Taking toddler to the oath ceremony

[pr2013]

Hi all,

I'm hoping to get some feedback on whether I should take my 21 month old toddler to the oath ceremony. Unfortunately, my oath ceremony was scheduled on a weekend. And my wife and I have to attend. Daycare is not an option, so I might have to look for a nanny but my daughter might not be comfortable with a nanny. I have a few good friends w/kids who are willing to take care of her but she is not too familiar with them.

An option is to take her along with us to the oath ceremony, but I'm not entirely surely what the policy is with small kids i.e. will they ask us to step outside if she gets loud.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Bs65]

Guidelines here if not seen

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=1455&top=5

 

[canuck78]

Kids may cry initially if they are left with friends or a babysitter but they are usually fine after a few minutes. It is good for them to get into the habit of being with others before school.

 

[FloydCan]

It's fine, you can take your toddler with you. However, you have to ensure she stays quiet. In the event she becomes loud, they will just ask one of you to wait outside and call you back when it's time to do the oath.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hi all,

I'm hoping to get some feedback on whether I should take my 21 month old toddler to the oath ceremony. Unfortunately, my oath ceremony was scheduled on a weekend. And my wife and I have to attend. Daycare is not an option, so I might have to look for a nanny but my daughter might not be comfortable with a nanny. I have a few good friends w/kids who are willing to take care of her but she is not too familiar with them.

An option is to take her along with us to the oath ceremony, but I'm not entirely surely what the policy is with small kids i.e. will they ask us to step outside if she gets loud.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Just get a babysitter. The kid will be fine.

If she starts crying or making noise, it disrupts the entire ceremony and you will be told to take her out of the room.

 

[zardoz]

Hi all,

I'm hoping to get some feedback on whether I should take my 21 month old toddler to the oath ceremony. Unfortunately, my oath ceremony was scheduled on a weekend. And my wife and I have to attend. Daycare is not an option, so I might have to look for a nanny but my daughter might not be comfortable with a nanny. I have a few good friends w/kids who are willing to take care of her but she is not too familiar with them.

An option is to take her along with us to the oath ceremony, but I'm not entirely surely what the policy is with small kids i.e. will they ask us to step outside if she gets loud.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Advice is don't take a baby or toddler to the Oath ceremony. They will not be interested and will be required to be quiet and stationery, aka bored.
It's not fair on them and not fair to everyone else. The ceremony is long and tedious for a small child. I'm basing this on personal experience.

 

[itsmyid]

It’s allowed but will be disruptive - during my ceremony the speeches kept getting interrupted by the crying noise , then they had to pause the ceremony and asked the parents take the baby out ... then they came back with the baby, who started crying again a few seconds later , which made the experience chaotic for everyone

 

[Copingwithlife]

Yah, gotta remember the citizenship ceremony is a ceremony for many people, just not your self. It would be for the collective good, that the infant did not come.and potentially disrupt the ceremony which many people have been waiting awhile to take part of. That would take precedent over whether the infant, at 21 months would feel " comfortable", with a nanny, and or your friends

 

[FloydCan]

Again, you don't need a babysitter, a nanny or worry about where to place your kid. Take her with you, as you enter the hall, they will tell you, if the child becomes disruptive, one of the parent needs to stay with her outside until it's time for oath and then they will call the parent back to take the oath. Try to keep her occupied with something while the judge is speaking. It takes roughly 20 mts when the clerk starts to the time of oath. When they start calling people to take the certificate it becomes noisy and no will care about any sounds.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Again, you don't need a babysitter, a nanny or worry about where to place your kid. Take her with you, as you enter the hall, they will tell you, if the child becomes disruptive, one of the parent needs to stay with her outside until it's time for oath and then they will call the parent back to take the oath. Try to keep her occupied with something while the judge is speaking. It takes roughly 20 mts when the clerk starts to the time of oath. When they start calling people to take the certificate it becomes noisy and no will care about any sounds.

The point is that the child WILL disrupt the ceremony before they leave the room. This is not fair to others. Like zardoz, I'm speaking from personal experience. It was extremely annoying having to hear crying/yelling kids while trying to listen to the ceremony. Pretty much every young child there had to be taken out of the room.

 

[xylene]

My personal experience. We left our 2 year old at the day care for our Oath ceremony. We were glad we did, because the clerk had to ask two parents to take the children outside because they were interrupting. It is not fair to everyone else (there were around 100 people).

It is a long process, kids especially toddlers would be bored and would want to run around or start talking.It is not fair to them either.

While I would have loved my 2 year old in the family photo, I think he would understand when he is older.

This is a court room. If you have been to other courts, usually judges ask any loud children to leave as the sessions are recorded and to maintain decorum of the court.

 

[zardoz]

Again, you don't need a babysitter, a nanny or worry about where to place your kid. Take her with you, as you enter the hall, they will tell you, if the child becomes disruptive, one of the parent needs to stay with her outside until it's time for oath and then they will call the parent back to take the oath. Try to keep her occupied with something while the judge is speaking. It takes roughly 20 mts when the clerk starts to the time of oath. When they start calling people to take the certificate it becomes noisy and no will care about any sounds.

That is not my experience. The whole ceremony took over two hours for the number of people attending and it was not easy to hear the Citizenship Judge at times anyway. The noise level did NOT significantly increase during certificate distribution by the Judge.

 

[Copingwithlife]

I think people gotta put this event into context. It’s a citizenship ceremony, not a block party , not a bridal shower, not a gathering welcoming a new neighbour on the block . Treat it with respect as to what it is , and what you are there for, and everyone will have a enjoyable day

 

[canuck_in_uk]

We need to take a number of factors into consideration before condemning those who bring their children.

1. Many want their children with them for this special occasion, it's a once in a lifetime event and sharing it with their family brings them joy.
2. Some people do not have other family members who can take care of the children and not everyone is comfortable with a babysitter.
3. I've witnessed two ceremonies and the majority of parents do everything they can to keep the child/ren quiet so that they don't ruin the occasion for others. There are however some parents who don't care and those are the real problem.

1. The child will never remember it and the "joy" of the parents having them at the ceremony doesn't trump the right of everyone else to enjoy it without disruption.

2. It is perfectly fine to leave a child with a babysitter. Someone having issues with leaving their child doesn't trump the right of everyone else to enjoy their ceremony without disruption.

3. My partner's ceremony had many children that had to leave. Parents trying to entertain or quiet their kids also created noise. It was disrupting and annoying throughout the entire process.

 

[pr2013]

Thank you everyone for your comments. We might be able to get a nanny to help take care of our daughter. Also, daycare is not an option for us because the ceremony is scheduled on a Saturday. If we can't get a nanny, we might have to take her with us. I don't think she will cry. She might start talking, in which case one of us will step out.