sit thru mass w/me. But they know if they 'blow it', they don't get a slurpee after church. I stick to it too. I have on many occasions got for one and not the other. But I also praise em if they behaved well. As far as teaching the class, I give the OP lotsa credit. I've subbed for religious ed classes a cpl times and it is disruptive when there is 1 or more kids just being brats. I've made a place for these children right next to me. lol
I disagree about letting your kids (as young as 7, etc) to pick n choose religion. They are too young to decide these things themselves. They need structure and parents to form this type of structure. When they are old enuf, sure, let em pick n choose. I have a distant relative that has a 7yr old daughter that didn't make her communion cuz she 'didn't want to' IMO, how is this little girl old enuf to know better?