Well believe it or not I’m not really into oral prayers either. It always seemed more of a speech than a real prayer. When I do do them I make them quick.
I voted “When they’re 18 and out my damn house”, because my (and my wife’s) expectation is that they’ll attend church as long as they live at home, but I could see circumstances arising that alter that expectation, so it’s not set in stone or anything.
That was me. The thing is that after getting confirmed and stop going to church, my parents didn’t really mind, or at least they didn’t outwardly express any dismay. It seemed to me it was more of a matter of “I’m the parent and it is/was my responsibility to expose you to religion and attend church up to age X, but once you’ve reached that age, I’ve officially done my job and am relieved of said responsibility”.
Wow I can’t imagine what would have happened had I taken a book, or worse a comic, and taken it out to read during a portion of the service.
About 10 years ago, I decided to check out a new church in my town (it turned out to be way too fundie for me) and all the teenage girls were sitting in the same pew, texting and giggling during the sermon. My initial thought was, “how rude!” but then I remembered being that age, and we used the bulletin as notepaper because that was long before texting was invented.
Plus ca change…