Church with Children

As a child I have fond memories of going to church on Sunday mornings (or some Saturday night services where it worked better for our family). My brothers, sometimes a friend who enjoyed a sleepover, would sit together and sometimes listen but other times have "quiet" conversations while my mother hissed at us to be quieter.

Now that I have a young family it is important that we start to attend church regularly. Today I spent a lot of time quietly praying for patience. I didn't really get a lot out of the mass and I was embarrassed that the children were being loud and potentially disturbing other people's services. After mass my husband thought they were one of the better behaved of all the children there.

There is a children's mass but it is at 11:30AM and I feel that would interrupt our entire day. 9:30AM lets us get in and get out and still have time to run errands and spend time as a family.

Do you attend church with your children? How do you experience it?