You clearly haven't met my mother-in-law
When my husband's 56 year old sister was about 18 she put her foot down, decided she wasn't going to church that Sunday. She said she waited all week and (seriously) thought she would die, such was the pressure from her mother.
When she was still alive the next Sunday she did it again, and missed her second week of mass.
Interestingly enough, her kids went to catholic schools, did the whole confirmation "thing" bit at 31 and 28 are not involved in the church at all now. It will be interesting to see what they chose for their kids, if they have them.
Hubby is a lapsed catholic, and used to make things up when he had to go to confession. How healthy is thinking missing mass means certain death, and having to make stuff up to confess? Brainwashing, much?
Hubby's mother for years held up our family meals when she came to our house on the weekend because she insisted on 15 other people sitting around until 7pm when mass finished and she got home. Then we could all eat. We did that for many years until hubby and I decided she could either attend mass and we would heat up her meal for her, or she could attend on a Sunday when it would not hold up dinner.
To me, what she did was not acceptable and we don't put up with it any more. She used to take our kids along to our local church and whilst they were happy to go along when they were younger, once they decided they didn't want to go, we stood up to her and told her it was their choice.
It is the brainwashing that goes with some religions (or even with some people involved in some religions) that I cannot stand. Honesty, integrity and respect for others isn't something you always are taught via the church or religious people, but that is what we hoped the private school would help us to instil in our boys.
Although we didn't baptise our sons to get them into a school to but shut up the mother-in-law and her constant banging on about it, for peace, if you like, if the Star Wars Intergalactic School was the school we chose and we couldn't get the boys in without baptising them, we would have considered it.
The school they went to happens to be Anglican, but we chose it because it is a good school with lovely atmosphere and produced (mostly) well mannered, well rounded students. Mother-in-law was NOT happy, but by then, we thought pffffttt!!! She can just get over it.
But choice of a church school, in our opinion, is a different kettle of fish to attending church and I stand by my statement that most children attending a church school would not be attending a weekly church service, nor would their parents.
Of the families I know through having three children attend a church school, and my friends whose children attend church schools, I actually know of only one family that attends church weekly. And they are not Anglican but their children attend an Anglican school.
I would love to hear from others the number of school children and/or families attending church schools who attend weekly services.