Failures

My kids have gotten pretty good about going out places.  In general, they are pretty good about holding my fingers when we walk.  In general, they are pretty good in the cart or in the wagon.  But they have gotten this way because I have tried some dumb stuff and had some failures...and those have taught not only them, but me! 

Most of my "failures" come when I decide to take the kids in someplace public with no restraint (like a shopping cart or a wagon).  Why do I not have a cart or wagon?  Sheer laziness, most of the time.  I just don't feel like getting out the wagon, and I am in a brave mood, so I walk them in to the post office. Or at Aldi I don't have a quarter....so do I really need a cart?  At the library, it is just too difficult to wheel around the wagon.  Times like this I really think about how much easier it would be with just one child....

A few recent failures: 
At Aldi, I just needed 2 things.  I knew exactly where they were.  It would be quick, in and out.  So in we all traipse...and they take off.  All 4 of them run yelling down the aisles.  Praise the Lord, they didn't take stuff from the shelves, but they did run and yell and cause a ruckus.  And on the way out..."nandy! nandy! nandy!"  Eight hands all grabbing for Reese's Pieces. 

At Starbucks, the line for the drivethru was long.  And (I thought) it was free coffee day.  So I took in my travel mug, with the lid that snaps shut tightly and has a handle so I can stow it in my bag and hold 3 hands.  But it wasn't free coffee day.  And I felt like a moron dragging my kids in for free coffee that wasn't free.  So I bought (with a free coupon!) a large coffee.  With no spill proof lid.  And no handle to stow in my bag.  Leaving me with 1 hand and 3 runners.  As they ran around like fools on the patio (luckily it was chilly so no one was out there) after I tried futilely to round them up, I took my coffee to the car and then came back for them.  Embarrassed to admit it didn't even OCCUR to me to put my coffee down, take them, and then come back for it.


Other failures?  At the library, where books are pulled off shelves and CDs are pulled out of cases.  At Walgreens, where I just needed 2 things, and the carts are small, so they walked, and we left a pile of deodorant in the aisle.  At Aldi, where I took the kids at 530 and L just about toppled out of the cart grabbing for an apple.  After that I gave them all apples to let them eat while we shopped, and Z was very concerned, "Um, Mom?  Do you think we should pay for those...?"  One last one, and I will just give the last detail, involved me kicking guacamole through the parking lot that had fallen out of my bag and I couldn't get down to pick it up amidst 3 screaming kids.  Sigh.... 

The problem is that I actually think these scenarios all through.  I do a lot of planning in my head.  (The coffee mug, the 2 things we need, etc).  I think it will work, and sometimes it does, but sometimes...it doesn't.  Three kids have minds of their own.  These are the times when I get looks from people and I understand why they're giving me that look.  The looks that say "Wow she has her hands full!  Man, sucks to be her!  So glad that I don't have that many kids!"  I feel like people are just staring at me as I'm yelling at the big one for going into the street, attempting to lunge for one child, holding anothers hand, and have the third around the waist as I haul him out.  

But I can laugh about them because they are NOT the norm.  It is good for me to be a bit humbled when I mess up in such a non-important way.  It reminds me that I am not, nor will ever be, supermom.  And that is goooood!