First Fridays for Families
Janice Gordon, the Rector (or Senior Pastor) of the congregation where I work, has established a Friday evening fun program for families with young children. The goals are to provide a service for harried parents and to create a stronger sense of community among parents and children in our church.
Janice’s idea was that we would feed the whole family supper and the parents could then choose to stay and network with one another or go out for a couple of hours of adult time while their children remain in the parish hall for supervised play and activities. We play active games and board games, watch brief videos, and make crafts such as treasure boxes and sun visors.
Somehow First Fridays has morphed into Second Fridays, but we are in our tenth month of the program. The timing of a Friday evening program is tricky. The original concept was to limit the program to two hours, which doesn’t give a lot of time to parents who want to see a movie together, but there is time for an adult dinner out – or a shopping excursion without the children. Our current hours are from 6 – 8 pm. The beginning time allows working parents to get through rush hour traffic, pick up their children and take them to the parish hall. But the ending time is maybe a bit late for young children’s bed time. There are currently about 8 families who participate in the program. We are open to “tweaking” the hours, and hope that it will become an established indication that our congregation is concerned with the welfare of parents who have young children.
Kathleen Capcara
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