Vacation, what?

As I've said -- I give myself to others. One thing I've given myself to lately is a commitment to help our church out with Vacation Bible School.

When asked if I'd help, I said "SURE!!!" The woman who asked me said "Great! You'll be leading the three and four year olds!" My enthusiasm quickly turned to dread. Three and four year olds? Could I really handle these munchkins? I guess we were about to find out.

The evening started out great! A Church night dinner kicked things off. Then we broke up into groups. I was introduced to the lady who would be co-leading this great group of kiddos with me. Just before we had broken up, a girl came up to me and asked if I would be the leader of this said age group. When I told her yes, she proceeded to tell me that her son has a speach delay and if he wasn't paying attention to me it wasn't because he was misbehaving...it was because he doesn't talk. Okay. That was all I could say...okay. She seemed totally casual about it. But I know full well that in this age group, a delay like this could be very hindering. So I just smiled. Once again, my big mommy smile. I nodded...a lot. I went on about my business.

Then I met the child. When we walked our groups to their first class in a single file line, a woman was walking with him holding his hand. Then she passed his hand to me and said a quick "maybe he won't notice" and quickly darted away. He DID notice. He's not STUPID! He's just got a delay. He quickly pulled his hand away from mine and ran after the lady. I made her come back and lead him to his next class. In the class, I got acquainted with him. He became quite attached to me. I found out he can talk. He told me he got a hair cut that day and that his daddy was at work. He also likes to hula hoop and color. An hour and a half into the 2 hour session of VBS, another teacher comes to the room we were in to let us know that this boy does not ask to go to the potty. You have to ask him. It was also urgent he be taken, because apparently he had on underpants and not a pull up. So we took him. He took care of his business like a champ. 10 minutes later, when we were back in the classroom, he said to me "Have to pee pee. Have to pee pee." We went. He did more business. It really irks me that the mom informed me he doesn't talk at all -- he does. It also irked me that I was informed he doesn't ask to potty...and he does.

He does communicate. Is she not listening? Does she doubt his abilities that he does posses?

I wonder if his mom really thinks he's not capable of expressing his feelings. It makes me sad. He's such a sweet little boy.

I wonder if parents do that to their children in general. Or is it that we either under estimate or over estimate our children's abilities. I hope I'm a happy medium.