www.creativeladiesministry.com

[Bramblerose]

We have a regular nursery for all church services and children's church for the morning service and a few special meetings. Right now our teens watch the nursery for ladies' meetings, but that is getting to be a problem in that we have few older girls with a driver's license to get there themselves, and most of the other moms with teen daughters don't come, so can't transport their daughters to baby-sit. We have had teens volunteer, only to be left high-and-dry at the ladies' meeting because the volunteer couldn't get there and didn't let anyone know.

I do very much understand the need for nurseries...but on the other hand I get a little frustrated that we can't do anything without having to figure out a nursery situation, and then that pulls people out of the function who would like to be there. Nobody seems to want to do the nursery outside of regular church services.

When my kids were little, I felt like they were my responsibility, even at church functions. I would not have minded at all to band together with other mothers to take turns taking care of kids, or to pay someone -- I would have felt that was preferable to having someone without kids or whose kids were older to have to miss the function to take care of my kids. Once we had an outreach that kids from the local Christian college did -- the girls could go visit homes but could not go inside unless a lady from the church was with them, so they asked for volunteers for that. I was the only one who volunteered, my child was the only one in the nursery, and I thought, this is crazy to have two ladies -- me and the nursery worker -- to do this -- it would be more efficient for me to stay home and the lady in the nursery to go on the visitation.

But these days....moms seem to feel they deserve a break and deserve to have other people take care of their kids instead of taking the responsibility to contribute in any way. The whole thing can be kind of a touchy, delicate situation. We need to discuss at our next meeting what we can do differently. Of course, I am not going to say what I wrote in this paragraph and the one above it -- I'd be afraid people would take it the wrong way and get offended. But sometimes even intimating that there is a problem with the nursery will cause some ladies to think, "Well, then, I'll just stay home with my children." Maybe we shouldn't even discuss it publicly at the ladies meeting......maybe I should just come up with a plan and announce it. I don't know. What do you all do?

[Oma]

Hi
Well, I can understand how (unfortunatly ) touchy we Christian moms can get. I can also sympathize with your problem. The Church I am currently attending isn't very large so this hasn't been much of an issue. My previous Church home utilized teens (who were paid) and young women (also paid) who had children. HOWEVER your Church may not be able to afford to do this. You might ask the men of the Church if they would consider serving the women by watching the children. We did this as well. Good luck. OH and PRAY!
_________________
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Deb

[costacasa]

I use teens for my Women's ministry evening. I pay them 10.00 per hour and that keeps them very reliable. I really want to have all the Women attend these function so I will always go outside for Child Care. Also, in the past what I have done is contacted other churches in the area and spoke to the Children's Ministry Director and asked them if the would recommend anyone from there ministry to come over and do child-care. That has really worked for me in the past. Plus of course I pay them 10.00 per hour to. Then I take up an offering at the event and I have asked each women to contribute at least 2.00 to help cover the expenses. For me this works. Plus, other women will most likely pay because they don't want the interputions. By using another churches worker usually they are already qualified with all the finger-printing and CPR.

[costacasa]

i also forgot to mention that if you have child-care you will most likely have more women attend your events. Now days there are alot of single-moms, or women whose Husbands are active Dad's if you know what I mean. I think that the Dad's should step up and watch there children but in many cases their won't. So, to me it's easier for me to provide child-care and have the women come and be blessed. If you can't afford child-care then have each of the women volunteer.