SO, you can tell that it is spring break and that it is still winter outside. The kids are going wild and making me crazy. For some reason spending 2 hours out in the snow isn't quit the same as spending time out in the warm sun.
Well after the chaos of the morning I decided that I was going to take everyone to Walmart to get a few things. I did a wonderful job of threatening my kids before we left, but somewhere between the car and the doors of walmart, (probably slipped out of their flip flops), they forgot. :)
One of my biggest pet peeves is waiting for people. Maybe your kids are like mine, maybe your a little bit luckier than I am, but the slower I walk, the slower my kids walk.....10 feet behind me. So getting into the store takes as long as it would take me to get in and fill my cart if I were alone. Today was extra special due to the snow and the flip flops. Everyone had to hold their pants up so they didn't get wet. We finally get in the store and low and behold there is the Red Box. "MOM MOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM we HAVE to get a movie." We have bought 3 new movies in the last month or so and they never get watched. we have netflix and they watch the same 3 movies everyday, regardless of what else there is to watch (including the movie they just HAD to have from the walmart RedBox.) We fight that battle and I win.
Next we head over to the allergy medicine isle (not before we have the fight about getting a cup of popcorn chicken-which I win also) and Gabe decides getting in everybody'sway isn't enough so he starts punching Corbin and Levi. I ask him to stop so he slaps me and in the process cuts my hand with one of his long rigid fingernails that I have been trying to cut for days. Not thinking, I smack him, and the man standing next to me looks at me like I just beat my kid with a metal poll or something. I definitely lost that battle.
We get everything we need and then some with the usual kids climbing in the clothes racks and behind the food on the shelves and running all over the store until I decide to pretend like they aren't with me, because that makes me look a little less pathetic and desperate. Corbin and Levi are chasing each other and Corbin runs into a table display with a shelf about knee level. Next thing I know he is on the floor crying. Levi is long gone.
I have this philosophy that if something bad happens when you're doing something you have been told, or know not to do, no one should feel that bad for you. You shouldn't get a candy bar from the walmart manager because you ran off and they had to call a code Adam to find you. You shouldn't get prizes at the dentist for having a mouth full of cavities. Why would anyone reward misbehaving or bad behavior. I love my kids but I don't see how that would do a whole lot of good. The mind set then changes to, "if I do something I am not supposed to but cry when I get caught or when things don't go my way, then get a reward. That is funner than obeying." Right?
So I tried to help Corbin up but he insisted on laying in the middle of the floor crying. As you may know, Corbin is no little 6 year old. I couldn't pick him up off the floor if I had to. So he laid their. After a minute or 2 a girl walks over and asks me if everything is ok. I respond with, "We are fine. He was being stupid and didn't listen when I asked him to stop and he ended up hurt. So, I don't really feel to bad for him." The girl responded with,"I am an EMT so it is my obligation to care." I told her I was sure he was more embarrassed than hurt and that we would be fine. That battle was a good beat down by more than the kids.
We finally got to the check out and the kids decided to take off the the wonderful arcade we are so blessed to have at our local walmart. I was ready to go and they weren't done playing. I walked off and told them if they weren't ready to leave, they could live at walmart.
Needless to say, I left walmart fairly confident that this day, in that hour, I had won the mother of the year award. I walked out of that store and got in my car with my head bowed and felt a few inches shorter than I did this morning.
I have no words of wisdom for this day other than some days all you can do is endure. Just because we fail miserably at times doesn't mean we can give up. we have to get back on the horse no matter how much it hurts. Heavenly Father knew what kind of a parent we would be before he chose to send us some of his choicest spirits and if He trusts us enough to raise them right and well, we owe it to Him, and them to at least try. A bad minute or hour doesn't have to mean a bad day all around. We can choose to act instead of react to a situation or a kid or a nosey lady at walmart. And hopefully at the end of the day we can ask our selves, "have I done any good in the world today." and feel like we did something worthwhile and good.
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