When I was growing up, Mom and Dad always tried to get us to say night prayers together. This was the usual scene:
Mom and Dad take the rosaries down from their hooks and pass them out to the kids. The kids start out by fighting over which one will lead which decade. The kids inch closer to each other on the floor so they can poke each other with their feet and then innocently pull their foot away when the offended kid yells "MOOOOOOOM! He TOUCHED me!" in the middle of prayers. One kid will realize that he/she has "the wrong rosary" and fights for the one he/she thinks is his/hers. Mom and/or Dad will try to shush these fights but then resort to yelling something like, "We don't fight during prayer time!!!!"
We really tried to say at least a decade of the rosary after night prayers together. I am the oldest of six and remember when night prayers consisted of my mom or dad kneeling beside my sister and I in our big, double bed and saying this formula (kids added as they were born):
"Angel of God...
God bless: Mom, Dad, Laura...
Sr. Bonnie and Sr. (a nun that used to live with my aunt, Sr. B), Fr. (whomever was our priest at the time) and all the fathers, Pope JPII, grandmas and grandpas, cousins and friends, and all the little angels of the world."
But as more kids were born, we would add a different decade of the rosary for each day.
Then one kid would pipe up that we already said that decade and a whole other fight would ensue.
Now, whenever I try to say the rosary with the kids, this is the scene:
Weazy runs to get the rosaries from their hooks. She distributes them as she sees fit and at least two kids fight over one of the nicer ones. We start prayers and the littlest kids choose that time to be as loud, annoying, and whiny as humanly possible. Nobody wants anyone sitting within two feet of them so they all scramble and fight over where they want to sit. Someone stumbles over a "Hail Mary, Mother of...oops..." and the other kids laugh and the person who said that gets frustrated and starts to yell at the laughers...
BUT, by the end of the whole thing (after I remind them who we are praying for...we always choose someone who is suffering in some way) there seems to be a peaceful calm. Even if it only lasts a few minutes ("MOM! He put MY rosary on HIS hook!!!), the rest of the day is ALWAYS nicer and goes much more smoothly when we pray the rosary.
