DEAR ABBY: I attend a church with about 350 worshippers. The church provides a supervised nursery for infants to 2 years of age. Most parents with babies use it. However, one couple has a 2-year-old child and a 2-month-old baby. These parents do not take advantage of the nursery, but keep the kids in the sanctuary.
Last Sunday the baby, who was in the father's arms, cried during most of the service. The parents may be able to tune it out, but many of us were very distracted by the wailing.
The father is a schoolteacher. I couldn't help but wonder how this teacher would handle a student who caused such a disruption in his classroom. I don't think he would tolerate an hour of loud crying from anyone. Why don't these people understand their behavior prevents others from worshipping as they would like? -- SILENCE, PLEASE
DEAR SILENCE, PLEASE: That's a good question, and one I recommend you pose to the person who was conducting the service. Out of consideration for the congregation, he or she should "remind" the parents that the nursery is available, and stress that in the future it be used to prevent the problem from recurring because the disruption caused "so many complaints."