3 Positive Parenting Tips for Teaching Church Etiquette to Kids

Copyright (c) 2012 Thomas Liotta and Bonnie Liotta

Thomas and I came across a video on YouTube the other day that was titled Parenting Tips - Teaching Church Etiquette to Kids by Aimee Wymington. She offers 3 parenting tips in the video and we are bringing you more positive parenting solutions here so you can have even greater success teaching your child the life skill of self-control, which will serve your child or teenager now and forever! Her parenting tips were as follows: 1.It gives a wrong impression if your child is not on their best behavior at church. 2. Tell your child to sit and be quiet. Supply books and other distractions. 3. Tell your child all the rules of what is not acceptable in church.

Here is what Thomas, the creator of the Creating Champions for Life philosophy, has to say. The idea that you have to act with self-control at church will send a negative message to the child about church! "What about acting our best in the classroom, at home or at my friend's house? Only God cares if I have self-control?" Self-control is an important life skill for your child to learn in any situation, not just church. To whom is it important t for your child to sit quiet in church? Right, it is important to you. Sidetracking them with coloring books and other distractions is stealing the child's opportunity to learn authentic self-control.

Just before you head into any outing, take five minutes and pre-frame by asking your child questions. "Little Timmy, what would you like to have happen today?" Timmy will answer, "I would like to go to the park later, Mom and Dad." Now you have something that is important to Timmy. You can ask him what he likes about the park and what excites him the most. Then, you can say, "Timmy, I would love to take you to the park for a few minutes after you are quiet, calm and attentive in church, okay?" "Okay, Mom." "Timmy, what are you choosing to act like in church, so we can have a visit to the park afterwards?" "I choose to be quiet, calm and attentive, Mom." Then praise how awesome, smart and well-behaved he is!

We suggest you include what it is they can do while they are at church when you go over rules. So instead of making a list of don'ts, make a list of do's. Although your list can be whatever you make it to be, here is an example for you. Sit still when the paster is talking. Be completely quiet during service. Be kind to each other. Be polite when you say hello to people you know and make eye contact. If you are wanting to talk to someone, stand quietly at attention stance (arms straight down side, quiet, still and patiently wait to be acknowledged. It makes so much sense to me to focus on what are the right actions to do at church, agreed?

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