My son has never been supervised by someone outside of family before. He gets “grandma & grandpa daycare” during the week, and my sister has watched him for an extended period of time before; but we never left him with a qualified stranger before. That is, until Sunday.

Jayden has been eligible for our church’s Sunday School since he was six months old. He’s almost 15 months now. The straw that broke the camel’s back for my husband was the Sunday when Jayden wouldn’t calm down in the sanctuary. He was squirming and whining, and I was nowhere to be found because it was my week to serve in my ministry, so Brandon snatched Jayden out of the sanctuary and went home.

I got a text that read: “I’m done. Jayden’s going to children’s church from now on.” And that was that. LOL!

The next week, it was show time. Jayden was finally going to interact with a kid who wasn’t his cousin for a prolonged period of time. (Lord, help us.)

His bag was packed, his outfit was cute (until he spilled his milk on himself during the car ride), and his hair was done. We were set!

Check-in Time

When we arrived, we had to go through new parent registration. It took a while, but that was expected.

What wasn’t expected was the fact that the staff wasn’t 100% sure where Jayden was supposed to go.

Our sign-in badge said he was a “cub,” but there was no sign over the door for “cub.” The labels over the door were “bear,” “tiger,” “giraffe,” and every other jungle animal you could imagine.

A cub is a bear, right? So we naturally headed to the “bear” room. Except for one thing—the lights were off and no one was in the room.

We went to the “giraffe” room, and they said that Jayden was a few months too young for that class. Once we informed them that the “bear” room was empty, they said they would keep him until the “bear” room coordinator finally shows up. (How reassuring…)

Bye, Jay Jay

I handed the Sunday School teacher his diaper bag, and prepared Jayden for the inevitable goodbye.

His dad picked him up and gave him a kiss. He handed Jayden over to me, and I gave him a kiss as well. When I tried to hand Jayden over to the Sunday School teacher, he gripped my collar and refused to let go. I looked him in the eye, gave him another kiss, and said, “Okay, Jay… it’s time to go now. But we’ll be back soon!”

With the saddest look ever, he loosened his grip and looked me straight in the eyes as his right eye welled up and dropped a single tear. (Sorta like that Native American chief who just witnessed someone litter.)

I saw the lone tear and walked away.

We’re Baaaaack!

Right when the pastor said, “Amen,” I made my way back to Jayden. But what class was he in?

I went to the “giraffe” room, and they pointed me to the “tiger” room. Those kids were at least two or three years old. Surely Jayden wasn’t in there! And he wasn’t…

Right when I was about to go off for no one knowing where my son was, I saw my husband coming down the hallway. He was able to spot Jayden’s diaper bag. It was in front of the “bear” room, if you’re still keeping up.

So, the teacher of the room came to the door, said that he was great and didn’t cry, and started our “check out” process.

Jayden was waiting at the door. When he saw that the teacher wasn’t hurrying up, he began to whimper as he looked at us. Then, he started to jiggle the door handle to let himself out.

I’m pretty sure when he was finally out, he gave us one of the biggest hugs to date.

Day 1…. Done

Even though it was frustrating to have the workers a bit clueless, it was a pretty good experience. Jayden didn’t flip out from us leaving, so we’ll definitely be doing it from now on.