In many of the blogs I write, I talk about one of the most important duties of a dad – embarrassing their children. It’s been this way for centuries and most parents (and children) know this to be true. Something that is equally true but less well-known is the responsibility children have to embarrass their parents…especially their mothers.
Thankfully for children throughout the world, parents give them opportunities to fulfill this responsibility every week at church! Whether from the pulpit, in the hallway, during sharing time or on the way home – kids know how to embarrass us parents.
For my own mother, it was when her potty-training daughter declared during one very quiet sacrament service “This is good water, huh, mommy? This isn’t pee water!”
For my wife and I, we learned that a gassy baby makes the most…noise…at precisely the moment the speaker pauses for effect during their talk.
For Latter-day Laughs reader Krista Cercone, her mother discovered this when Krista was three years old:
My mother told me that when I was 3 years old, she once asked me to go get her some tissue from the bathroom in the middle of sacrament meeting. As I was coming down the stairs that were in the back of the room we were meeting in, I yelled to my mother: “Here’s your toilet paper, Mom!”
Bob Powelson of Port Alice, British Columbia (Canada) shared when his daughter fulfilled this responsibility with amazing aptitude:
A long time ago in branch far away, Sundays were busy and our three little children pretty much took care of themselves. My wife was the pianist and was playing the prelude music while I was preparing to conduct the meeting. At one point I noticed the entire congregation was smiling while snickering and looking at the piano. There stood our 3-year-old daughter, stark naked except for ankle socks, standing next to the piano and dancing. A sister grabbed our daughter and her clothes and took her out to dress her. No one was offended, but reverence that morning was definitely lacking.
And finally, Guy Wilcox of Taylorsville, Utah shared this gem back in 2011 about how to NOT make a good impression when you first attend a ward:
Long ago, when we had just moved into a new ward and had five small children and one on the way, we had been asked to speak in sacrament meeting. We were seated on the stand before the meeting started and our 3-year-old was getting fussy. I brought him to the stand with me in an attempt to calm him down. Instead he just got worse. I picked him up to carry him into the hall for a little talk. As I stood, he yelled: “Help me! Help me!” Then he grabbed onto the cloth on the sacrament table, and as I walked down the stairs he managed to pull everything off the table—trays and all. That was our introduction to the new ward. It was pretty hard to live that one down!
Share your embarrassing moments or funny stories from sacrament meeting, Sunday school, the foyer, or anywhere else your kids have made you wish you could crawl under something and just hide.
Send your funny stories to [email protected].
Samantha WilsonSeptember 20, 2016
When my children were 1, 3, and 5 years old, Sacrament meeting could be very interesting. Especially since the oldest, and only boy, had ADD. Since these children learn by doing, touching feeling, etc., I had learned that whispering to my son to be quiet, was useless. I had taken to giving a gentle pinch as a first warning. Second offense would be harder, and third (if there was one) would merit a visit to the restroom for a ‘laying on of hands.’ I knew it was possible for a five year old to sit quietly, since my 3 year old already did. This particular Sacrament meeting, I was very interested to hear what the speaker was saying. I had already separated my son from the 1 year old, passed out pencils and paper to ‘write’ on, and given ‘the LOOK’ all to no avail. So, I reached over and pinched gently. “OWWW!!” reverberated throughout the Chapel. I snatched his arm and rocketed out of the pew. His, “I’ll behave, Mom! I’ll behave!” echoed as parents and grandparents alike, quietly tittered in their seats. Believe me, that was the LAST time he pulled that one!
Dennis CarrollSeptember 19, 2016
In the late 70's,I served as the Bishop of a student ward at Ricks College. My wife and 3 young children often attended sacrament meeting in the afternoon, the only children in a ward of very quiet and reverent young adults. On one of those Sundays, during the sacrament, my oldest son really had to go to the restroom. He returned a few minutes later while the sacrament was still being passed. There he stood at the door at the front of the classroom/chapel with his trousers down at his ankles. Then calling toward the stand where I sat, he said in a voice loud enough to be heard by all said, "Daddy, come and wipe my bottom?" I've always been grateful for that young man who jumped up, took his hand and helped him back to the bathroom.