I'll take it

Anyone (or most everyone, I hope) with small kids has experienced the looks of annoyance, words of unsolicited advice, smiles, and the occasional word of encouragement--all from strangers. For example, there's the time when Larissa was two and having a major tantrum in a craft store. Due to circumstances, I didn't have the luxury of leaving and coming back later. As I hurried through the store looking for the needed item, I heard old biddies saying, "what an awful mom!" "Pick up that child" "That child needs a good spanking." "Stop that screaming." The two nice old ladies said "maybe she needs a nap" or "is she hungry? I have some crackers." It was an awful experience. Fast forward a couple months and I am walking out of target with a new born in one arm and a kicking, screaming toddler held football style in the other arm. As people make way, they are saying things like "God bless you" "keep up the good work" "you can do it" "let me help you". What a contrast!

Recently, I have had a couple verbal pats on the back. I prefer to remember those opposed to the angry glares, and sighs of annoyance. While I was searching for a particular item in the baby aisle at the grocery store, Larissa kept herself busy looking at books. When it was time to move on Larissa informed me, "I don't have this one at home mommy. Let's buy it." I responded with, "Guess what? When we get home you still won't have it, because we aren't going to buy it today." She looked at the book, shrugged, put it back and said, "I want it for my birthday." "Ok, we'll put it on your list and see what you get." This is a normal exchange between us-the list part. I say "not today", she says to put it on the list, drama averted. No need to say no.
But I digress. Back to the pat on the back. As we were leaving the aisle, a man who had been stocking a shelf said, "Excuse me mam."(am I that old?) He then went on to say that when I said no to the book, he was just waiting for the crying and screaming to start and was pleasantly surprised that it hadn't. "Most kids do, but yours didn't. She's a good kid." Well, she is definitely easy to shop with (now), but she gives me plenty of drama in other ways. He didn't need to know that though, and I glowed in my child's moment of goodness.

Then, last week, I was out with Kaleb. We found ourselves in a line of one (me) while we waited for the cashier to finish a return on dog food. I wasn't aware you could return a half used bag of food. The customer asked for the cashier to suggest a different type of food to try. She did and the customer asked "why." An explanation was given, and the customer asked... you get the idea. It felt like the exchange lasted forever, but it was really only a few minutes, 5 tops. Standing still with a toddler that long is asking for trouble, but I managed to keep Kaleb busy, barely. As we walked up to the cashier she apologized for the wait and said, "You have the best baby ever! I've never seen a baby in this store so well behaved." To which I said thank you and added, "I guess you didn't hear him scream when I forced him away from the birds and fish." But she'd already said it, my baby is the best, and the words had already made my ok morning great.