“Those Kids” Were All Mine Today

You know what I am talking about. You’ve been out at the park or play area or anywhere in public and you’ve seen “those kids.” The ones who are screaming, whining, fussing, temper tantrumming, hitting and generally being unruly.

I am very fortunate in that my kids are not usually “those kids.” In fact the reason I take them in public is they usually act better out in the world than they do at home! But today was a different story. We went to an indoor play place on base called The Jungle Zone. It’s just been remodeled and is free for this first month that it’s open. They’ve got stuff to climb on, mats to jump on, a huge barrel to roll in, you know the kind of place.

There were probably 12 kids in there playing. There really wasn’t a lot of screaming or whining. The Big One and Little One did great for the first hour. I don’t know if they got tired or what was going on. They were doing great taking turns in this giant inflatable wheel thing. They were sitting in it and I was rolling them back and forth.

I guess they just hit their wall. They started pushing each other, hitting each other, screaming and causing a scene. Okay, I am self-conscious enough about the size of my butt, I do NOT need fighting children to draw any more attention to us.

After giving the Big One three warnings that if she didn’t knock it off we were going home. She continued to push the Little One out of the wheel. So I said fine, that’s it, we are going home. Then the real drama started.

The Big One started screaming and kicking and freaking out. Now everyone was watching us. It really took everything I had to remain calm. I was so mad that she was being so naughty. I was embarrassed that everyone was watching us and I was sad that their fun was coming to a very abrupt end.

I told her to get up and go get her shoes on. She refused. Then I had to help her up. Thank God she complied with a little help. I did not want to have to carry her kicking and screaming across the whole play area to where our shoes were. I got her shoes on and then went to gather the Little One. Following her sister’s lead, she screamed, kicked and freaked out. Of course she is little enough, I just carried her. I put her shoes on.

Now I still need to put my shoes on – note to self: wear slip-on shoes next time- As I was getting my shoes on, the Big One was still screaming and the Little One kept getting up to go back and play. Yes everyone was still watching us.

Okay, y’all when I see “those kids” I do not gawk. I try to catch the mom’s eye and then give her the sympathetic nod that says “I am sorry. I’ve been there too.” No such luck today, they all just stared at us and I think were wanting us to leave as quickly as possible. There is something about one kid crying that leads to another that leads to another.

The only person who was sympathetic was the young girl working there. She smiled and said she hoped to see us again. Fat chance that will happen.