The right church can be a great intergenerational mixing bowl as well. Very healthy. I've recently started going to a new church, fairly small and full of young families, old people, and all other types. Kids generally stay for the sermon; of course they get fidgety, but it's good training. I'm just realizing that, compared to every other public environment, it is simply an oasis of nice, polite, respectful kids in stark contrast to the hostile, half-clad, tattooed & pierced feral youth everywhere else. Besides the obvious (Christianity), maybe there's a parallel effect of being regularly exposed to grown ups who expect them, sooner or later but mostly on-time, to grow up.
The right church can be a great intergenerational mixing bowl as well. Very healthy. I've recently started going to a new church, fairly small and full of young families, old people, and all other types. Kids generally stay for the sermon; of course they get fidgety, but it's good training. I'm just realizing that, compared to every other public environment, it is simply an oasis of nice, polite, respectful kids in stark contrast to the hostile, half-clad, tattooed & pierced feral youth everywhere else. Besides the obvious (Christianity), maybe there's a parallel effect of being regularly exposed to grown ups who expect them, sooner or later but mostly on-time, to grow up.