Thursday, June 5, 2008

The Russian Roulette of Parenting

So. I've been taking the kiddos to story time at the library for several weeks now. To be honest, it's a very treacherous situation. Taking two toddlers to a LIBRARY seems just plain stupid if you think about it. And our library is about as big as a double-wide, so there's not exactly room for a double stroller. This means that two toddlers are free to roam around until Ms. Donna starts playing her drum and we're allowed inside the magical story room. How do you explain to an 18 month old that the books in the bins on the carpet are fine to touch, but the ones on the shelves are not? And, why wouldn't it be fun to climb to the top of the step stools and stand there like king on the mountain??

I was a nervous wreck the first time we went to story time. And this is LAPSIT story time-all the kids are under the age of 3! You would expect some inherent chaos from a situation like this, but it is no consolation when your kids are the ones creating it. I have found that we are working on an every other week rotation of good behavior. And, it seems every other child is, too. I think this is to prevent any parent from getting too puffed up about how well their child behaved at story time. And, believe me, in motherhood you don't get props very often for all of your hard work, so you'll take it where you can get it-even if it's from yourself! Ha!

Two weeks ago at story time Drew and Lyla were amazing. They sat and listened. They sang songs and did motions. Drew even caught on to saying "Duh, duh, duh" for the sound of a "D". (Which he does now anytime he sees any letter!) I was feeling proud. Especially when the kid beside us stood up and completely took his pants off. Just standing there in his Thomas the Tank Engine undies. Well, I thought, at least my kids don't take their pants off!!

It is exactly this kind of thinking that gets a mom into trouble. Skip to yesterday. Oh boy. It was the start of the summer program and as a special event they invited the guy from the main library who works with the deaf and hard of hearing. He brought in a giant structure of an ear and proceeded to try to explain to this wily bunch why people are deaf. Now, I'm not making excuses, but is it any wonder he lost the crowd with this one??? Drew and Lyla can point to their ears, but past that...nada. Things started unraveling fast as Lyla took her shoes off and tried to climb underneath the table cloth on a nearby table. Shortly thereafter I tried to move Drew back on to my lap. He got mad and chucked one of Lyla's shoes right at the kid behind us. Oh. My. Gosh. Talk about humiliated!! It's amazing how many things can go through your mind at once. "Didhereallyjustdothat/I'mgonnakillhim/Iamsoembarrassed/WhatdoIdo?" I profusely apologized to the mom behind me.
I'm pretty sure she was sitting there thinking, "Well at least my kids don't throw shoes!" Good luck, lady. We'll see next week!

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