Church nursery issue

[BriansLovie]

I have only put my son in the nursery a few times by himself in his life. Those few times, he was fine. He didnt cry. But every other time, I have always sat in the nursery with him. I have tried to leave a few times, he doesnt go for it. I dont want him crying in the nursery for me, so I stay. He is almost 21 months old now, so he is too big to be in the infant nursery, even with me in there with him. (Infant nursery is only till 18 months.) But the toddler nursery is for 18 to their 4th birthday. Isnt that a huge age difference? I dont know if I"m just being a first time, over protective mother. This past Sunday, I kept him in the service for the singing and such, he lasted about 20 minutes, then I took him out and we walked the halls for awhile. I have always been very leary about the toddler nursery (maybe I'm being overprotective again), because they have a climber in there that is pretty big. It has a tall slide on it, and I'm so afraid of Jacob falling off and getting hurt. He has a Kangaroo climber at home, but this slide is alot taller. Plus the fact that there is a such a big age difference between 18 months and 3 1/2 ya know. So I ended up taking him into the toddler nursery. I just did not have a peace about it. Two of the little kids (2 and under) almost fell off the slide (theres not much to hang on to) and one little girl (18 months) fell backwards off it and hit her head on the floor. I had a problem with the climber because the workers can't always be right there in case the child starts to fall! Also, my son is not around other kids alot, and these kids kicked him and stepped on him (probably not completely on purpose but still) and I Just felt like I needed to be there to protect him. I had no peace about him being in there at all. I dont know if I am being overprotective or if it's not the right place for him to be, even if I'm in there? Honestly, I'd much rather have him be in the service with my husband and I. And he's almost 2, so we could teach him. But when he gets noisy, I have to take him out (I worry about what others think). And it's not much fun roaming the halls for an hour. :P~ Any thoughts? Do you think I'm overprotective? I just feel I shouldnt have him in a place where I dont feel peace about his well being and safety, even if I am there with him.

[Yuliana]

Nope, I would feel the same way. I don't leave my lo in the church nursery but they have an infant room, a 1 yr. old room, a 2 yr. old room and so on. They are all separated.

Can you talk to your church about it? To me having a 18 month old w/ a 4 yr. olds is not that great.

[BriansLovie]

I am sure they would LOVE to have all the kids separated, but there is no room. The toddler nursery is a pretty big room, separated by a half wall. They were thinking of making the one half a 1 year old nursery, but never got there yet. They have to remove a sink in order to make it baby proofed. I would feel so much better if they had a separate room for like 18 to 2 years or something. Sigh :nails

[mindyeva7]

I do not leave my ds in the children's rooms at church. He comes with me to the service when I go. There is nothing wrong with family worship. If you need to leave in the middle to keep him quiet, just make sure you sit in the back row....
I don't believe your church is being very safe combining those ages....Most churches I have been separate the 2&3s from the 4 yr olds.....if you really want to leave him in child care, maybe you could talk to your church.....

[ArmsOfLove]

those ages all together in one room is not acceptable to me at all. My guess is that it's due to the number of children??? how big is the class? In the nursery where I worked we kept the 4 yo's all alone :shifty

[BriansLovie]

those ages all together in one room is not acceptable to me at all. My guess is that it's due to the number of children??? how big is the class? In the nursery where I worked we kept the 4 yo's all alone :shifty
+

It's got alot to do with not alot of space too. Sunday morning there were 6 toddlers in there. But that's only because the older ones are in Sunday school! Sunday nights it's all of them, and I'm not sure how many older toddlers there are. It just makes me nervous.

[joy]

My guy is a little older than yours, and I've looked at some situations kinda like this too. I wouldn't leave him in the situation you described, and I would have felt the same as you are describing. Especially with all those big kids and the climbing structure. Nope.

I figure there will be a day when he can't wait to scamper away from me whenever he can - so I'm going to enjoy having him with me as much as I can now. Roaming the halls with him for an hour can sometimes be more fun than the other options!

[graceful mama]

Personally, I"d feel uncomfortable with that too. But then we really like keeping our dd with us when in church. I have a big post about it on my blog. I personally don't go for all the age segregation in church and like another pp here, like our family to worship together. I feel like we should be the ones teaching her how to worship in a corporate setting. I always stayed with my parents in church as a kids - my choice more than theirs. And by the time I was 7 I could undestand most of the sermon.

I would practice using whisper voice at home, bring a snack (unless htey don't allow food in the sanctuary which IMO make sit much harder) and some special books, crayons, quiet toys etc. During worship our dd worships with us - singing, dancing, clapping, lifting hands - so she's eager for the other stuff when preaching begins. but then our worship is only 15 min b4 preaching. Then another 15 min afterwards and we'd usually let her run around the lobby near the sanctuary door then. (We sit near the back so we can escape quickly if need be ;) Actually, now we are going to more of a home group church so it's different, but that is what we did do. It's work. You have to work with what your kid is able to do. Eventually instead of walking the halls you can explain that you will sit there bored until he's ready to go back in the sanctuary and play quietly. Just don't let him see the nurserys if you go that route....

[LittleLams]

I would definately talk to whoever is in charge. As a children's director at my church, I can think of several reasons why such a wide age group is together, usually because of how many teachers you have. However, I am also very sensitive to my parents and try to accomodate their suggestions. Maybe suggest the slide is too big or dangerous for the kids. Or maybe offer to help in the class therefore providing more teachers and then you can help the director make the class more suitable for the kids.

[SamRose]

IMO, it is very unsafe having all those ages in the same room. Some 18 mon olds have only been walkin a short time, while most 3 yr olds can run and jump around like crazy. They can accidentally hurt the youngers quite easily. My parents church has everyone under 3 in the same room, then 3-5 yr olds in a pre-school type classroom. Even my own ds @ 2.5 seemed way 2 big 2 be runnin around a room w. babies on the floor, kwim? IF yer church cant change the set up, then I dont blame U 4 NOT leaving yer child in there. I dont think it's overprotective of U, just the right amount!

[naturallia]

I would feel the same way that you are feeling. :/

[LadybugSam]

i would feel the same way you were feeling. Sometimes the age difference doesn't matter (if you have calm pre-schoolers) but someitmes it just does not work and is not in the benifit for either the kids or the parents or the teachers.

Last week i was oging to join my nursery with an older classroom so we can do a craft. I had 3 kids, and she had 4 so there weren't a lot of kids. But then people camein late and there ended up being about 20 kids in there :jawdrop. The first situation worked for us. Only one of the kids needed help with their project and i could work with them, but then when younger babies came in and when the room got loud, nobody was happy, and there wasn't enough supervision to watch out for the little ones around the bigger ones. so i moved my babies back over to my class and things calmed down in both rooms considerably.

The slide seems like it won't work for the younger age range of the class, and that needs to be pointed out. I can see it as equipment with 3 or 4 year olds who would know the "rules" of playing with it, ya know?

Then again, having a bunch of 2 year olds in a room with newborns sound equally troublesome :shifty