I Don't Want to Go to Church Today Thread

[pellegrino]

Our family invites people over a lot and they come, but it's rarely reciprocated in any way. We got invited to a Super Bowl party tonight, which was great, but it was the first social event we've been invited to in over a year. Maybe it's because we have kids or because we seem busy and people don't want to bother us, but mostly I feel it's just me.

This is my family. It used to bother me, but now I embrace it. It's far easier to deal with my kids in my own home and usually the food is better . Besides, while we don't get invites from Mormon families, we do from our neighbors, which is just a lot more fun anyways.

Stake conference is in 2 weeks and MJ is out of town so maybe I'll just fake a cold and convince the kids we need to stay home. I'm already grateful I have a built in excuse (MJ out of town) to not attend the stake leadership meetings on the Saturday before stake conference. Those meetings are always brutal and I dread going to them. I was already going to skip them this time around but now I have a good excuse to do so.

Don't fake sick, go do something fun with your kids that they'll remember. It's one thing to go to church every Sunday because you have accepted certain obligations, it's another entirely to commit to going to a meeting that is just an extra meeting. It's not like they'll be teaching you anything you don't already know and you can't even renew your covenants at Stake Conference.

[Portland Ute]

How did you become such a city boy? I m not talking about Van Camping.

We will sail somewhere and camp. Blake Island is fun, and I hope to put together a 6-8 day trip up to the San Juans. The kids love sailing.

We have some friends who Go out every weekend and have been begging us for years to bring our boat and join them. With church responsibilities (and this last year with a new baby) we have been unable. He is a big racer too, so I will crew for him on the longer races, especially the Round the County race. http://roundthecounty.com/

Feel free to invite me. I don't have a sail boat to contribute. Or really much of anything else.

[pellegrino]

Feel free to invite me. I don't have a sail boat to contribute. Or really much of anything else.

not even good stories around the fire?

[Portland Ute]

not even good stories around the fire?

I'm not much of a storyteller.

Maybe I can bring some Hershey's bars and Honey Maid graham crackers.

[Moliere]

This is my family. It used to bother me, but now I embrace it. It's far easier to deal with my kids in my own home and usually the food is better . Besides, while we don't get invites from Mormon families, we do from our neighbors, which is just a lot more fun anyways.

It's funny that the one guy that I hang out with the most is a coworker of mine from a couple years ago. We still do lunch once a week and if we lived closer (he's in Kingwood) we'd hang out all the time.

Even our neighbors around us don't invite us to things...or they didn't do it for a while. They had a 4th of July BBQ and invited the whole street but us. Come to find out they didn't want to offend us by serving alcohol in front of us WTF? I think MJ is kind of done with this area. She has lots of friends that do stuff during the day with her but when it comes to families and really close friends, we just don't have them.

MJ is looking for homes on a weekly basis. We aren't thinking of moving to run away from this place/ward as we've always wanted to upgrade to 5 bedrooms and a 3 car garage ever since our last kid was born. But moving will be somewhat nice if it happens sooner rather than later. I told MJ to hold off for another year so the housing market can get better and we can use my bonus next year to pay for movers.

[pellegrino]

It's funny that the one guy that I hang out with the most is a coworker of mine from a couple years ago. We still do lunch once a week and if we lived closer (he's in Kingwood) we'd hang out all the time.

Even our neighbors around us don't invite us to things...or they didn't do it for a while. They had a 4th of July BBQ and invited the whole street but us. Come to find out they didn't want to offend us by serving alcohol in front of us WTF? I think MJ is kind of done with this area. She has lots of friends that do stuff during the day with her but when it comes to families and really close friends, we just don't have them.

MJ is looking for homes on a weekly basis. We aren't thinking of moving to run away from this place/ward as we've always wanted to upgrade to 5 bedrooms and a 3 car garage ever since our last kid was born. But moving will be somewhat nice if it happens sooner rather than later. I told MJ to hold off for another year so the housing market can get better and we can use my bonus next year to pay for movers.

if your neighbors aren't all that great then that's an easy call. we have great neighbors who all have kids the same ages. we all get along well and do quite a bit together. it's a good group.

I'm not much of a storyteller.

Maybe I can bring some Hershey's bars and Honey Maid graham crackers.

that's the ticket!

[Northwestcoug]

More and more I feel alone at church. I figure it might be somewhat my calling as I don't get to socialize much and when I do talk to adults it's usually to ask them to help out with something related to the youth or some parent complaining to me about the way I run things. I sat alone in Priesthood opening exercises today and wondered why in 7 years in my ward that I really don't have any close friends or confidants. It's somewhat depressing. I'm not incredibly social, so some of it is probably my own doing, but it seems that in this ward whenever I start to form a relationship with someone they either move out of the ward or get called somewhere that I no longer see them at church (like primary - happened twice). I find my self halfway in with some of the cliques, but not enough to get invited to stuff. The one guy that I'm close with travels every week so I rarely see him, but at least when he's around on holidays we hang out.

Our family invites people over a lot and they come, but it's rarely reciprocated in any way. We got invited to a Super Bowl party tonight, which was great, but it was the first social event we've been invited to in over a year. Maybe it's because we have kids or because we seem busy and people don't want to bother us, but mostly I feel it's just me.

In any case, today was the first day in a long time that I really didn't want to be at church. If I could, I'd skip church next week just to give it a break, but of course I can't skip because MJ would kill me (I'm kidding, but honestly it would be tough). Stake conference is in 2 weeks and MJ is out of town so maybe I'll just fake a cold and convince the kids we need to stay home. I'm already grateful I have a built in excuse (MJ out of town) to not attend the stake leadership meetings on the Saturday before stake conference. Those meetings are always brutal and I dread going to them. I was already going to skip them this time around but now I have a good excuse to do so.

I think I'm also at my wits end with my calling. It was a really, really rough first 2 years and now that things are moving fine I'm just checked out mentally. Maybe I can pull it back together but I'm really struggling to get excited about weekly mutuals or really anything else. I think I need to be called into primary....

This sounds like a lot like us in our last ward. We always had a new year's party and a few other get-togethers scattered throughout the year. But they were rarely reciprocated. It never really offended us, but it was a little disheartening. We wanted friends that didn't require a lot of energy to maintain, and we weren't finding anyone who was willing to expend at least the same energy we were.

I know good friendships are out there in wards. But we always had a hard time maintaining them. I'm not exactly sure why, but I don't think the overall busy factor in mormon life helps much. And I'm not even talking about close confidants in a ward, which are even more rare than good friendships.

I don't think I ever had a close enough friend in church that I would feel comfortable with talking about what I really felt.

This is my family. It used to bother me, but now I embrace it. It's far easier to deal with my kids in my own home and usually the food is better . Besides, while we don't get invites from Mormon families, we do from our neighbors, which is just a lot more fun anyways.



Don't fake sick, go do something fun with your kids that they'll remember. It's one thing to go to church every Sunday because you have accepted certain obligations, it's another entirely to commit to going to a meeting that is just an extra meeting. It's not like they'll be teaching you anything you don't already know and you can't even renew your covenants at Stake Conference.

I absolutely agree. There is nothing you can do to make stake conference enjoyable for kids. Make some memories.