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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How old are your kids? Is your husband just not interested, or actively hostile to going?

Growing up, my dad actively complained about going to church when my mom was trying to get us ready to go, and he would mock parts of the service under his breath. That definitely fed my resentment of going and colored my feelings about religion in general. My mom would have been better off letting him do his own thing than asking him to participate in something he didn't want to do.

If your kids are young enough still, I'd recommend trying to make Mass something special for them. We used to go out to brunch with my grandparents and my aunt after church and I still associate those brunches that I loved with church, even though I didn't love church. Even better if you can make their experience AT church joyful and something they will want to repeat themselves. Can you arrange to go and sit with their friends from school or Sunday school? Or set up a play date with those friends to help build ties to friends from church?

If they're teens, you might need to let them make their own decisions about church attendance. They're old enough by then to make decisions about their priorities and forcing them to go will likely just cause resentment. You can try to make your home practice inviting to keep them engaged. Do you say grace before meals? Can you make that fun by allowing your kids to lead, or ask them to share their favorite moment of the day, or the funniest thing they saw? Or let them choose at what volume you say the prayers (whisper it, shout, normal volume).[/quote]

We just moved to a new state but in our old home my kids and I were very plugged into a Catholic church community. These are all fantastic comments. [/quote]

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