A real service project

I am trying hard not to be judgmental and gossipy. I really am. I have tried to let this one go, but I am having a hard time with it. Since, it is venting, feel free to skip this post.

Yesterday our young women watched several children at the church for 7 hours. We were asked by another ward so their ward members (including youth) could do temple work all day. While hesitant; 7 hours is a long time; we agreed to it.

For a couple of weeks we have been in communication with the ward and this week we got a head count with the ages of the children, 7 kids between the ages of 2-9. Very doable. Imagine our surprise when 3 children show up that were not signed up. Imagine our further surprise that one was a 10 month old. The mother left no instruction, no bottle, nothing, just a pb&j sandwich and a granola bar. (Seriously, who does that?) I am in awe that there was no, "She likes..."or "When she gets upset..." or "To put her to sleep..." or "She is weaned..." It was a hard day with the poor baby. She didn't seem to know how to eat much. She didn't take a bottle, really. She slept for about 1/2 an hour but was exhausted and starving by the end. I was putting away our art supplies when the mom came, luckily. I was not happy. (Not to mention the laws surrounding infant care. They are very strict and we would have said no had we known any child under the age of 18 months was coming. You know me and following rules.)

Top all this off with the young women I had "helping" me. They sat at the table by themselves and drew pictures for an hour, then left. I just thought, "And that is why I have never asked you, and probably never will ask you, to watch my children." I feel like I should have an activity on how to babysit now. What seemed like common sense to me is apparently not. My own children were amazing helpers, even the younger two. I was very impressed and feel so blessed to have them.

Venting done. By doing what we did, we enabled 35 youth to do baptisms, over 40 adults to attend and do work and several unendowed adults stand in the presence of the temple and learn more about it. Keeping it in perspective helps.