...Kids at Masjid...

Lifestyle Relationships
1

Hello people, I am in a very pissed off mood once again and where else other than GS can I go to let all of it out? :wave:

First of all, It’s Ramadan, I’ll try to control my language, and May Allah forgive me for what I am about to say.

It’s been a week since I’ve been going to taraaveeh prayer at the Masjid every night but there has not been a single night when people didn’t get disturbed because of the kids yelling and playing. Masjid is small, all the rooms are connected, and people let their kids lose like animals in a jungle. They have been doing damage to the room (literally, they’ve made holes in the walls), toys all across the room where people pray, when people are praying, they come in and out yelling out loud to each other, and like everyone else, I get disturbed as well and can’t concentrate on my prayer (Yeah I am not too much into my prayer anyway).

Now, I understand that it’s the parent’s duty to teach their kids how to pray and bla bla bla but where the freaking hell does it say that you should bring your kids to the masjid and let them lose and do the damage to the masjid instead of standing them next to you and teaching them how to pray? The Imam got fed up today and gave a 5 minutes speech that this is Allah’s house, how would you feel if I came to your house or my children came to your house and damaged it, would I be invited again? He also requested politely (for about the 100th time?) to people to bring their kids with them and to stop them from disturbing other people.

Now you would think after his nice little lecture, people would storm out of the main room, pull their kids by their ears, and stand them next to them and teach them how to pray? WRONG!!! People didn’t give a damn to what the Imam said, and the noise got LOUDER! I had to go to their room and tell them to shut the fukc up! and they did for a while, lekin phir wahi, kuttey ki dumm terhi ki terhi!!! Are these kids not allowed to play at home and do the damage there? Is that why they come to the masjid because the host is not literally there and they can do whatever they want? Is that why parents are quiet because there’s no one to tell their kids what not to do and they have full freedom?

You know your kids. If you know they won’t sit quietly, don’t Effing bring them with you, how freaking hard is that to understand? Teach them how to pray at home and when they mature and start behaving, THEN bring them with you. Ok, I know you won’t know if they sit quietly or make noise, fine, one day, two days, THREE days should be more than enough to give you a flucking hint that my kid is a moron, I should not bring him to the masjid to disturb other people any more. I swear, some day, I will slap a kid and have a fight with his dad, that day is VERY NEAR!

2

Hmm, why dont you ask the Imam to pay someone a few dollars an hour, preferably a qualified babysitter, during the prayer? Maybe they can take the kids to another area or room and keep the door closed, so that everyone else in the prayer hall can concentrate.

One of my friends told me (or perhaps it was a guppie, I dont know where my memory is going) that they have a sort of sound-proof room with see-thru glass in the masjid, and all the kids are put in the room while the adults pray. It's right behind the ladies section, or perhaps right next to it, I forget. I thought that was a good idea.

3

There should be no babysitter.... parents just need to discipline their kids..or not bring them at all..masjid is just not the place for hungama. why shud the iman pay for anything..he's simply running a house dedicated to faith..not a babysitting service...and if the parent't can't shut their kids up..there's no need to come to masjid and disturb else's prayer. they can bring their kids when their kids know not to act like a bunch of junglee's.

4

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Razea: *
There should be no babysitter.... parents just need to discipline their kids..or not bring them at all..masjid is just not the place for hungama. why shud the iman pay for anything..he's simply running a house dedicated to faith..not a babysitting service...and if the parent't can't shut their kids up..there's no need to come to masjid and disturb else's prayer. they can bring their kids when their kids know not to act like a bunch of junglee's.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, that is ideal, but I'm sure parents will still bring their kids, even if the Imam asks them 1 billion times to keep loud children at home. What to do then? You cant ban them from the masjid. There would be an uproar if Imam's went around banning children/mothers.

5

Yes, that is ideal, but I’m sure parents will still bring their kids, even if the Imam asks them 1 billion times to keep loud children at home. What to do then? You cant ban them from the masjid. There would be an uproar if Imam’s went around banning children/mothers.

i think they should be banned though…

i c a lot of the mothers just sitting there not even doing anything, even during prayer. i dont undrstand, why come to the masjid if ur not gonna pray?? :rolleyes:

and until u learn to discipline your children, don’t go around making others miserable coz ur kid is, like shikra said, a flucking moron.

then again, if u do discipline ur kid and try really hard and he still acts this way…i feelsorry for you.. .:flower1:

6

Munni as Razea & Sara said, why should the Imam pay a babysitter to keep the kids quiet. If you invite me at your home and my kids are being A-holes, would you provide a babysitter for them or would you not ever invite me again? I think you would go with option #2.

Once again, if someone argues that we should teach kids how to pray and all that, I would say teach them to behave first. It's not the child's fault that he runs around, does the damage, and makes noise, because it's his nature. It's the parent's fault who don't give a damn and never bother to make them stand to themselves while praying.

First of all, I am not going to bring my child to the masjid until he starts to behave (And I know he WILL behave from an early age or else his daddy's gonna kick his butt), secondly, if I take him to the masjid, he better stay with me rather than causing a commotion and I'll make sure that he doesn't move from where I tell him to sit/pray.

Besides, who's gonna pay for the money for the babysitter? Why the Imam? The people should pay it, right? But guess what? They use one towel paper at home but they use 5 instead of one at masjid, they save their water at home, but they open it full in Masjid, they keep their lights shut at home, but they make sure every light is on in Masjid. They don't pay for all that, you really think they'll pay for the babysitter.

Corrupt people.

7

Did you try talking to the parents directly and asking them why they bring their kids when they know they disturb the peace?

8

[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Shikra: *
**Munni* as Razea & Sara said, why should the Imam pay a babysitter to keep the kids quiet. If you invite me at your home and my kids are being A-holes, would you provide a babysitter for them or would you not ever invite me again? I think you would go with option #2.

.
[/QUOTE]

The Imam doesnt have to pay. It's just an hour or so, it wont be more than $20 a week (for jum'uah). I think many people would be willing to, because you are helping muslims in that way. Or it can be a policy where if you bring children that are known to be loud, then you must help pay for the babysitter on site. I'm not sure how receptive that would be though. I might just mention this to the local Imam, insha'Allah. Thanks for bringing up the topic. smile

Anyway, my point is that if the mothers dont keep their kids at home, if the Imam doesnt ban them from coming to the masjid, and if the children continually talk loudly and run around, what other option is there?

9

Mehnaz You don't know desi/Muslim people's attitude towards people younger than them? If they they don't listen to the Imam, who is older/the same age as them, do you really think they'll listen to me who is definitly younger than them?

If you think I am saying it without even trying it, here's are a few examples:

People have asked me to move a little forward or backward to straighten the line, I did. When I asked someone older than me to move a little forward or backward to straighten the line, guess what I got? "No. This is fine right here" when other people and I know he's not fine there.

Last week, kids were making noise, same kids at the same time, same location. I was in the front row and then there was an uncle in the backrow by the door. I said "Would you please close the door as the kids' noise will disturb us during the prayer?" and guess what happened? He looked at me weired and said it's ok like this. Other people also heard him but just shrugged their shoulders because he was a little bit older than all of us.

That's the mentality of people who come to the masjid. I am sure some are nice, but this is the majority. However, I am not trying to generalize though. So, if they don't listen to the Iman when he has told them SEVERAL times to turn off their cell phones or to take care of the kids and he even gives 5 minutes especially to those people, but guess what. Cell phone still ring and kids still make noise.

Munni a quick reply to you as I am about to leave for school :)

Yes, lets say it's 20/hr for jumma, how about each night of taraveeh. We don't need a babysitter during jumma because kids are in school. It's only at night when they get to see their friends and have fun. Parents can leave them at home with their mothers because we don't have a lot of woman. If they still do bring them with you, they should be stricter with them and teach them dicipline and manners. I will mention the idea to the Imam, but trust me, people are so cheap, they won't pay for a babysitter. They'll make the Imam a bad guy.

10

Shikra, I've told kids off before right in front of their parents, be it at the masjid/Eid namaz or when they let their kids go buck wild in our house. I would stand up to them (the elders who ignore it) if I were you. I'm not telling you to argue with them, be confrontational, be disrespectful or anything like that. You should have just gone and closed the door if the other elderly man refused to do it and repeated again that the noise is disturbing. Chances are, they wouldn't say anything and others would appreciate it as they themselves are also being disturbed.

11

Well, I do go out and close the kids' door but that's a good idea to close the door myself if any elderly refuses to do so. What will happen is that I'll lose my spot on the front row once I go back in the room to close the door, but it's alright.

And another point that I would like to add to why I am against the idea of the babysitter is this:

The Masjid has done the following:

Bought a place for the masjid
Constructed the Masjid
Maintains it
Electricity bill, water bill, Phone bill, other supplies
Copies, pamphlets, flyers etc
Iftaars
Library
And much more.

I don't think they ought to add any additional burden on their budget just because people are morons and can't control their freaking off-springs. If people improve themselves and their attitudes, the world, especially the Masjid will be a much better place and everyone would love to go there.

12

I can very much relate to your experience.
I know a lot of people who just sit there letting their kids
do anything and everything they want.

They just won't do anything about their
misbehaving kids but yet they keep on producing
more and more children.

These parents are just
too ignorant.

13

Just got back from the Masjid, same situation. After the prayer, I went to their room and toys were all over the room, so I started picking them up and putting them in a bin. Three cute little girls came and offered me help and picked up the toys from under the tables. Then 2 of them left, one stayed with me and my brother and when we started to pray, she was praying standing next to us, by copying us. That was cute.

I offered the Imam a solution: Since we have a few volunteers standing outside in the parking lot monitoring the lot, one of them can take all the kids outside and let them play there. They all can stand by the door and only let the adults come on, keeping the kids out. But the Imam said he has given up now, he does not care anymore :bummer:

14

Where do u live?
Wouldn't it be cold for the kids to stay out?

15

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by SAJAL: *
Where do u live?
Wouldn't it be cold for the kids to stay out?
[/QUOTE]

lil retards prolly deserve it..lol

16

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Sara516: *

lil retards prolly deserve it..lol
[/QUOTE]

lol

I am mean to kids, but not THAT mean.

I am in Louisiana, and the average temp. during the day is 85. It's very humid at night but it's pleasant because of the winds. But it's burning hot during the day. Winter starts here around December and just full sleeves shirts will be more than enough to protect. In other words, winter never really comes here.

17

Ok, I have something else to complain about :wave:

Yesterday, we gave an iftaar at the Islamic Center. So I was the volunteer to serve the food, and put the plates, cups, soda, water etc. on the “dastar khawan”. A few uncles were sitting in that hall. So I spread the dastar-khawan on the floor and it was a little bit away from the wall where an uncle was sitting back and relaxing. He complained about the followings:

  • The distance between the cups is too little
  • We have put more juice bottles in the other rown than his row
  • We have put more bananas in the other row than his
  • We are putting everything good and in more quantitiy in the other row
  • The sheet is a little too away from the wall (where he was sitting)

I kept doing whatever he asked for, I moved the cups, gave him juice bottles, gave him a whole half dozen of bananas, gave him more of everything. That was my limit. When he said that sheet was a little too away from the wall, I said You don’t have to lean to the wall, you can move ahead and then sit back and relax when you are done and he said “Oh no, I don’t care, I was just saying it because you won’t have enough space to walk back and forth while serving the food” and I said Well I am the one who’ll be serving the food and I know how much space I need to walk and I’ll be able to walk there fine and he said “yes sir”.

My face was RED at that time and I just moved away because I was in the masjid and didn’t wanna say anything bad :mad3:

They don’t serve milk as a drink but one uncle wanted a cup of milk because “he had to take his medicine” and he sent me to get some milk and his request was denied at first :rotato: but then he was finally given the milk.

Ok I feel good now :blush:

18

:rotfl:

I went to taraweeh last night for the first time ever in my life. I hear ya. Those little kids are horrible. I get out of the car in the parking lot right before namaz, and guess what I see? 10 kids beating up on one another with plastic bats.

I am beginning to think that desi genes are just polluted.

Anyway, the ladies section is separated with curtains. The little boys - the buggers - peak at us from under the curtain.

So while sitting there waiting for taraweeh to start - I heard these two kids arguing in the men’s section…

“I know who your dad is”

“No, you dont”

“Yeah, I do”

“No, you don’t”

“Yeah I do”

“I know who your dad is”

“No you don’t”

“Yeah, I do”

“No”

“Yeah”

“No”

“Yeah”

At which point I think one pushed the other and ran.

19

Yeah.Oh you guys should get up and yell at those kids.I did.And although I got dirty looks from the mothers- I didnt let them stop me.

Not to mention the aunties with full make up -nail polish etc praying taraweeh with duppatas that left more than half their hair out.

20

Yeah, I don’t understand that logic :konfused:

Some girls have hijabs but you can see their hair (forhead and little bit of head) and they are wearing TIGHT, and I mean T.I.G.H.T jeans/pants and shirts. What’s the point of hijab then, just to cover your HAIR? where every other single part of the body is being revealed and you have full make up :confused: