"That" mom

So, imagine that you are going to have a fun play date with friends in the little mall playground area. Your first child is having one of his mediocre days. Your middle child is having a good day for once. Your third child has decided he is going to be a needy baby today.

You pack all the kids in the car after a rousing round of "we are not going if you don't listen to me and get your shoes on."

Of course, you have a doctor's appointment first and you have bribed the kids with the usual "we will not go to play if you are not good." And wouldn't your luck just have it that the doctor is running late?

You FINALLY get finished at the doctor's office. The kids were not great, but they did pretty well for spending extra, unnecessary time at the doctors. We packed back into the car and off we went to the mall for our rendezvous.

You get to the mall and the play area and your friend is not there yet (she is actually walking the mall but you don't know this until later.) The kids settle in to playing (noticing that the play area is of course packed full of kids) and you get the baby out of the stroller because 1) there are no strollers allowed in the play area and 2) the baby is having a needy day. You find a seat and settle in to keep an eye on the kids and watch for the friend.

You notice that your first child is getting a little rowdy (running way too fast) and there are quite a few toddlers and younger children running around. So you pull him over and have a little chat with him about being careful, blah, blah, blah. He says okay and goes back to playing, but your not sure if he really *got* what you said to him and you decide to keep a little sharper eye on him.

Apparently, he didn't hear you the first time because you notice him barreling over some toddlers, so you call him over and repeat the same above scenario and then settle back in with the baby and check around to see if your friend has arrived. Meanwhile, you notice the second child is playing great with a little friend that she found.

A few minutes goes by and you notice your lovely firstborn is again misbehaving and you call him over for another conference. You have the same discussion, but this time you add that if he cannot behave and obey, then you will be leaving.

 You would think, that from his reaction, that you had just informed him you were canceling Christmas. 

Yep. A meltdown. Fun times. And it was not even caused by you telling him you were going to leave. Only the possibility of leaving.

Now of course, everyone is starting to look at you like you are a horrible mother. You try to calm him down, with the infant in your arms still.

You come to the conclusion that this is one of those times that he will not be calmed down and no tactic is going to work. You tell him it is time to leave. Of course, this brings on only loader and angrier screams and cries; loud enough for the entire play area to be able to take notice over the sounds of the kids playing.

You quickly count to 10, trying to find the patience within yourself and you go and place the baby in the stroller (which is all the way across the play area) and he immediately starts to fuss because he is having a needy day. You then go back to your beautiful screaming, firstborn and guide him (because he is too big for you to pick him up anymore) over to the shoe section. You hand him his shoes to put on and give him the command through clenched teeth. Amidst his cries and screams, he proceeds to put his shoes on.

Of course, your middle child, for once is happily playing and not making a fuss, but you have to break the news to her that you have to leave. Great. I am sure she is going to be just fine with this.

Lovely, middle child proceeds to start to cry because she does not want to leave and is of course quite confused as to why she has to leave. You pick her up (she is still not quite too heavy for you to carry) and carry her over to the shoe area and hand her the shoes that took her 10 minutes to find this morning. Why would she not scream NO at you? You tell her to put them on or you will do it for her. NO! Being the independent child she is, once you reach for the shoes, she says she will do it herself (still crying of course.)

Once you see that middle child is really getting her shoes on, you go over to the stroller to make sure that the baby is okay and try to calm him down with a toy. Then you tell your oldest child (through clenched teeth of course) that he needs to stop throwing a fit. He doesn't.

You go back to the middle child and tell her it is time to go. She sits down and refuses to get up and walk. You bend down to her level and tell her (again through clenched teeth) that either she will get up and walk with you or you will carry her out (not quite sure how that is going to work while pushing a stroller.) Thank God for that independent streak, yet again, because she decides that she will get up and walk; although still crying. She follows.

You walk over to your precious firstborn and tell him he better get up (he had sat down on the floor next to the stroller to continue his crying and screaming) and follow you because it was time to go.

You start to push the stroller out of the play area. The baby is still crying, the middle girl is milking her cry fest, and the oldest still screaming and crying.

Yes, you are "that" mom of the day.

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