Monday, March 28, 2011

The Last Week

When you're mormon there are a few really big birthdays.

When you turn 12 you graduate from Primary (the kids class) and become a Young Man or Young Woman. And if you're a Young Man you receive the Priesthood. Graduating from Primary is a big deal because you don't have to sing in front of the whole ward on Mother's Day anymore.

When you turn 8 you get baptized. That's a big deal.

But when you turn 18 months the best stuff happens. 18 months is how old you have to be to go to nursery. If you're the kid you don't have to be reverent for the last half of church anymore, and you get snacks and songs and toys instead of spanks, cheerios and ornery parents. If you're the parents instead of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, you get peace and quiet and (if you're Josh) perhaps even a tiny nap during church and (if you're Amy) a lesson. A real live lesson from an adult. This is a win-win situation. Unless of course you're the nursery leader. And then you get 8-10 whiny over-tired kids with no parents. That is probably not so great.....

Anyhow, today was Tommy's last hall-wandering week. Every time we ran into someone we made sure to let them know that we would be going to nursery the next time we were at church. Everyone breathed a heavy sigh of relief with us and Sister Royall even did a happy-dance with us in the hall. We're all really looking forward to Tommy in nursery.

Of course I'm also really nervous for the meltdown - Tommy's scared of strangers and alarmingly clingy. I'm confident that he'll scream his guts out, but I'm also confident he'll stop crying eventually. What I'm not confident in is our nursery leaders not hating our guts by the end of it.

But our fingers are crossed. Perhaps the finger-crossing combined with some delicious bribery treats will do the trick.

9 comments:

  1. Nice, nice, nice.

    Wanna know what? Because Miriam's birthday is the 25th and the last Sunday in April is the 24th we totally miss out on nursery in April! Lame! Who planned this girls' birthday.

    Luckily the nursery leaders said she could come in on the 24th anyway. :)

    Nursery is the best thing to ever happen to any parent, anywhere. You will love it! And Tommy will, too (eventually).

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  2. So, we didn't have the "little" kids in nursery...but what I learned from our "big" nursery kids was that they will cry and pout for a little while after the parent leaves...but it usually doesn't last longer than 5-10 minutes. The quicker the parent leaves...the faster they stop crying. Like I said that was the older nursery kids...I'm not sure how they do with the transition into nursery....but I'm sure it's the same in that after a few months..they get used to it, and possibly like it!

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  3. yay! i hope they are (max and tom) in the same nursery class.
    it will be so quiet in sunday school and relief society, no one will even know how to react. (i am speaking of mostly max because you are good and keep yours out in the hall... i just make everyone suffer right along with me instead.)

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  4. hurray for nursery! as far as i am concerned, the melt-down is a given and most of the time the nursery leaders expect it. i hope it works that way for you!! good luck!!

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  5. Yay for Tommy, he will eventually love it or he might just love it from the start and not have an issue. I love that Kenna loves it. I hope everything works out in two weeks when you take him in.

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  6. 20 years ago, when I had the DREAM calling of being the nursery leader, we had a little boy (19 months) who cried terribly for the first 2 weeks. The next week I left the room to get something from the closet in the hallway, and when I came back he was sobbing, though he'd been fine when I left. I said, "Caleb, what's wrong, buddy?" He sniffled and gasped and said, "You leaved me."

    Tommy's gonna love nursery, and nursery is going to love Tommy.

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  7. Nursery is the best! My clingy little mama's girl LOVES nursery. And having been the nursery leader, it is an AWESOME calling! You get to spend two hours playing, eating snacks, coloring, reading books, singing songs, playing playdough, blowing bubbles, etc. Seriously, it's awesome.

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  8. Nursery will LOVE him crying or not! Who couldn't??? And the nursery leaders will completely understand, we have all been there and we all have our turn as nursery leaders. Such an exciting day! Have fun actually getting to LEARN at church again!

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  9. My husband and I are currently nursery workers in our ward (and have been since James was 2 months old - So he's been in nursery the whole time he's been going to church) and nursery workers totally expect the meltdown. I think it is better if you just leave and let him meltdown. Then he will be forced to get used to the other people comforting him (that sounds kind of mean). We have parents who stay with their kids and still after 8 MONTHS the kid won't let their parents leave because they think that parents always stay.

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