The Voices of our Youths

I have a very important announcement to make. I want to make something very clear to you. Do not bring children who can't sit quietly to shul. Maybe that wasn't clear enough. Let me rephrase that... Don't EVER bring your noisy children to shul again. Especially not to the shul that I daven at. This shabbos I had the occasion of having not one but TWO sets of rambunctious kids sitting near me. They whined, complained, laughed, giggled, squirmed, questioned and horsed around. And they did none of it quietly. Whenever their fathers were not too busy with their own davening to quiet the child, they replied to them and did a good job of raising the noise level even further. So ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... Leave your kids at home. If this means you have to stay at home too, then please do so. I know, I know... that's easy for me to say. After all, I am single and don't have this problem. You have wives and your dear son or daughter, if left at home will disturb their precious beauty sleep. That's understandable. However, that does NOT justify bringing a noisy kid who doesn't know how to sit still into shul. Let him or her play outside in the hall. Find a babysitter or youth group run by a fourteen year old who him/herself is not mature enough to sit still in shul. I don't care what you do... Just don't disturb other's davening. This may require some creative thinking on your part. For example, one of my rebbis goes to vasikin. He then returns and takes care of the kids while his wife either gets to sleep or attend shul. Maybe there is some sort of imaginative solution that can be arrived at. Or maybe you are just going to have to stay home. I would anyway question the level of kavannah you can have while your offspring is carrying on like that. Ask your rav... Ask him what he thinks... You davening betzibor and distracting half the shul, or b'yichidus without the destruction of other's kavannah on your head. Maybe it isn't as black and white as you think...