It’s kind of like giving Red Bull to 200 puppies and telling them to wait a couple of hours for Disneyland to open.

Here’s a fun game.  Take two hundred kids under 12, put them in a room for two hours and try to keep them quiet without threatening bodily injury or eternal damnation while interspersing songs about choosing the right and call it a Primary Program. 

They are singing, “If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?”  The boy next to me is making fun of the kid wearing glasses and they are in a leg war.  I don’t think he’s listening to the words.  The youngest class has volunteered to sing a song all by themselves, but it’s weird, because when we say, “Sing louder!” they hear, “Hey, I don’t think my mom can see me picking my nose from ALL THE WAY IN THE BACK, maybe if I stood on this stool and flung my body over the podium….”  I asked a counselor in the Bishopric if we could get that valium drip vending machine installed before next Sunday.  He laughed.  He thinks I’m kidding. 

I pinky swore with another kid that if he would behave, I would let him change his seat and forego the taking of his life.  It’s a good thing I’m so good with kids.

14 Responses to “It’s kind of like giving Red Bull to 200 puppies and telling them to wait a couple of hours for Disneyland to open.”
  1. Kristy2 says:

    It is a good thing you’re good with kids! This too shall pass… I guess the questions is – are you going to be okay?

  2. justrandi says:

    That title is the best description of a Primary Sacrament Meeting Program I have ever heard! Ever.

  3. eveypeevy says:

    There are two big reasons why being single is worse than being married–the first has to do with making the little kiddies–and the second is that our singles wards never have primary programs!! But we’ve found a way to overcome that by inviting the other family ward’s primary to present for us! It was like crossing the threshold into family ward land for an hour. What a wonderful visit! (I’d hate to direct one of those things–but watching them is a riot!)


  4. For the first time in 14 years, I was able to just relax and WATCH the program this year rather than be involved in it some way or another. It was a treat!!!

  5. amylouwho says:

    “Hey wait! Are you the new 3rd counselor? Oh great! – you’re in charge of the program, it’s in 2 weeks.”

    Is that what happened to you? This sounds way too familiar. (cue music: You’re not alone, say it one more time, You’re not alone….)


  6. That’s GREAT! I learned a couple years ago that no matter how insanely ridiculous the practices go, there is a certain measure of MIRACLE that comes into play on the day of the actual presentation. It is the best sacrament meeting of the year. This year we had one girl say she knows Jesus loves her because he gave her Care Bears, and another boy said he loved his brother,then turned around to his teacher and said, “But I don’t even LIKE my brother.” It’s good times, man.


  7. LOL

  8. stephw70 says:

    Fantastic! And after the program, there need to be Flintstone’s Chewable Valium handed out all around…leaders, too!

  9. Mommom says:

    Bad practice = Good Performance (theory from my band days). Here’s praying yours goes as well as ours did :)

  10. Mommom says:

    Oh – and we had a Bad practice…

  11. emilylf says:

    did my first program as chorister last week. it was…just like you described. only a little worse.

  12. bek says:

    So, our Primary only has about 20 kids in it. Sounds good in theory, but in practice, when your 4 year old son is the one that is turning around and waggling his money maker at the audience (who laughed….and that sealed the deal) and then went on to make the “crazy” sign and point at the speakers, plug his ears when everyone sang songs and, as a finale, to make the “what?” and “who me” silent body language…. you don’t don’t have numbers in your favor to see if OTHER kids will do that too. Nope, yours will be the only one.

    Now I know how child actors are made.

  13. chickymama says:

    And yet I cry through every single one! And not because it’s my kid picking his nose, which he is, and not because my other kid is yawning through every single song, because he is. Just one of those things, I guess.

  14. Julie Wright says:

    I nearly died laughing over this. I had to do one primary program and the kid in my class knocked down all the fold up chairs set up in front of him. He was in the back row and the chairs in front were all empty and right in line with the stairs. . . it was a not so neat experience. And yet I am certain no one ever forgot THAT particular primary program. :) You have all my sympathy.

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