We had Uncle Bradley over for the weekend and he and Hubby had just worked a few long hours cleaning out the garage after Tahoe and just winter life. You know, you come in from picking up a child at school, it's pouring rain, you shut the garage door and empty the contents of the car onto the bin in the garage with every intention to bring the bin in and put everything away. Then the baby cries, the nine-year-old needs help with homework and Hubby just called on his way home form work and he's starving... what's for dinner Love? So, after many times of this happening the bin had overflowed, coats, gloves, bags, books, toys, socks and shoes (Bethany takes her shoes and socks off in the car; drives me nuts) everywhere. When those boys said they were gettin' to the garage yesterday I just about whooped with joy!
The cleaning was done, it rained the entire day and was cold. Bradley is a die-hard vegetarian. We decided to head to Soup Plantation for dinner. Plus I had a coupon! Now, I love a good coupon but if you join Soup Plantation's Club Veg they email you the best coupons! I used two buy-one-get-one-free coupons! Now, if you're at all excited as I am about saving something then you'll know that most places only let you use one coupon ("this offer may not be combined with any other offers" blah blah blah) and it is rarely for 50% off people! But I got to use two!!!
Dinner for 3 adults, one nine-year-old and a free baby (ok, that sounds funny 'cause she was anything but free!) was $30! I love a good deal!
We had to run to Walmart because we are putting together our disaster preparedness kit (yep, Haiti and then other earthquakes and tsunamis and weird weather pushed Hubby over the edge and we are now planning for our own world to come to an end) and needed bottles of water and various other items. By this point Bethany had hit her wall. We were in Walmart maybe 10 minutes before she began to melt down. It was slow and easy at first. A fuss here, a bit of a scream there, till she just couldn't handle it anymore. She blew like Mount St. Helen's. We were almost done by that point and just needed to head to the front to pay. By that point she was screaming at the top of her lungs and squirming to get out of whoever's arms she was in. She didn't stop. People started looking. Not nice looking either. We got downright dirty looks. And this was in Walmart! It's not like we were in a fancy department store with a piano playing... this was Walmart! As we walking towards the checkout (ok, we were practically running) I was ahead of the rest of the group sort of leading the pack while Hubby held/restrained Bethany. This lady walking near me must've thought I was there by myself because she looked at Bethany and Hubby then at me and smirked and rolled her eyes. I had just had someone near me in the food section hear Bethany scream from an aisle over say, "that's loud, oh brother". I said to that person that yes, we are proud of her lungs. But by the time the other lady rolled her eyes at me I had had enough. I just looked over at her, smiled and said, "she's mine". I could tell she was mortified. Enough said.
Folks, what kind of world are we in that judges parents of a screaming toddler like they have any real control over the situation? These same people would then judge the same parents if they saw the child get the spanking she needed! Well, what would you like us to do? As soon as I could I took Bethany out to the car and "took care of the problem". But that wasn't before a lot of people judged us. We need to remember that we are all humans together! I'm sure all those people who gave dirty looks have never had a child act out in public. See? No judging allowed! PS, the above picture is the calm before the storm
