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Monday, August 24, 2009

Friday In Retrospect

It was silly to run errands on Friday.
Friday is the only day of the week I have two children in the morning.
Still, Friday was the day the yellow chairs were in the van and so Friday I took them to be cleaned. Friday started out okay.

There was the guy at Woodard who said to me, "What you have here is a light color material and some dark soiling." Really? See, cause THAT is why I brought them here. I should have gone home after such a statement of the obvious. How could I know the rest of the errands would be more of the same?

Taking children to Michaels is obviously a bad decision. I believe I have said this before, "I will not take my children to Michaels." The buggies are only large enough for one child, the aisles are SO close together, there is too much temptation to touch pretty things. It is a disaster waiting to happen.

But I was right there! Driving right by! And I had this frame to return and needed to get the right size (to replace the one broken LAST CHRISTMAS!). "It'll be fine," I told myself. I lied.

I gave my children a pep talk, "We are going into Michaels for a quick trip. I will need you two to be sweet, obey, and guard your hands. Do you understand?" They said, "Understandju." They lied.

The return went well. Picking out the new frame was fine. I decided to take advantage of this compliance and take a peek at the fall decor. OBVIOUS mistake. Within minutes we were in line to pay and get the heck out of dodge.

As I got into line a woman said to me, "Isn't it so nice to have helpers?" (She was referring to my son's attempts to push KB and the buggy into the $1 ribbon display.) I responded, "Thank you for the reminder and good perspective. That was NOT what I was thinking at the moment."

I will NOT be taking my children back to Michaels in the next 3-5 years. Obviously.

9 comments:

Natalie said...

I am right with you, girl. I have made that mistake too many times and have finally learned my lesson!!!

Julia said...

Have you ever thought of just leaving them in the car with the windows down? Just a thought!

amy said...

sweet friend...i understand. everywhere i took julia and abby today, julia had a meltdown. nightmare! but what's a gal to do??

and as to julia's comment--watch out on leaving your young kiddos in the car. i had a friend do that with older kids, and some policemen questioned her intensely. just a friendly heads up.

Debbie said...

I think I would prefer Michaels to the grocery store when taking my kids along with me :). One nice thing about having the girls in school is being able to grocery shop ALONE!

emily said...

I'm with you, Becky! Today I took Owen and Molly to the grocery store, as usual...but then I remembered that he starts Toddler Time in 2 weeks! Grocery shopping with just one (who can't throw things out of the cart) will be much preferable. It's nice to know that other moms deal with the same types of scenes that my child likes to make EVERY TIME we go shopping.

Allison said...

you make me laugh out loud! and just to encourage you, Nathan physically wrapped himself around a pole in Home Depot and had to be peeled off kicking and screaming right by the checkout b/c I wouldn't buy him candy!! I'm sure yours have NEVER done that (I think I swore mine wouldn't ever do that either!)

Julia said...

I was only J to the O to the K to the E about leaving you kin in the car! Unless, you would think that going to jail might be a quiet place for you!

This Place is a Disaster! said...

OMGosh, in Utah you would be arrested if you left your kids in the car windows down or not! Total child neglect.

This Place is a Disaster! said...

And then, once, I wnet to this forum feed back group thing and we were aksed what bothereed us most about shopping. About 5 older women said they hated "people who let their kids run wild around the store" I guess they have never had kids of thier own . . ?
Do we really LET our kids get out of control, or is it not in our control to control in the first place!
look at me, talky talkerson.