At last night's Christian Education committee meeting the group got off onto a rant about sugar-filled Sunday School kids.
It seems that Sunday School teachers are finding their kids stop by the coffee and lemonade bar that is set up between worship services before going to their class. Now a little lemonade is fine--but the kids think it is SO much better if they add several packets of sugar to the drink, stirring it up into a gooey sludge that they try to eat with their fingers or drink when they are scolded about that.
Lemonade isn't the only problem. Other reports are that some of the older elementary and middle schoolers are getting coffee and doctoring it up with so much sugar and artificial creamer that it is also semi-solid.
What to do? Will the sugar consumed just before Sunday School cause behavior problems during class or wait until the parents retrieve the kids an hour later. Or is sugar really the culprit?
Should the teachers permit youngsters to bring the doctored coffee into the classroom without knowing whether or not their parents approve of the kids drinking coffee? How much in loco parentis in Sunday School is too much? Or is it just loco parents that are the problem? (Don't even go there.)
Is it appropriate to ask the volunteers who run the coffee bar to police this, or should the DCE (me!) become THE SUGAR POLICE ?
Surely Jesus said something about sugar....I'll go check my concordance. Nope, nothing. Guess we're on our own here. Sigh.
But it's in the minor prophets:
ReplyDelete"Yea, those who deny the brown water of life shall be struck down in those days."
Jeremosea 4:9
Funny, John.
ReplyDeleteWhen something like this happened at my old church (where I was layperson, not pastor), we asked the parents who were concerned to be responsible themselves rather than blaming the volunteer who seemed to be at fault. She was the accompanist for the children's choir, and they would go to the coffee table in between rehearsal and the time their parents returned to take them to church. She wasn't really in charge of the in-between time, but the system of child coverage had broken down. Suddenly, deacons were complaining about the kids messing with the tea stuff and laying it at Accompanist's feet! No way, I said, and we set up a parent volunteer list to cover that Twilight Zone of time between rehearsal and worship.
I would put this back on the parents, QG, nicely but firmly.
Yeah, verily, John--it is written:
ReplyDeleteThe children of those who worship the Baals of Starbucks shall also worship the Baals of Starbucks.
Caffineians 7:7
Songbird, thanks for the suggestion. You are exactly right. We need to let the parents know about the problem and ask them to handle it.
ReplyDeleteCaffineians! Ha ha ha!
ReplyDeleteuh oh, I worship at the Canons of Caribou. Does that mean my children will also long for that aromatic brown liqud for all the days of their lives?
ReplyDeleteI would put it back onto the parents -- set up a rotation schedule. Or move the coffee -- we have ours in the adult area of our Christian Life Center or on a cart that is easily moved. We haven't had this problem.