I bet they treat IKEA kids' playground staff better.

I'm one of the facilitators for kids' cell from my section in my ministry. For some reason I got to serve in my ministry's kids cell on 3 occasions already (since it started). Some things/people are really annoying. Maybe I am over-sensitive. But I really started wondering how these parents see the purpose of the cell, or the people serving in the kids cell. It is not free childcare!

Some examples:

1. After coming to the cell one hour late, this mommy who still wanted to drop-off her daughter commented "Oh, the programme finished already? So you guys are just letting the kids play??!?! Anyway, where do I put her waterbottle?"

2. All parents are supp to pick their kids up by 945pm. This mommy, sauntered by at 1015pm, and commented, "Oh 945 meh? I thot it was 10pm??? >looked at her watch< Oh! It's already 1015 ah?! So how, must pay late charges or not? hahahah" ARGH.

3. This domestic helper, who was in the cell THROUGHOUT, saw the son of her employer injured in a squabble with another boy. She had the audacity to march up to me when I was soothing the crying child and said loudly, "AIYO! He already had a bruise on his eye before this you know!" Told her off - "Then what have you been doing? You are not doing your job! All you did whole nite was to sit here and chat (with another helper)!!!".

4. This daddy was 1hr15mins late. He hurriedly dropped his daughter and rushed off. After cell, he "forgot" to pick his daughter up, we had to escort her up to him. We told him that she had had some candies. He said in a very shocked voice, "Huh, really ah! That's more than what she had ever eaten!" My response - "Oh, then you should let us know next time you drop her off. Cos it wouldn't be fair if we gave every child a treat and she was left out". And to the reminder to be punctual in dropping her off and picking her up, he said, "I stay very far you know." MIND-BLOWING.

5. A little girl asked me for milk at 930pm, saying that she wants to drink milk. Parents didn't leave any milk nor any instructions. I went to the daddy and told him about his daughter's request when he picked her up at 10pm. He said, "Oh is it?". HUH??

6. I witnessed one of the older boys in the group jumping off walls in the room. He later pressed another boy's private part while tumbling on the ground. I caught him "smiling" after both occasions. Disciplined him on both accounts and told him I'm gonna have to report all these to his daddy. And I did. But guess what daddy's reaction was? "Oh is it?" And laughed. G-O-S-H

There are quite a few other examples, but I don't wanna go on - cos I know this post is becoming a complaining post. Ps V knows about all these. And I know he is trying his best to make things better. I'm just wishing that as parents we can be a little more self-aware of what our kids can be capable of. And to be positioned to partner with ministry partners to make this once-a-week time more fruitful and meaningful. No, my kids are not angels. And I consistently make it my personal mission to help them improve and be an asset to the cell. No, I'm not blowing my own horn too. AIYA, this is my blog, so I get to say what I want to lah!

I sure hope these are just teething problems, that as we keep at it to make things better each week, we'll all begin and continue to enjoy and look forward to kids' cell...