How to Embarass Your Teen-ager in a Public: an AC Experiment on Parent and Child Relationships

"Lynn" is the mother of 3 young adults and a grandmother of 2. Her story could have happened to me or to you, or to one of millions of mothers across this great country.

"When my kids were young, we went to a small Baptist church about 10 miles from home. Sunday mornings, with 3 small children all under the age of 4, were hectic to say the least. No matter how early we got up, how much I did the night before to get ready, or how cooperative the kids tried to be; we were always running late. By the time we got into the van, tempers would be flaring adn at least one of the kids would be crying. My husband and I would usually be arguing before we had driven the distance to church.

Each week at the beginning of the worship services, our pastor would gather all the kids under the age of 8 to the front of the church. He would sit them down around him and begin asking questions about their week. He asked things such as how their week at school had gone, what they had for breakfast that morning or if they had gone to the football game the Friday night before. The questions varied from week to week; it was simply his way of getting conversation started. Then, he would use the answers to lead into the bible story that he had prepared for the children.

One Sunday, he asked this question to my then 3 year old son. "James, tell me son, just what is going on in the Smith house today?" To which my son answered. "Mommy and Daddy had a HUGE fight on the way to church this morning and Mommy said Daddy just sat on his butt and watched tv while she did all the work and then he yelled at her because she wasn't ready to leave. And it was HIS fault that we were always late"

I wanted to crawl under the pew and die. My husband was 18 shades of red, and the laughter went on around us for what seemed like twenty minutes; although looking back, I'm sure it was more like 20 seconds. Our son thought they were laughing at him, and started to cry. Pastor finally regained control and went on with the service.