They are Soon Going To ask Me to Leave

I work in the kids ministry at our church. Basically I work with a table-full of kindergarden and grade one kids. I keep them corralled and somewhat on task.

Somewhat.

While I usually work with the same wonderful group of kids, at Christmas time they had all the groups move from station to station while the teachers stayed put and did Christmas crafts with the kids. We have about 40 little ones in our area so this is where nametags really come in handy.

One sweet and very spunky little girl arrived at my table eyes brimming with mischief. I soon learned why. Her nametag was upside down. She looked most pleased with herself.

I decided to play along.

I quickly choose the ugliest name I could think of an uncommon name and called her that the whole time she was at my table. "Mildred" LOVED it. She laughed and giggled and had a grand old time.

Just an aside here, if your name is Mildred, I am sorry for making fun of your name. (Well, not totally, but I am Canadian so I have to pretend that I am sorry.) Remember though, I own a Christmas sweater. My tastes may be a little suspect. If this is your favorite name for your baby, well, I will do my level best not to make fun of her name to her face.

I make no guarantees for when she is not around.

Anyway, I later saw the little girl with her family after class and once again called her Mildred.

Her mom (whom I only know slightly) gave me a bit of a puzzled look. So I explained.

Then she told me something that explained the odd look.

Guess what the girl's grandma's name is.

Go on, take a guess.

Yep.

I was making fun of her paternal grandma's name.

It gets better. I had never met her dad until this moment. He and his family just moved here this summer as he is our new youth pastor. Nothing says "welcome to our church" like making fun of his mom's name.

At least I didn't knock him over.