Bringing toddlers to the oath ceremony?

[Tilia 75]

I am wondering if I should bring my 20 month old son to the oath ceremony. I would enjoy having him there, but I don't want him to be a distractions either. Thoughts?

[mcdull 474]

If I were at my oath ceremony, I would prefer not to be bothered by a baby or toddler crying or misbehaving.

[JoeSchmoe2017 92]

51 minutes ago, mcdull said:

If I were at my oath ceremony, I would prefer not to be bothered by a baby or toddler crying or misbehaving.

Agreed.

[MiraW 58]

I attended my oath ceremony 2 weeks ago and one of the new citizens' family brought a 18 month old  (my guess) baby to the ceremony.

Half way through the judge's speech the baby started cryyyyyyying. To be honest, the touching moment was sort of ruined. The mom was nice enough to take her baby outside of the room to calm him down but the crying could still be heard.

I understand it's a moment you wanna share with your child, but the whole ceremony is gonna be longer than you think. A lot of it is just sitting around WAITING. There were a couple older kids (around 3-5 years old) and they started saying they're bored before the judge even showed up lol...

I personally did feel somewhat distracted by the baby's crying.

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by MiraW

[Going through 5,668]

11 hours ago, MiraW said:

I attended my oath ceremony 2 weeks ago and one of the new citizens' family brought a 18 month old  (my guess) baby to the ceremony.

Half way through the judge's speech the baby started cryyyyyyying. To be honest, the touching moment was sort of ruined. The mom was nice enough to take her baby outside of the room to calm him down but the crying could still be heard.

I understand it's a moment you wanna share with your child, but the whole ceremony is gonna be longer than you think. A lot of it is just sitting around WAITING. There were a couple older kids (around 3-5 years old) and they started saying they're bored before the judge even showed up lol...

I personally did feel somewhat distracted by the baby's crying.

 

Same thing happened to me.  As soon as the judge walked in and opened her mouth to speak a toddler started crying loudly and there was a collective groan in the room from the immigrants (including me) as soon as the child began.  The mother took the kid out after a few minutes when he wouldn't stop (thankfully) but yeah---it's not the best place for young children/fussy children.

 

If you have no other option but to bring the child, I'd suggest having another adult there (other than your spouse) who can take the child out of the room so at least your spouse won't miss witnessing your ceremony.

[Tilia 75]

I left him home. And it was a good idea, everything took much longer than I thought.