Shopping with my boys

Just another day at the mall

Mama stays calm and cool

Having kids has not deterred me from doing things I love to do…like shopping. A couple of weeks ago we were at the mall where I take my boys to run around and play in the play area. As we were heading down the mall back to our car, I noticed a shoe sale and stopped to look around. My younger son Rocco was asleep in the stroller and Rockford was not tired nor fussy so I felt fairly confident about entering the store.

While looking around I became easily distracted by the plethora of beautiful shoes: strappy heels, pumps, lacy heels, boots, sandals, ankle boots, on and on. I was lost in shoe land. Meanwhile, Rockford had made himself at home at the store’s corner window looking out. No sooner did one of the employees come over to ask me to remove him from there since he was comfortably mounted on their  shoes display by the window.  I immediately asked Rockford to come stand near me, to which he did, taking the longest most creative detour throughout the store (crawling under the display tables of course).  There I was, trying to try on a pair of shoes with one eye on my feet and one eye on Rockford. Thank god the shoes were splendid and I took the first two pair I tried on.

By the time I finished trying on the second pair, Rocco had made his appearance, up from his nap.  I quickly grabbed the pairs of shoes I opted for, got hold of the stroller, called out to Rockford and made a dash for the register. I haphazardly took out my wallet searching for my debit card. All the while, Rocco is climbing out of the stroller and Rockford is announcing he has to go pee! I quickly but calmly sit Rocco down in the stroller and buckled him, I put on an “emergency” diaper on Rockford, but for some reason felt it was on wrong. To my surprise, the teenage workers that had been policing my son the entire time were nowhere to be found.  Finally, minutes later one of them retrieves from the back walking towards the register looking uninterested in her job. By now Rocco is screaming because he wants out of the stroller and Rockford starts calling out, “I’m peeing on myself!” I knew I had put that diaper on wrong darn. I look at the cashier half laughing half embarrassed and say, “you might want to take out the caution sign, we had an accident here.” Her co-worker very apathetically comes over with napkins and starts throwing them on floor and asks, “It’s water right?” I look back and her with a smile and say, ‘Oh no, it’s pee.”  At this point I am calming both kids down, telling Rockford we would change his clothes soon and taking Rocco out of his stroller. Everyone in the store is looking at us with a gaze of disappointment and disgust, including the workers. I couldn’t help it, my knee-jerk reaction was to laugh at the situation. I thought it was funny and thought that if they were parents they too would see the humor in this.

Moments like these are best accompanied by a sense of humor. I love outings with my kids and understand not every outing is going to go without a hiccup. Some days are better than others. Nonetheless, the way one as a parent handles a situation will make an impression on the child. I would rather my child remember how mommy laughed at these scenarios and remained calmed than seeing a stressed out mom filled with embarrassment and anxiety. Maybe to others this would be classified as an embarrassing moment, but for this calm, cool and collected mama, I say laugh!

Blessing to you all!

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Tags: boys, calm, children, family, funny, humor, laugh at yourself, mall, mommy moment, sense of humor, shopping, Shopping mall, staying calm