If you were in Walmart tonight with me and the kids…
Has every parent, or just me, felt mortified by their children’s words?! This evening, I took C and J to Walmart to buy groceries, etc. As I have previously mentioned, C and J are in this “crazy” word phase. My mom has told them to say “pretty” instead of “crazy.” Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.
In the refrigerator area, I was looking at the cartons of eggs when J mentioned that he “smell sometin.” I made the mistake of telling him that the smell was stinky. I thought this would end the discussion. Oh, no… The smell was from a man that was previously looking at the cartons of eggs as well. He had a distinct cigarette odor. The boys and I selected our eggs, and then proceeded to get milk with no further discussion. At the butter section, up pops little C’s loud mouth. With a pointing finger he points to the gentleman that we noticed at the eggs and says “that’s the stinky man.” I told C that we don’t talk about people and hopefully the man didn’t overhear.
Walking, walking, walking, putting items in the cart… J starts saying “crazy” among other icky phrases. C pipes up and says “pretty.” Sweet C. Unfortunately as we were meeting head-on and passing a rather large woman, J loudly says to either me or to brother C, “you not pretty.” I sincerely hope the woman didn’t think he was talking about her. I sincerely hope he was not talking about her! It was another good teaching moment to let J and C know that others listen when they talk and they should always say nice things.
Before they could unnerve me anymore (or anyone else), I quickly finished shopping and left. Not before the elderly checkout lady commented that it was a good thing that God gave children to young people and not to old people since younger people had the patience to deal with them… She said “if I had kids now, I would be in jail.” Think they were too whiny and loud in the checkout line?!
I am so glad to be home. Is having food worth so much of a challenging experience - for me and others? I think I’ll quit eating for awhile. Maybe the food I have purchased tonight will last longer so I don’t have to return to Walmart soon…