Those of you who go to church...

mindaa

Are you taking LO to the nursery, or keeping them with you? 

I'm still keeping LO with me, as it's easier to slip out when he needs to nurse. But he's getting louder and more "talkative", so I'm thinking we'll need to switch soon, especially as he starts crawling/getting more restless. But I kinda like the extra time to hang out with LO on the weekend, and I'm not looking forward to planning extra time to drop him off. 

On the other hand, our music is SO loud that we've been getting there late to minimize how long he listens to it. Would be nice to actually be able to go to the entire service.

ashleymc09

I'm right there with you! I'm not sure what to do either..I want to go to church, but I don't want to take her to the nursery, but in the service the music is way too loud for her (it actually scared her one time), and she is too loud for us to stick around for the message... With cold/flu season here, I especially don't want her in the nursery, or even at church....but I want to go! I'm tempted to adopt the "get over it" attitude when she does make noise while with me in church, but I don't know that actually that brave haha. Not sure what to do either..but just letting you know I'm in the same boat. I look forward to other responses!

hudson202

Our nursery is 6 months+ so she is still with us in the service. We just sit in the back, and walk around if she is being noisy. She will go back to the nursery when she is 6 months old though. I also volunteer in the children's ministry, so I'm very comfortable with leaving her back there.

mindaa

hudson202 said:

Our nursery is 6 months+ so she is still with us in the service. We just sit in the back, and walk around if she is being noisy. She will go back to the nursery when she is 6 months old though. I also volunteer in the children's ministry, so I'm very comfortable with leaving her back there.

Oops, I never even thought to check if there was a minimum age - guess that would be step one!  I've been seriously thinking about volunteering now that I'm going to be there anyway, and it might help with the transition. 

Sammy K

We sit in the kid-friendly section and no one minds the noises. In fact, several times I've found someone is making faces at LO or DS to get a reaction. I will occasionally send LO to the nursery so I can actually pay attention. But generally my rule of thumb is as long as it's happy baby noise, I don't leave.

Kbchavez23

LO goes to the nursery. I decided to do that to kind of get her used to other people (this was before I returned to work) so she wouldn't be so shocked when she started daycare. Plus I get to enjoy service and get a little me time.

lindsladle15

Nursery for our LO's! I have never heard of a church having a minimum nursery age...interesting.
I have a hard time paying attention with other LO's in the service, so I get extra nervous/stressed when ours is in there. I like to pay full attention, too

alcrimmins

Disclaimer: we don't go to church unless we're at my parents.

LO randomly excitedly screamed during the sermon one week and our pastor said, Well at least someone likes what I have to say! So embarrassing and funny at the same time. It got quite the chuckle from the congregation.

RaiEliJusHell1369

LO spends service in the nursery, mostly because he loves to shriek at the top of his lungs whenever the Pastor pauses in service. But he's only spent 3 Sundays in there, minimum age is 3 months and all children in the ministry program must be up to date on vaccinations. Reason being we have a child in the church with some form of immune disorder, so it's for safety reasons. LO seems to enjoy being in there, I am apart of children's ministry so I'm in the nursery allot anyway. But when I'm not I can usually nurse or bottle feed him and he'll go right to sleep.

awolfff

I go to a relatively small church and they have a "Nursery" but it's more for parents who want to take their fussy babies and/or nurse than it is somewhere to drop off the babes during the sermon. That said I've used it a couple times and LOVE the rocking chair. They put speakers back there so we can listen to the preacher, which is nice. For the most part though LO has his own fan club and he usually gets passed around to all the grandmas which he loves because he's entertained and they let him pull their hair and I love because he can get a little socializing in while I can actually hear and pay attention to the sermon.

mjschenk

Well my DH and I take turns having him in our various meetings. He usually comes with me because I am in with the children so we song lots of songs and LO loves it.(3 hours of church and is always happy) also usually has to eat at least once but we have a nice mothers room with two rockers and a door that closes to allow privacy it's really nice.

mlindzz

We haven't left LO in the nursery, I feel awful saying it but I don't think I trust the staff. It's my own stuff going on I'm sure, but I'm not confident they would come get me if he was really upset and I get anxious of the thought of him not being supervised and putting something he shouldn't in his mouth (often small toys are everywhere from the older kids).

Anyways between all the socializing before and after the service, he often needs to eat and sleep during the service, which are the two things he usually depends on me for. I only ever catch a few minutes of the service.. But it's a start!

krystleshel

I've posted before about this but our church nursery has a very old strange lady in it. The 3 times she's been in there with her, she refused to get her to nap, passed her around to older ladies, & complained when I came to nurse (didn't you just feed her?) She also says, "oh she likes me!" Or "she hates me!" Depending on my LOs attitude. after she grabbed my carrier with baby when I told her no I complained & nothing's been done. We haven't been back in 3 weeks.

AlyLynn07

Minimum age for the nursery at our church is also 6 mo. We hang in the crying room (they call it the infant sitting or family care room) during service. It has those awesome rocking chairs and 1-way glass so you can watch the service and feed baby comfortably. Although being in a dark room in those comfy chairs does not make it easy to stay focused/awake!