Oh I'm sure they're nice. Just not motivated enough to try. How do you do it? Do you use the ironing board upright or iron it on the bed or..?

I've never liked ironing on beds. I really want the flat hard surface of an ironing board. Some people do fold up the tiny ironing boards and place them on the bed. I guess you could do that. It just seems like a lot of work! I think if you get them out of the dryer early enough they aren't too bad.

To eliminate a butt crack/underwear viewing when someone bends over? ;)

Ah. Tall people problems lol. We have some issues with the big and tall items as well. They aren't long enough because they don't take into consideration that he has a very long torso and the "extra long" ties are not long enough. I say can't you just shift the tie and he says no because the width of the tie is not the same everywhere and then you'd have the wrong part in the wrong place and/or the knot looks funny or the back of the tie won't stay down with the tie clip or whatever. OP, I hope you can find something!

Oh mine has no interest in them, either lol. That or skinny jeans.

Wow, those are big groups!! The church we drove to to join CCD classes this year had their largest FHC group yet and it was 28 kids. Had we not gone to classes with them I probably would have just had ds do FHC by himself in our nearest parish which has only about 20 members and only one weekend Mass. The priests take turns driving to that parish from a bigger city. There is no rectory at the church and it was not that uncommon to show up for Mass and instead have a Communion service because a priest was unable to come.

Florals are nice. Dd has the cutest floral leggings. She's two so she can get away with any length top and leggins :laugh: At least for a man the romper might be easier to use the bathroom... they can just unzip the crotch area I guess. I can't imagine wearing a romper as it would be a bathroom nightmare to me.

I hadn't ever given the Sacrament prep any thought til this thread, actually. And we have looked into Catholic school but it's just not in our reach now. One church around here only has CCD for the Spanish speaking community so a family we know is out of luck as their children don't speak Spanish. But now that you mention the prep in school, maybe their children will receive that in their Catholic school when they are ready for First Communion.

I'm not familiar with those, I will have to look. My dh has a long torso and is tall. I get shirts at King Size Direct and Casual Male XL.

I'm sorry :( But I don't think it means your choices are lame!

I could go either way on this. It was just weird to me because I guess I felt like it must be incredibly awkward for the students in the room that are not Catholic and that the parish classrooms might be sparse if say, lots of the parish children that age are already doing their prep at school. Then what, they have the parish classroom with 3 kids and they do all their prep separately but meet once with the Catholic school kids for rehearsal before the big day or what? Can the church justify a First Communion class if only one child in second grade at that church doesn't attend the Catholic school? Yeah, it is fine to put the prep in the classroom, but some of these thoughts come to mind. I get where you are coming from, though. When I was growing up my CCD classes met on weeknights. When I moved out of state they met on Sundays between Masses. I know either way it can be inconvenient for parents doing the transportation.

I'm pretty upfront with my family. I'd blurt out that I'm so sorry I can't make it but I have plans that are too difficult to change and wish they had given me more notice. I'm sure you can say it more eloquently lol.

Never been in that situation but I would hope that they dropped some hints over time as to places they like. Coffee drinker? Book reader? etc. Maybe a gift card geared toward a place you know they'll go and/or cash??

I hope they find the right person to talk to about RCIA accommodations. I have talked to locals about situations similar to this and yes we have had to come up with alternatives. Like, my ds was going to prepare for FHC alone with me, but a church we often attend encouraged me to bring him to their classes. This was a pain as it's 40 min. from my house and the classes meet between the morning Masses (we usually went to the evening service when we went there). Because our registered parish doesn't have a Sunday school program (no kids) and is linked to another parish that does FHC in 3rd grade, ds was one of the oldest children in the group. Most were second graders, he was in third when we joined their program. Now other families I know said they had a similar problem years ago. Their children were in band and were told if they missed any Confirmation classes they would not make confirmation. But because they met on weekends and the kids sometimes had concerts to perform at, it was not going to work. They spoke to a priest and he worked with them to do Confirmation prep separately. If the family wants to get their ducks in a row it might be better for them to go through RCIA and have him do FHC in third. Honestly it's weird to me that they do the prep in school. Weird because not everyone that goes to Catholic school is Catholic. Now at the beginning of the thread I thought the child was finishing second and they were about to receive Holy Communion right away, but it sounds like he'll be entering second? In that case there's still time to figure this out. What if the parents go through RCIA and decide they don't want to become Catholic? Then what? Do they still want their child to? I just feel like the cart is before the horse here.

Because they can't seem to ever make it to the church on Sundays. Maybe they think that First Communion will also take place during school Mass or on a Saturday. And maybe their reasoning is just that they don't want their son excluded from what everyone else in class is doing, rather than the importance of the Sacrament. From what little I know it's hard for me to figure out. Are you Catholic? Was the child baptized in the Catholic church or elsewhere? Because if they were baptized in the Catholic church then that confuses me that they haven't made the time to go through RCIA yet but took the time to set up a baptism there. How long has the child been baptized? If they were baptized in the Catholic church they should have Catholic godparents, hopefully someone to help guide the child spiritually. If they were baptized in a non Catholic church then the role of godparents is not the same. In my experience godparents in other faiths are more like who the kid will live with if something happens to the parents. YMMV Anyway, I don't think it matters if people can reference exceptions for comparison. "My friend's kid made FHC and didn't have to do that." Maybe that church dropped the ball by preparing a child without the support system at home.

Sorry, I didn't realize you meant the class he goes to at school. I was thinking you were just pointing out that the second graders prep for FHC. The actually FHC service might be on a Sunday. Will they even attend?? Ours was on a Saturday but as a kid I believe mine was on a Sunday.

Exactly. To have him receive with the class, then maybe not even go to Catholic school in the future, the child will become a lapsed Catholic before he was even a practicing one. It's not his fault, but I think they should do things correctly. Make time for the classes or do the study at home (mycatholicfaithdelivered.com) and other resources. But if you're going to do it at home, the parents should know what they are teaching and it sounds like they don't. So yes, a godparent or someone else should step in.

They haven't even gone through RCIA. I don't think they really know what they are fighting for...

Catholic school is not the same as FHC prep. Unless they are teaching FHC during class?? My child does not go to Catholic school. His Sunday school/CCD was done on weekends. Going to Mass is not a substitute for a First Communion class, either. I'm honestly surprised they didn't go through RCIA before or during this year so that they would all receive Communion around the same time.

There are other layers here, too. Part of First Communion prep is First Reconciliation (aka penance or confession). It's going to be hard to explain mortal sin/venial sin when you repeatedly allow the child to miss Mass. If FHC is so important to the family then going to Mass should be a priority.

These seem like two separate questions. First of all, if a child is preparing for FHC then the parents would be taking him to Sunday school each weekend. If they are there for class, they should be there for Mass. I literally just went through this. Ds made FHC a couple weeks ago. Dh is not Catholic so he would usually drop us off at the church but I would stay with ds for Mass. Before that we did homeschool Sunday school using an online program. I still brought him to Mass with most of the time.

If they have a problem with this, they should talk to their priest or someone to get a better understanding. Sounds like they are in the dark.

Yes because weekday Mass is not a substitute for weekend Mass. Sunday (or Saturday vigil) is an obligation. If you miss weekend Mass it's considered a mortal sin unless there's a reason like illness. Actually even travel is considered an excuse but I try not to be too loose with that. If I know I'm traveling I look up Masses on masstimes.org.

Ds' last day of school was this week. I dropped off goodie bags to the school. Notes and candy. His main teacher got some stuff for her classroom along with the candy (books for the classroom library, cute sticky notes, container to hold something like paperclips/brads/pushpins). I really like picking out gifts/creating things but it's hard to do anything with a toddler. I try to be practical so I lean toward useful and/or consumable items these days. Went to a baby shower last weekend. That was super fun for me. I bought her a few things over the past few months and made a card with colors to match the gift wrap. One of the most special gifts for me was a loving family necklace. When we had dd I got a new necklace which showed a bigger family (but I can't find it :( )

I don't even know how one would do that. I mean, the sheets would be hanging off the board and dragging all over the floor. We have California King but I imagine this would happen for anything other than say, crib/toddler sheets lol