A salute to nursery workers the world over

In the beginning, your child is so little and innocent, you can't imagine anyone else taking care of him or her. You love the carseat/carrier that allows you to bring your sleeping angel into church without waking him. Then he gets older, learns that playing is much more fun than sleeping, and entertaining the pretty girls behind you gets lots of laughs. Enter the church nursery.

We actually had to start taking Campbell to the nursery around 3 months because he was just so darn active. And he loved to talk, too. So, we've been enjoying the free child care for some time now, never knowing just how much it meant to us. Until today.

The old saying is very true, "You never know what you have until it's gone." And anyone who has attempted to bring their 9 month old into the church service can agree with me. It's a disaster. Campbell had a fever Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so we decided it was best not to infect the other children and carted him into church this morning.

The fiasco began with David letting Campbell and me out at the door (we were really late) and then parking the car. He then came in after we'd been seated over on the side, and he couldn't find us anywhere. I'm quietly trying to get his attention, and I look down and my son has a visitor registration card and a contribution envelope in his hand. Not a good start. By the time the sermon started, he had already torn up those things, climbed on me, David, and the poor lady next to us. We had exhausted all the toys we'd brought, so David took him out. I'm pretty sure I heard applause from those around us.

Then we did an even dumber thing, we tried to take him to class with us. Sure, he couldn't make it through in a room full of hundreds of people without being a huge distraction, of course he can make it in a room of only 40. Yeah, right. we lasted in there only about 10 minutes. We quickly decided in the car on the way home that next time he was sick, one of us would stay home.

And so, I salute all you nursery workers out there. We don't appreciatie you until you're gone. But rest assured, I shall never take you for granted again. Bless you all for agreeing to be locked in a room with 10 kids while their parents enjoy some much needed relief--oh yeah, and a sermon too, forgot about that part. Didn't hear much of it today!