I would have drawn her attention to it. Maybe she hadn’t had a chance to chat with a friend for a week or more, you never know. Anyway, I’d never let it get so far that it made a Mother’s day harder to get through.
Re people reacting badly, I always take the Atticus Finch tack: any anger they let loose on me is that much less they’ll take home to the kids.
This is from last March, I think, it was the beginning of Lent anyway, and I was trying to give up restaurants, which comes up . . .
Anyway, I’d just be worried that she was having a day like this:
Help me out here Moms (and Dads), I could use some reassurance. Do days like this happen at your house?
Sunday, I am making pancakes. The Celtling is standing on the foot stool stirring the batter while I flip pancakes at the stove.
Except, wait, no, she’s just thrown everything off the bottom shelf of the pantry with one fell swoop of her little arm. . .
So, move Celtling to living room, and engage her in playing with her blocks.
Throw out charcoal pancakes, rinse pan and add more batter.
Clean up unbelievable mess (plastic containers of peaches broken all over brand-new boxes of crackers and Bisquick. . .)
Flip pancakes and check on Celtling - Argggghhhh! a pound and a half of fish flakes are spread all over my living room ! ! ! Fish flakes are light - that is a LOT of fish flakes! ! !
Move Celtling to Den and start favorite video. Pull out Mega blocks (think Big Legos) and get her playing.
Throw out charcoal pancakes.
Put frozen waffles in toaster.
Vacuum living room.
Check on Celtling - Arggghhhhh! Two whole boxes of baby wipes spread all over the Den! ! ! At 72 per box that’s 144 baby wipes! And it’s the last two boxes!
Serve cold waffles with sliced bananas and plan nice lunch out to make myself feel better. (For those reading the Lent thread I can only say “God would understand!”)
Dress self and Celtling and head to Target for more baby wipes.
Did I mention there’s a blizzard just starting? Do you know what happens to a Virginia Target when there is snow on the way? It’s a MAD HOUSE!
Put Celtling in large section of basket as she doesn’t want to ride in the seat. Choose 3-4 books and toys from $1 section to keep her occupied. Get baby wipes and stock up on a few other essentials as long as we’re there.
Thread my way gingerly through the crowd toward grocery section to get more peaches.
Glance over towering pile of goods in the “child seat” part of the cart to see if Celtling is still having fun.
NOOOOOOOOOO! That is NOT a 16oz tub of zinc oxide diaper cream spread all over the Celtling and everything in the cart! ! ! It JUST COULDN’T BE!!!
I have never in my life been so proud to say that I did not lose my temper.
Open baby wipes and clean up as well as possible. Remove utterly plastered pants from Celtling and wrap her up in coat. Proceed gingerly to check out and apologize profusely as checker dons rubber gloves before scanning my goods.
Proceed to Wendy’s drive-through since Celtling is now too pantless for the restaurant I had in mind.
Take food home and set it up on Celtling’s little table to eat. She’s not hungry, so I eat alone.
Finish eating and look up to see the sole remaining can of fish food being joyfully shaken across Dining room carpet. (That would be the Chinese hand-cut I just paid $150 to clean.)
Now, those of you without children will be wondering how I could be so inattentive as to allow this to happen all day. You just don’t know how quickly it DOES happen. You’ll notice there are no bathroom breaks in this story . . . there just isn’t time.
OK, I feel a little better now, thank you all for listening!