Hi.We have 3 girls - 5 yrs,2 yrs and a 4 months ols baby. It takes us forever (seems like) to get us all ready for church. We are usually 15-20 mins late but as the worship service goes on for an hour it's not too bad. Last week was terrible, we got up around 7am, but everything went wrong. I startd preparing food for after service (to try and be super organized), burnt it and started again. Had sorted out clothes for kiids to wear but had a bad day with baby on Sat so hadn't had time to iron them, and then noticed that one was dirty so had to find something else, a shirt got burnt while ironing, and breastfed baby 3 times.The morning was terrible, much worse than usual. We thought, well we know we're going to be late (service starts at 10.30) but we'll just go anyway, better to go late than not at all, and service often doesn't finish til 1pm anyway.
We got there at 11.20am and found there was a visiting preacher. Later in the sermon I took baby out as she was unsettled. I went to the car and breatfed her there. Dh told me later that while I was outside with baby the preacher singled us out, talked about the family arriving late and how we shld be on time, and the woman has the ability to dress the children, not the man etc etc. dh was very upset about being singled out like that, and we know that we were late, and it is sth we are trying to do sth about tbh.
I feel really upset bcse we are struggling to get o/selves all ready for church and our church is all open plan, they have a screen behing which I can go and breastfeed the baby, but I don't like doing this as baby still cries until I feed her and I feel a bit embarrassed. That's why I try and feed her just before we go, in the hope that she might last some time.
I do normally dress the kids, but as I was cooking this morning dh did it, and personally I don't thinki God cares who dresses the kids. This Sunday we're going to sleep in and relax, as dh works hard and I'm exhausted with 3 young children, and getting dd1 up for school. Next week we're going to looki for somewhere else- not so we can turn up late all the time, but so we don't get condemned for trying our best.
Does anyone have an example of a great church service that caters for everyone's needs, eg nursing mums, children etc. and can anyone tell me what their Sunday morning routine goes like.
Sorry it's so long, just needed a rant!