You are so right, but it’s not just the children involved in the silliness. I see adults waving and calling out as if they are at a ball game.
We have that chattiness at our Masses, as well. I learned as a toddler not to do that. It’s especially infuriating when I take my grandsons, who are under 6, to Mass with me, since I have reminded them in the car about not talking in church.
About a year and a half ago, though, our parish began a new strategy. A few minutes before Mass actually begins, someone intones something like, “Let us all now enter into the sacred silence”. And they do shut up — until the stupid sign of peace.
What bugs me is not so much what they are doing, they are squandering a great gift. That's their problem. But they are distracting me from what I came there to do. I now only have two options for Mass. When I lived back east, I would go the earliest Mass I could find. Seems the earlier the hour the less Mickey Mouse.