Dear Parents With Young Children In Church

[PhuturePriest]

No young padawan, givin' even when pronounced without the velar nasal (ng) is still a verb. I think you meant the noun "given."

 

In other news I'm only trying to floss my rudimentary linguistix skills as a pretense to my intelligence. Carry on.

 

I have often wondered if it was "givin'" as in short for "giving", or "given". When you think about it, saying "It's always been a given." makes no logical sense whatsoever. But popular phrases are fascinating creatures like that.

[Nihil Obstat]

I have often wondered if it was "givin'" as in short for "giving", or "given". When you think about it, saying "It's always been a given." makes no logical sense whatsoever. But popular phrases are fascinating creatures like that.

It makes sense when you look at the etymology of the word given.

 

given  past participle adjective, late 14c., "allotted, predestined," from give; also with a noun sense of "fate," reflecting an important concept in pagan Germanic ideology (Old English hadgiefeðe in this sense). The modern sense of "what is given, known facts" is from 1879. Given name (1827) so called because given at baptism.

[havok579257]

By this.  Maybe he has a mental or phyiscal issue that allows him to produce children and be friendly and jovial at donughts after mass but appearing to not be caring DURING Mass, that could be.

 

But you could also not be hypercritial of my observation and take it that perhaps I am right and that it IS very sad to see a man who can drive his family to church, unload them from the van and then joke with the priest after Mass leave the care of his brood to his wife and older daughters during.  This is not the only man I've observed who seems to be very disconnected with the family unit during Mass and leaving most of the work to his wife.  Infact, when a family has a seriously riled child or children that have gotten to the point of serious disruption, I can usually look over and see a man doing absolutely nothing.  This is especially true with the first communion class kids.

 

There are good families where the husband is participatory in the children's care....and they never bother me.

 

 

Why should I take your opinion as right when you don NOT have all the facts?  That's insane to say.  Hey I don't have all the facts but what little facts I do have makes me right.  I am going to look at this person, see something they are doing or not doing and without all the facts automatically judge them.  Your being judgemental plain and simple and Jesus warned against this.  Unless you have all the facts then this is just your opinion.  An opinion that seems tainted against fathers.  At least that's the way I read your posts. 

 

How about in the future stop being judgemental and actually get all the facts and don't assume the guy/person/woman is worthless. 

[cmaD2006]

At a risk of "overmoding" ... I'm closing this topic

 

a) the original poster was referencing an article, and the intent was not a debate

b) this has started going ala Debate Table style, and it is not debate table

c) there have been a few comments made that seem to almost attack

d) there are a lot of parents on this board, and I am closing out of respect to them

 

So ... if people would like to continue this discussion/debate then take it to Debate Table.

[BG45]

In general everyone, I don't have kids, but I do realize what a touchy subject this can be.  I've skimmed the thread, because my office hours are almost over (and I have relatives in this weekend for a major used book sale and have to entertain them), but can we all treat one another with a bit less sarcasm maybe?  I honestly don't think the different opinions are as far apart as one might think at first glance.  Rather, it seems that in some cases, pholks are talking past one another, but share in similar issues.

 

As for kiddos themselves, yes, I prefer them in Mass.  I'll offer a smile to the woman who sits in front of me, whose kid has hit me in the face while flailing about, more times than I can count.  I may whine about it later elsewhere, but I'd rather take a dozen punches and kicks to the face from that small child, than think he was being denied a chance to be there.  I also understand the desire for silence; the band practices before Mass starts at my parish and the old women behind me are nonstop gossips.  I've gotten dirty looks from them for texting before Mass, because that's apparently more disruptive than, "and do you know Clarice* is cheating on her husband?!"

 

That is nothing short of tragic. I mean that genuinely. Our priest (FSSP) said to us once, towards the start of the summer (I paraphrase), "if you drive someone away from our Mass because of the clothing they are wearing, then shame on you. No matter what our standards of modesty are, it is completely inappropriate and not your place for you to be criticizing the people around you, and if you drive that person away from the Church, then it is on your conscience."

 

Amen.  The first year I was Catholic, there was a huge blizzard.  Every Protestant church in town was shut down, but I knew there would be Mass.  So I trudged over there and sure enough there were around ten of us.  Most of those in attendance were hardly in their best clothes, because they were homeless, but their reverence to the Eucharist was one of the more moving things I've seen in a parish.

 

 

*Just an example.

 

Edit:  It has been brought to my attention I accidentally posted in this thread directly after it was locked.  I would like to apologize for this inadvertent use of my mod powers to do so.