Bringing a toddler to a congregational church service in a chapel without a cry-room can be a challenge and a source of stress. Take a look at the things I bring with us each week to make it just a little bit easier and less stressful.
We attend church services as a family each Sunday. We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so our services take two hours. The first hour is our traditional congregational meeting in the chapel and for the second hour we separate into different classes. Our church has a nursery for kids aged 18 months to 3 years, so we really only have to keep Calvin for the first hour. But our chapel doesn’t have a “cry-room”, so we do our best to keep Calvin pretty quiet and contained to our pew.
We also have a four-month-old baby girl named Della, so our hands are a little bit full and we have to try and keep them both happy and quiet at the same time. That, or send one of us out into the hallway if one of the kids is really not having it that day.
BEFORE CHURCH
Before I get to what I bring with us to church, I want to touch briefly on what I do in the mornings before we leave to set us up for success.
First, we have the same thing for breakfast every Sunday morning. I make Pillsbury cinnamon rolls (from the can) and serve them with fruit, like blueberries or strawberries, and OIKOS Triple Zero yogurt. I do this for a couple of reasons. First, I think that having cinnamon rolls every Sunday morning (and only on Sunday mornings) is a great cue for Calvin. He knows that on the days we eat cinnamon rolls, we go to church. This helps him be a little more prepared for spending the morning in the church environment rather than the playground or being at home playing with his toys. Second, I like that the yogurt is loaded with protein. This helps Calvin to feel fuller, longer and to not get so hangry during the first meeting. That doesn’t mean I don’t bring him snacks, but it means he’s eating them more out of boredom than hunger.
IN MY BAG
Snacks
I always always always bring snacks to church with us. The things I look for in a church snack are: not crumbly, not sticky, not juicy, compact, and not loud to eat. This eliminates options like Cheerios, Pirate’s Booty, applesauce pouches, PB&J, crackers, fresh fruit, and chips for us. If those snacks work for you, great! They just aren’t good options for me and my kids. My favorite snacks to bring with us to church are dried blueberries, dried mango (cut up into small pieces), fruit snacks, and That’s It fruit bars. All of these are easy, quiet, and clean for Calvin to munch on, but they also won’t totally fill him up and spoil his lunch. I also always make sure to have Calvin’s water bottle filled up and in the bag. After we take the sacrament (a small piece of bread and a sip of water) Calvin always wants more water to drink, so it’s nice to have his water on hand. I absolutely love this water bottle for him.
Della isn’t eating solid foods yet, so if she gets hungry during church I just nurse her. Once she’s older I’ll probably bring a small container of puffs or yogurt melts and give them to her one at a time to keep her happy.
Books
Quietly reading Calvin a book is one of the best and most reliable ways to keep him quiet and still during the sacrament. Recently I’ve been reading him the Latter-Day Baby Sacrament book and he’s been really into it. I really enjoy all of the religious books from Latter-Day Baby and our collection is slowly, but surely, growing.
I really like choosing books that are centered on Christ for our distraction during church to help Calvin to learn while we are there. But I’ve also just brought whatever book he is into at the time and that he will focus on.
Toys and Other Entertainment
While I would love it if Calvin would just sit quietly and listen to the messages of Christ during the first hour-long meeting, he’s two years old. That just isn’t within his realm of capability at this point. So he gets toys to distract and entertain him, so Colter and I can at least half-listen to what is being said over the pulpit. The things I look for in a toy for church are: quiet, small, and not likely to escape. Calvin loves to throw balls so those are definitely out, because he would instantly throw the ball somewhere else in the chapel. We also make sure that any cars that we bring are not wind-up ones to avoid Calvin sending a racecar zooming underneath the pews.
In the bag, I usually keep a small bag of finger puppets, a couple of simple cars, an old flip phone with the battery taken out, a small sketchbook, and some crayons. We got the finger puppets during Easter of 2021 when we used them instead of candy to stuff Calvin’s eggs for the hunt. The eggs came pre-stuffed with finger puppets from Amazon. I also chose a sketchbook for Calvin to draw in because the paper is thicker and less likely to end up shredded all over the floor. The crayons that I got don’t have wrappers to deal with, and they all fit nicely in a StasherBag Pocket Bag so they’re nice and compact. The sketchbook is linked here and the crayons are linked here.
Of course, Calvin also sometimes finds other things to play with like my AirPods or the abandoned cap to a ballpoint pen. Or he’ll pick one car from the bag and spend the entire meeting driving it back and forth on the pew, watching the wheels turn.
I also keep something in the bag for Della to play with if she gets bored and cranky. It’s typically a small silicone teething toy, but if I forget, she’s also happy to gum a HotWheels car or finger puppet or her foot. Babies can be much easier to entertain than two-year-olds.
HAVING A CHURCH BAG
I used to just bring my regular diaper bag with us to church, but I found that I was always rushing around in the morning trying to add snacks and toys to the bag without Calvin asking to have them immediately and while trying to get us all out the door. Having a dedicated church bag with a couple diapers, a couple wipes, and mostly snacks and entertainment works much better for me. I simply repack it every Sunday afternoon when we return home from church and it’s all ready to go for the next week.
I hope you found this helpful in some way. And if you are a parent of at least one toddler and you take them to church services regularly, like I do, I wish you luck. It’s not easy, but I think it’s worth it in the long run.
BARREL OF MERRELL'S 
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