Originally published in The Remnant, October 15, 2007.
You pretend not to notice, but you see them.
All those families. Some with well-behaved children, some with, shall we say, issues.
You try to focus on Sunday morning Mass, but your own kids are distracting and perhaps you are aware of families in the pews around you with similar travails. Every family has children who misbehave at some point or another, but some parents seem to struggle every week. Are there simple changes parents can make that will immediately improve their children's behavior?
Parents with misbehaved children never position them correctly in the pew. On the other hand, parents with well-behaved children almost always position them well. Here are two examples: