Children on the Stand

[burtwp-p40]

There is a serious problem in a ward here where a young bishopric member has one or two of his young children sit with him during Sacrament meeting. It is very disruptive. Even if he is conducting, his child(ren) are running around on the stand, throwing toys down, running back and forth between dad and mom etc.

This has started to spread now, where the other counsellor's son has decided he would like to sit on the stand with his father too. Then, the other week another young father brought his child up when he gave his talk.

This is extremely disruptive and I think, very inappropriate. Does anyone know of a talk, article or First Presidency letter that has addressed such problems? I think some "reinforcements" (from the Brethern etc.) are needed to help address this problem.

[lajackson]

This is extremely disruptive and I think, very inappropriate.

This sounds like something the bishop and stake president would want to deal with immediately, and I think their counsel would have to be tailored to the individual counselors and their families who are involved.

If it were me, I would address this as a basic reverence issue and go from there. There have been a few talks in general conference on the subject that a search would find. President Spencer W. Kimball's "We Should Be a Reverent People" is still the classic, in my opinion.

I would not call this a technology question, though, unless the children are running around with cell phones and PDAs. [grin]

This is really something that the local leaders will need to work out, I think.