After dropping Zman off at the airport Sunday morning for a business trip, I took the kids out for breakfast at a local greasy-spoon type breakfast. This isn’t something we indulge in very often since eating out a lot is expensive and when we do eat out I like to eat semi-eatable food, something that can be hard to come by at a greasy-spoon dinner, but the girls were feeling sad that daddy was leaving and a pile of artery clogging bacon can cheer anyone up.

When we were almost finished with our meal, two couples were sat across from us with one infant boy of about one. They paid nice compliments to my cute son, always appreciated, and then proceeded to have a conversation about me as if I couldn’t hear them the jist of which was that apparently I have too many kids or at least two many kids to be out in public with them by myself.

Now, I’m not the kind of person who really cares what other people think about me or my business so their comments didn’t hurt any feelings or cause any reaction from me other than some covert eye rolling, but it did make me wonder a couple of things.

First- What about my beautiful, very well behaving (for a change) children would cause them to think I had more children then I can handle? Sure, Zboy was getting pretty fidgety there at the end, but that’s pretty normal for a 16 month old, for who 45 minuets of sitting in one place is excruciating. Surely people who had an infant of their own would be familiar with the limited attention span of that age group. My girls were being angels, cutting there own food (something we have been working on), eating well, coloring quietly, and NOT fighting with one another. There have been times when I’ve been out with the kids alone when I’m sure it appears that I have more than I can handle, like when I have 2 out of 3 melting down and am clearly frazzled, but this was not one of those times.

Second - Since when has 3 kids been a lot? Sure, it’s more than one but is not, in my opinion, a big family. Maybe I have a squeued view on the subject since my mom is the oldest of eight children and a lot of those aunts and uncles have 4 kids. I also read a lot of blog of women who have 8 + kids which, in my view qualifies as a large family.

Third- When has it become ok to make derogatory remarks about some one when you know that they can hear you? Sure, there have been times when I’m out somewhere with Zman and I see something that raises my eyebrows but IF I feel compelled to comment on it, which is rare because I’m of the live and let live philosophy, then I will say something quietly when I know the person in question can’t overhear me. Is this kind of rudeness now acceptable? If so, I definitely have some things to say to people in the future!

When we were gathering our things to go, they turned back to me. They watched Zboy walking around as I dug under the table for his truck, and asked his age and mentioned that their son wasn’t walking yet. I told them not to rush it as I chased Zboy down as he tried to sweet talk some other diners out of some more bacon, things get more challenging when they can escape I joked.

With the captured boy under one arm, I made sure Princess had her drawing and Cookie had her jacket and book. I gathered Zboy’s retrieved truck and book and gently ushered us all to the front to pay while both girls wrangled for pennies to “feed” the little robot they have there. With one had full of toys and a baby on my hip, I paid the bill, fished out some change for the girls, and wished our “seating companions” a nice breakfast. As we were leaving I heard one of the women say, “If I had that many children, I’d never leave the house by myself,” and I had to smile.

Juggling the needs and wants of three kids is a challenge but I think I’m up to the task.

Just call me Supermom!!

posted at 9:02 AM  
Labels: Kids, Parenting