Father would love having all of you at Mass! He calls the parents with small children, reminding them of the need to bring the kids to church so they can get to know their God, throughout the year, not just on Holy Days. He is very patient with the smallest children who love to dash up the aisles during Mass. Alas the parents are embarrased and stop coming.
Didn't people once have their lives - religious celebrations, entertaining, political activism - in the home, church, and community, and go to their workplace to earn a living?
Absolutely! That was back in the days of the Blue Laws - nothing could be sold on Sunday. It was truly a day of rest!
At the risk of sounding like some conspiratorial twit, TV had a profound effect on life. Advertising promotions prompted the demand for extended shopping hours. As electronics began to proliferate, so did the demand for faster and better means of communication. Now we "buy and sell" 24/7 365 days a year. (Believe it or not, there was a time not that long ago when supermarkets and shops closed on Christmas and Easter).
Our pastor is very welcoming to children; it's others in the congregation that can be exclusive.
I used to take my kids to daily Mass back in Oklahoma ... back when I only had 3 or 4 kids, and they had daily Mass at 5:00 p.m. (after school and naps, before supper :-). The old people were always nice. Once my Tom walked right up to the altar during the Eucharistic prayer and said, "Father! Look at my new brown shoes! Do you like me?" and Father said, "Of course I like you, Tom. Great shoes. Now go back and sit down!"
This is one of the reasons I really dislike the "changing" of holy days to the nearest Sunday or some other day that fits the schedule of the secular world.
If we lose the concept that the life of the Church is special and its calendar - with feasts and fasts and special events that have nothing to do with commercial interests - is unimportant, we've handed a big victory to the secularists.
I think the tendency in the modern Church to drop all mention of the Saints and their feast days is also a big mistake. Once upon a time, even in this country, people used to know their name's day (feast of the saint for whom they were named). Now, of course, people don't even seem to be required to give their kids saints' names - I mean, when is the feast day for "St. Ashlee"?
VatII somehow got it all backwards. While this is not in the official documents, the "reforms" that came out of the Council in practice certainly eliminated this sense of the sacred and the reality of the invisible world. Time to bring it back, and restoring certain aspects of practice - REAL holy days of obligation, a requirement to pick the name of a saint for your child, the inclusion of the feasts of the saints in the weekly bulletin, etc. - might help.
BTW, somebody from another diocese here in Florida told me that her grandchildren were the only ones to pick saints' names at their Confirmation! The priest told them to pick the name of somebody they liked. Some kids picked the names of friends or family members or even movie stars.