Yesterday I asked some questions about how ministries dismiss their kids on the weekends. I got a lot of great comments. Yes, I was fishing for some specific answers that I was seeking and I got some, but not all. Let me follow up with a few other questions and if you do what I’m asking, I’d love to hear your answers as I’m fishing more intentionally with these questions.
Many churches use label name tag stickers, either self created or computer generated from check-in software. A lot of you who do use these name tags collect them at the doors as kids leave, peeling them off and keeping them. One commenter yesterday told why her church peels them off and keeps them. For those of you who do, why? What’s your reason for doing it? For those of you who let the kids walk out with their name tags, is there a specific reason why you don’t bother to take them back?
Again, thanks for your willingness to respond. I’m just thinking through this arrangement as I’m sure hearing your reasons will help me as I hope your comments will help others as well!
At Oak Leaf Church, we do the Fellowship One, computer-generated stickers that have matching parent code stickers. The parents line up to pick up their child and an emcee calls out the name of the child for them to come to the door. The kids are usually either still in their small group huddle or having a dance party (depends on the day). When we moved into a new building last May, we began a “sticker ball” where the kids put their sticker when leaving the room. The ball is larger than a basketball now and the kids love seeing how bringing friends and coming every week contributes to growing the sticker ball. It’s a simple thing, but of course, the simplest things can be the best for kids. It also has created a job for a kid each service, they are the holders of the sticker ball and in charge of making sure the stickers go on.
Like others said yesterday, we never allow a parent without a matching sticker pick up a child, parents are not allowed in the room, and they must show photo id if they have lost their sticker. In fact, they have to present their sticker to even get up the stairs to pick up their child. Our security team rocks, I even have to show my staff badge to enter the kids area and I’m the Children’s Director! 🙂
i LOVE the sticker ball idea and will definitely be sharing the idea with leadership team!! We do our best to remove the stickers, but don’t get them all… I cringe seeing them on children walking out of the building…
Our reasons for removing them: SAFETY: children forget they have the tags on their backs, and some assume that if a stranger knows their name, they must know them. Our stickers also have the parents names on them, as well as a phone number. (We page with the last 4digits of phone number if parent is needed during classtime.)
I can’t think of a good reason NOT to take the stickers off of a child… I know some kids like to keep them, which is okay as long as the parent is aware.
I am so in love with the sticker ball idea… I’ve gotta go so I can go share with the team!! Woot!
I’m glad you liked it, Erin! I must tell you a volunteer came up with it. Don’t you love when volunteers have genius ideas and get to see them in action?!
We do not bother with collecting stickers because we have all the info we need our the check-in binders.
We do not let kids leave unless they are signed out by a parent, or someone the parent has pre-approved. We allow a parent to designate up to 6 other people over 12 years of age to drop off and pick up their child. This allows for parents being ministered to in church to send an older sibling or trusted friend to pick their kids up.
We can look at our binders to find out exactly who picked up and dropped off each child.
Our name tags only include the child’s name, grade and a color dot (Red for preschool, Blue for kindergarten etc…) They are meant to help teachers remember names, and if a child is wandering or doesn’t know what grade they are in, the color dots help our teachers and Safe Team members get them to the right room.
When we began using this system our Safe Team member at check out began collecting name tags instinctively, but we quickly realized that was an added hassle that wasn’t really accomplishing anything.
btw…I love this blog
We remove stickers because if I see a kid wandering around church with a nametag on, I assume he escaped from his room. Child with nametag = in the care of CM. Child without nametag = in the care of parents.