Beware ... this is a rant:

I picked the wrong pew and the wrong Sunday to try taking both girls to church by myself. If you read my previous blog, you know that the Cass family was having a rough morning Sunday. I usually only take my older daughter to church with me, but in light of the fact that my husband was home burying the dog, I took both girls with me.

I knew it was a mistake as soon as we walked into an almost-full church. Turns out it was reformation sunday, 1st Communion Sunday and there were TWO baptisms and they were also receiving new members. You know what that means....one loooooonnnnnnggggg service. Couldn't they have spread all this activity out over a few weeks???

I chose a fairly-empty pew that had only one older couple sitting in it, figuring the girls would have plenty of room to spread out. I soon found out -- when it was too late to move -- that the nice-looking older couple were obviously of the belief that kids should be seen and not heard and 2-year-olds should sit in a pew with their hands folded for hours on end.

I always let Kelly write her name in the pew book -- old man yanked it out of her hands & told her that she shouldn't be writing in there. Then, at one point, Kelly was rolling around on the floor, being a brat and he actually grabbed her elbow, pulled her up on the pew and told her to stop acting like that, listen to her mommy and sit there and behave.

Whoa. That pissed me off. Don't touch my kid. You don't know me. You don't know her. And you have no right to discipline my child.

I wanted to get up & leave right then & there. But, first I had to pull Lauren out of the center aisle and back into the pew and pick up the crayons they dropped all over the floor and put the hymnal page markers back in the hymnals. So, yes...they were not on their best behavior. They were being bad -- rotten, really. But, they are 2 years old and 4 years old. They do not sit and behave. No kid that age does.

They talk too loud, they sing ABCs during the Psalm, they drop their crayons, they roll around on the floor, they throw their stuffed animals into the air, they fight with each other, they whine, they whimper and they say they want to go home. They're nothing if not entertaining.

I noticed a few older woman (not that old...late 50s ...young enough to have remembered those mothering days themselves) turning around and sucking their teeth at us. And, that was it. I'd had enough. I gathered up our coloring books, crayons and snack bags, grabbed the kids and walked them out the door as everyone was finishing up the Lord's Prayer and sitting back down.

I just wanted out. And, I learned long ago that life is too short to spend 2 minutes doing something I don't want to do. It sucked. I felt judged and I wanted to leave. And I did.

And it will be a long time before I ever take two kids to church again. Truth be told, I don't want to go back at all.

I'm embarrased, yes. But, mostly, I'm angry. I'm angry that those women don't remember what it was like to have two young kids in a hot, stuffed church. I'm angry that the old man thinks it's OK to scare or threaten kids into submission.

But, mostly I'm angry that these good church-going Christians -- these people who never miss a Sunday -- can sit in church and show such a lack of compassion and understanding.

My name is Heather Cass. I'm an imperfect mother. My kids are sometimes brats. Deal with it.

Wheew ... glad I got all that off my chest. I feel better already.