jeff051177 Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 Hi all My wife and I are scheduled to attend our citizenship ceremony (Inner west council, NSW) next week - and we have a question about attending with young children. It'd be great to hear from anyone that has any insights. Our children are 1 and 3 and already citizens - we want to know whether they can sit with us during the ceremony. The letter/website/people I phoned to ask were very vague about it.... so I wonder if anyone has any experience to share? We weren't planning on having any guests attend, and It's a really awkward time to find childcare (plus, we'd like our kids to be there with us). Do people have their children/babies sitting with them? or are they going to turn us away if we show-up with our 2 young children and no grandma to look after them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 Sure its no problem, we had our daughter with us, she was already a citizen, but came up with us when we did the pledge, they even gave her a little toy kangaroo. There will probably be loads of kids there, the speeches are quite drawn out and boring so just take something to amuse the kids until its your turn to do the pledge. Then after that its done and you get a wee party pie and a glass of wine, congratulations on getting your citizenship:-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaundennis Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 While the ceremony is a formal process it is a family experience and guests are encouraged to celebrate the moment. So you will have no problems. However, for ultimate reassurance I would visit or call your local council office and ask them directly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff051177 Posted November 14, 2019 Author Share Posted November 14, 2019 Thanks both. 10 hours ago, AJ said: Sure its no problem, we had our daughter with us, she was already a citizen, but came up with us when we did the pledge, they even gave her a little toy kangaroo. There will probably be loads of kids there, the speeches are quite drawn out and boring so just take something to amuse the kids until its your turn to do the pledge. Then after that its done and you get a wee party pie and a glass of wine, congratulations on getting your citizenship:-) This is very much what we are expecting (and had hoped) the event would be like - good to hear! The whole process has actually gone quite smoothly with no dramas/stress at all. 3 hours ago, shaundennis said: While the ceremony is a formal process it is a family experience and guests are encouraged to celebrate the moment. So you will have no problems. However, for ultimate reassurance I would visit or call your local council office and ask them directly. Yeeeeeees..... I made a couple of calls (dept of imi and the local council) and neither were prepared to tell me anything other than reading aloud what was written on the website: "Your guests might have to sit apart from you during the ceremony. Make sure any children are well supervised" This obviously doesn't help me one way or the other - hence my appeal on here for peoples real-world experience I think we are just going to rock-up with the kids and see what happens..... will report back in case anyone finds themselves in this situation in future! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted November 14, 2019 Share Posted November 14, 2019 We did our ceremony as a family - we did have to stand at the front to take our pledge though - it might be worth taking another adult so that they can sit with the children whilst you're actually doing that part of the ceremony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramot Posted November 14, 2019 Share Posted November 14, 2019 (edited) Both ceremonies I have been to, everyone just stood up from where they were sitting and repeated their pledge in appropriate groups and then went forward individually to receive their certificates, and plant in both cases and then had a formal photo taken. At my daughter’s earlier this year family members also joined in for a formal photo, but it wasn’t a very big group getting citizenship, it was in the early evening after work. My sons was much larger and there were more children there. Also I’m fairly sure the invite said you could invite 2? Guests, some people took no notice of that and no one seemed to mind. Did run out of chairs though at my daughter’s!! Edited November 14, 2019 by ramot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rammygirl Posted November 14, 2019 Share Posted November 14, 2019 Thing is each council does it differently so you need to ask someone from your area. I have been to two ceremonies and they were both completely different. Both had families with small children and catered for this without any problems though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoannaAch Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 We had our 1 year old sitting on my lap duirng the speech, then I just held him for the pledge and took him with us to pick up the certificate and get the photo taken. Lots of families with small kids did the same. Also - we gave him a iPhone with Wiggles vidoes (muted) to keep him occupied during the very boring and long speeches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff051177 Posted November 21, 2019 Author Share Posted November 21, 2019 Hi all - thanks for your replies! Ceremony was yesterday (now a citizen - yay!) so I'm just coming back to close-the-loop on this question in case anyone has the same question in the future. Seating was mixed, with guests and applicants all sitting together. When it was time for the pledge, all the applicants just stood up. The kids came up to the front with us to collect the certificate and have our photo taken - again, absolutely no issue. Having the kids there sitting with us was absolutely no problem - there were heaps of people there in the same position. The speeches weren't too long, but there was a fair bit of waiting around as all the applicants were called up to the front to collect their certificate and get a photo with the Mayor. PLOT TWIST: I have to admit to being slightly dishonest in by opening post - when I phoned the local council office to ask about this, they didn't just repeat what was on the website.... they actually told me that the kids (1 and 3) would not be allowed to sit with us during the ceremony and that we would have to either leave them at home with a babysitter, or bring a guest to the ceremony who would have to sit with them in the "guest area". I'm glad this turned out to be total BS (as I suspected at the time) - but thanks again for your real-word experiences, on the basis of which we just decided to ignore what they said and turn up with the kids in tow. As it turns out - this forum is a more reliable source than the lady at the council office! Thanks again all! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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