Once upon a time, before Jack, we were very involved in our church. We were in the choir. J did a little class with some other girls. We had friends to meet for coffee. We had friends to go to lunch with after church.
Enter: Jack.
We would leave him at the nursery (before the feeding tube was placed) with written instructions (in several places, no less) on how to fix his bottle. Every bottle had “THICKENED LIQUIDS ONLY” written in Sharpie.
Guess who gets called to the nursery because Jack is choking?
After the feeding tube, after having to miss church more often than not because he had pneumonia or strep….we returned.
We were not really welcome. Of course, there were the obligatory “hello–how are ya?” kind of small talks. Only…when Jack would be loud or make noises, we got the death stare. Nursey doesn’t want him anymore because he’s “supposed” to be with the older kids doing lessons.
This is what makes me really frustrated about society. Everybody’s all, “Let’s include everyone (even the disabled!) and sing Kumbaya,” but not really.
Why is that? Especially since, you know, my friend J.C. wasn’t afraid to heal the sick or touch the lepers.
Why can’t we take our child to church? My mother is convinced of my eternal damnation because we don’t take the children to church. I keep asking her if she can find me a church that will “allow” Jack to sit there and be loud. Sure, they’ll “allow” it, but no one will speak to us, and eventually, after enough death stares, we’ll quit going again.
But it’s not just in churches. I’m seeing it more and more elsewhere too. Public humiliation under the guise of “rules.”
(I spend too much time worrying about these things when I can’t sleep at night…)