Clara has some little plastic toys that she plays with sometimes at Church. Usually these are quiet toys that keep her occupied for a while, but they were decidedly less effective today. In amongst those toys are two sharks.
Just to give you some background - our ward is (usually) a very quiet ward during sacrament and Clara at the best of times has a bit of a flair for the dramatic.
Clara found her sharks, and then while acting out some sort of role-play inside her head, yelled "SHARK! SHARK!". She then proceeded to take out a dinosaur toy and have the sharks eat the dinosaur and then again started yelling "AHHH SHARK! SHARK!". I had already asked Clara to stop yelling "SHARK!" and that hadn't worked. So I took the sharks from Clara and tried to place her on my lap. However, I still had a small hard plastic shark in my hand and in my flustered 'trying-to-get-my-two-year-old-to-stop-yelling-SHARK!' state I accidentally pushed one of the sharks against her arm. At this point Clara yelled out "Ouch Mum, you hurt my arm" and began to cry.
At this point I was thinking "great, not only have we destroyed the reverence of sacrament, now everybody probably thinks I am abusing my child."
I gave up on getting a positive outcome in that moment and left the Chapel. We did return later and Clara was much better for the second-half of Sacrament meeting.
I had hoped the entire time that perhaps only the rows immediately around us would have heard all of the commotion. However after Church both David (sitting on the stand) and Ethan (passing the sacrament) confirmed that they could clearly hear every word coming out of Clara's mouth.
I am recording this because I hope one day I will read this and look back at this experience with more amusement than my current feelings of frustration. Also, in ten years or so when I have left this phase of life, having this recorded may remind me not to be judgemental of other parents struggling to keep their young children quiet during Church.
Just to add to the oddness of this morning - when I came out of the chapel a member of our ward told me that all of the windows in David's car were down. I thought this really strange and went to check. Indeed every single window was down! It was pouring with rain so the insides of the doors were really wet. I checked the belongings in the car and everything seemed to be there, with an added gift of bird poo on the back seat (yes really! - but the bird was no longer there). David has no idea why his windows were down - we think he probably accidentally pushed the buttons on his key.
Just to give you some background - our ward is (usually) a very quiet ward during sacrament and Clara at the best of times has a bit of a flair for the dramatic.
Clara found her sharks, and then while acting out some sort of role-play inside her head, yelled "SHARK! SHARK!". She then proceeded to take out a dinosaur toy and have the sharks eat the dinosaur and then again started yelling "AHHH SHARK! SHARK!". I had already asked Clara to stop yelling "SHARK!" and that hadn't worked. So I took the sharks from Clara and tried to place her on my lap. However, I still had a small hard plastic shark in my hand and in my flustered 'trying-to-get-my-two-year-old-to-stop-yelling-SHARK!' state I accidentally pushed one of the sharks against her arm. At this point Clara yelled out "Ouch Mum, you hurt my arm" and began to cry.
At this point I was thinking "great, not only have we destroyed the reverence of sacrament, now everybody probably thinks I am abusing my child."
I gave up on getting a positive outcome in that moment and left the Chapel. We did return later and Clara was much better for the second-half of Sacrament meeting.
I had hoped the entire time that perhaps only the rows immediately around us would have heard all of the commotion. However after Church both David (sitting on the stand) and Ethan (passing the sacrament) confirmed that they could clearly hear every word coming out of Clara's mouth.
I am recording this because I hope one day I will read this and look back at this experience with more amusement than my current feelings of frustration. Also, in ten years or so when I have left this phase of life, having this recorded may remind me not to be judgemental of other parents struggling to keep their young children quiet during Church.
Just to add to the oddness of this morning - when I came out of the chapel a member of our ward told me that all of the windows in David's car were down. I thought this really strange and went to check. Indeed every single window was down! It was pouring with rain so the insides of the doors were really wet. I checked the belongings in the car and everything seemed to be there, with an added gift of bird poo on the back seat (yes really! - but the bird was no longer there). David has no idea why his windows were down - we think he probably accidentally pushed the buttons on his key.
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