Monday, June 07, 2010

Locked in the Loo

So in primary we have a little problem about teachers just not showing up and having no subs and not letting anyone know . . . and last Sunday was one of those days. Two sets of teachers for four classes and about 30 little kids. Well I'm chorister so near the start of my singing time everyone decides they need to go to the bathroom - and as I'm leading songs I don't think it's my job to ration the bathroom pass - especially because it interrupts what I'm trying to teach. So I just say, "If you have to go, just go!" (if teachers had been there it would have helped!). So about 10 kids "had" to go during the first 10 minutes and Ellie was one of them. Eventually after 10 minutes a leader went out to round up all the kids who "had" to go potty. I had noticed Ellie had been gone for a while . . . and all of a sudden a teacher walks in with her. Her cheeks are flushed and there are tears brimming just at the edges of her little eyes. She's carrying Buttercup (her teddy bear) and I just want to scoop her up and find out what's wrong -- but something about being in the middle of teaching 4 father's day songs stopped me . . . until one minute later Ellie just calls out, "Mommy I was locked in the bathroom and crying for you!" The tears spilt over the edge and she just started bawling. Apparently she couldn't the the door open and spent quite a while screaming for help before someone came. It was so sad! She was pretty traumatized so I just let her sit with me the rest of the time and not make her go to class. I'm grateful someone was able to come along and rescue her - that could have done some pretty serious psychological potty damage, ya know?

4 comments:

  1. poor baby! we have that problem a lot in our primary too, it can be frustrating!

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  2. When we last had to get a sub in primary our president was amazed at the work I went to get a sub and then let her know, but that is just part of the calling to me. I can't understand how you wouldn't be responsible to make sure someone is with your class. To me that is part of the calling to have soomeone there teaching every week.

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  3. Poor little thing. I would have wanted to swoop them up and try and make everything better too.

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  4. poor Ellie! How traumatizing! Sounds like every primary deals with the same issues . . .

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