Ok, so I might be in the minority on this board, but DH and I are Christians and we are in a home Bible study group that meets once a week at one family's house. This family has an 8 year old and a 2 year old. The other couples in the group are an older couple with adult kids and another couple with teen and adult kids. There is also another couple with a 5 month old baby.
Anyways, so last night the mom of the 8 yo and the 2 yo let the kids be in the den where we were having Bible study and it was so extremely disrupting. The 2 yo was running around trying to get people to read a story to him and showing us his toys while we were trying to pray and sing. And the 8 yo, who should have known better, was laying on the floor by my chair and kept kicking the back of it and hitting the chair with a pillow. I mean, I kind of get that the 2 yo didn't know better, but an 8 yo? Come on. I don't get why the mom didn't put the kids in another room with a DVD or something to keep them occupied while we had a peaceful Bible study, but she was so oblivious to the whole situation...like, "Oh, my kids are so darn cute, aren't they?" When I was a kid, my parents went to a home Bible study at another couple's house and I remember that we got put in the den with a movie and books to read while the adults had their Bible study. Is that not done anymore? I'm not sure how to deal with the situation because I feel like I'm the only one who has a problem with it and that I'm the only one who doesn't think the kids are adorable little angels. Any ideas?
I grew up with a home Bible study group meeting once a week in our home. Usually, we had an opening prayer with the grown ups, then went into another room to do a small Bible study of our own, followed by movies or games. Then , we rejoined the group after their closing prayer for refreshments.
I'd approach it with the idea that an adult Bible study sometimes has to discuss adult topics. Also, one of the purposes of a small group study is for people to be able to share the struggles in their lives with one another, and having someone else's children in the room might put a damper on that (the "little pitchers have big ears" defense).
Is the Bible Study always at these people's homes, or does it rotate among different people's homes? If it's always there, I think I would probably call on some of the other people who go and find out if they, too, are bothered by the presence of the kids. If they are, maybe you can go as a group to the people holding the study and say that, much as you enjoy the study, the children ARE distracting, and would it be possible to confine them to another room? If it's possible for all of you, maybe you could all chip in to hire a teen to come over and watch the kids -- after all, they are allowing you to use their home, maybe (?) providing snacks, etc, so if it's a good thing you want to continue, maybe everybody chipping in two bucks for a sitter might work? I dunno, just throwing out ideas here.
Unfortunately, it IS always at the same couple's house, so the kids are always there. I am sort of reluctant to tell them that the kids are distracting, only because it seems like the other two (older) women that are empty-nesters seem to fawn over the kids like crazy. So I doubt they would want the kids to be "excluded", even though I know that most of the men in the group are visibly annoyed with them. I sort of like the idea of having a teen come over to watch the kids or something like that (although, I don't think an 8 yo and an almost 3 yo need a teen present if they are just in the next room over...I wouldn't mind if they interrupted if there was an emergency or something).
I'm also getting the vibe that almost all the other couples there think that we should be having kids soon...they seem to always be hinting at it, even though we haven't said anything about it to them. I sense that they think we're TTC or something; it seems like in a church setting, if you're married with no kids, you're either TTC or on a waiting list for adopting a kid from another country. Although, I will admit, it seems like a lot more people from church go the adoption route than the IVF/fertility treatment route, which is awesome.
Can you find another group that is a better fit for you? If they think you are TTC and you are actually CFBC, then I would think that would hamper your ability to be candid about your opinions and personal issues (if those come up).
Love 
