Story Worth Reading

So this post has no pictures. . . yet. Perhaps one of the helpful ladies in the locker room that day will send me the pictures they took with their cell phones. It was one of those experiences that makes a great story and I would like to share it with you. So if you are in the mood for a good laugh or a story to make you feel like your mothering skills far superior then read on!

I teach Kinder Kamp. I love it! It is kind of like a Preschool hosted by our Rec Center. It is only an hour and a half and I get to bring my kids with me to the rec center. Every session we have a swimming day! Since Eldon is already having problems with the day care and he's old enough to know when he isn't involved, I decided to let him come along and swim with us. Why not I thought, other children and their parents will bring their siblings. Anyways we had a great time! 17 of my 24 Kinder Kamp kids came with parents and younger sibilings- so it was a good turn out. Eldon loves the water and had a grand ol time. When it was time to get out the locker room was quite busy.

Locker Room looks something like this- with uglier lockers.

And of course we had all gotten lockers in the same location. As we all tried to get numerous kids changed those already dressed started to climb into vacant lockers and shut the doors. They could easily get out and were having so much fun. There was no harm. And I started talking to a near by mom- what adult conversation!? Evidently I was in desperate need of it! Anyways after a few minutes and more children and parents vacating the location, I noticed Eldon was missing. We looked for him in the locker room. No Eldon. The mom I was talking to said we should split up and she'd take one part of the Rec. Center and I'd take the other. So we went around yelling for Eldon, trying to find the little rascal.

Then a voice came over the speakers "Jenni Hogman please return to the woman's locker room." Evidently he had been found. As I entered the locker room I saw a bunch of women sitting in front of one locker that was locked with a pad lock. . . yep there was Eldon, locked in a locker.

Lock looked something like this:

Evidently a woman was getting changed when she heard a voice. Not knowing where it was coming from she kept talking to it and then low and behold Eldon stuck his finger out of the hole. So then we asked every one in the pool if it was their locker or lock? No. They announced over the speaker that the owner needed to report back to the locker room. No one came. Minutes ticked by. Eldon was calm. No tears. No whimpering. Just a plea that came every now and then "Mama. Peeze get me out of here!" and then a finger poked through the hole.

Finally the maintance man was called and the wire-cutting-plier thing had to be used to cut the lock off the locker. The door opened and there was Eldon. A gasp went through the crowd "He's so much littlier then I thought the child in there was!" He just sat there and finally I said "Eldon you can get out now." And he got out and hugged me.

How the lock got locked on the locker happened, we don't know. Perhaps another child picked up the lock and put it on without knowing he was in there. Maybe it was some how jostled into place. I don't know! What I do know is I'm glad that it wasn't anything worse.

You may wonder what my feelings were during the ordeal . . .I'm a pregnant lady. Proud to say no tears escaped my choked up throat. And we were able to laugh at the situation. I waited until I got home to break down and have a good pity party on my mothering skills and the thought that I was adding another child to this chaos! But I look on it now with a smile and a laugh of relief! And Eldon . . . we went to the Rec Center today and he didn't seem traumatized and in fact stayed in the Day Care without any problems.