Beeline to the Bathroom

Beeline to the Bathroom

One day, in Children’s Church, one of my young helpers asked me if she could take a three-year-old girl to the bathroom. I told her it would be fine. But before the two girls made their way to the door, two other girls asked my helper if they could go too. The next thing I knew, my 10-year old helper headed to the door with three young girls including the one who had permission.

As soon as I saw the girls getting up and heading to the door, I stopped the beeline to the bathroom because I wasn’t sure if the ten-year-old girl could handle three preschoolers by herself.

Since I was almost finished with the Bible story for the day, I quickly finished it. Meanwhile, the first three-year-old began throwing a terrific temper tantrum because I didn’t let her go to the bathroom right away. I wanted to address the situation before the class first. I told the little girl I would let her go in a minute.

I quickly explained to the class that only one student was allowed to go to the bathroom at a time. After that child returned, I would let the next one go with the helper. Then I released the helper and the first girl to go use the restroom.

As the two girls were returning to class, the three-year-old girl’s parents showed up, and she began throwing her temper tantrum again. I explained what had transpired to the parents and they seemed to understand.

From this incident I learned that class procedures and rules need to be established even before the first class session begins. This whole incident may have been avoided if I had established rules before class.

From that moment on I explained the class rules and told my helpers to watch out for the beeline to the bathroom. I also established a regular bathroom run so that I knew the students had an opportunity to go and would not be able to disrupt class with another beeline to the bathroom.