You want me to sit for how long?

Those who have kids have learned some tricks to keeping kids quiet during church.  But even some of the best tricks don't always play in the mind of a baby or a two year old for that matter.  There was a time during a Stake Conference that four of my kids were all under the age of five.  One of the talks was on reverence and what protocol should be taken when a child is making noise or disturbing the meeting.  During this talk I had managed to walk in and out of the chapel three times with a different kid each time.  I finally gave up and walked out to the car and put some kids in the car then stood outside the car, giving up on the whole meeting all together.  Before the meeting even started, I had walked these kids of mine around the church building three times to try and get the 'wiggles out'. 
When we lived in Texas our family grew by leaps and bounds.  We also attended a ward that encouraged a 'no food' policy in the chapel.  Really? How else was I going to get a kid to be quiet(fast) without shoving a goldfish or fruit snack in their mouth?  Looking back, this helped my kids realize they could go an hour and 10 minutes without eating.  We lived in this ward for five years, these were crucial toddler years for our family and the other families attending.  This ward was full of young married students and grad-students.  It had three nurseries and a huge junior primary.  The funny thing is, I don't remember it being that noisy.  I think the no food policy encouraged the reverence in the chapel.  I know a lot of mom's make their kids eat in the kitchen at home. So it only makes sense to keep the same rule in the church.
Some people have commented on how well behaved my kids are at church.  Well, they didn't know us when we were in the training stages of these busy little bodies.  I can say that we have always gone to church.  The only time that we miss church is if someone is sick or we are out of town attending another ward.  It is frustrating for parents to wonder why they even bother going to church, if they are not getting anything out of the meeting.  Kids are better off in church than at home in front of the computer.  It is three hours of spiritual entertainment.  When we come home we feel happier and the spirit is in our house. We do have a choice.  Do we choose to feel the spirit at church or do we let other influences depict how we feel about our church experience?