I am one to not usually complain about someone else's child or pass any judgement as to the parenting of another.
Milo's school had a free night at the Science Center. Unfortunately, my husband wasn't off work in time to go with us. My bright idea was to take my 3 lovely children by myself. Let me repeat that BY MYSELF LOL I don't expect children to be perfect and I definitely do not expect them to be good 100% of the time, but do expect them to be on their best behavior when out in public. The exception to this I guess would be my daughter since she is pretty young yet. Lost Madalynn right off the bat lol One minute she was behind me and the next she was gone. I knew I'd regret not taking her stroller.
Then I tried having them sit and watch the show *giggles* Surprisingly Milo did stay seated thru the entire show. And if you know my son, he never sits still.
Once the show was over, we decide to go up the escalator to the top floor first. Milo went right up and I was carrying Madalynn with Michael tagging along behind me. Michael is the type of child who is not afraid of anything. He will walk right up to a total stranger and give them a hug. He will jump off the top bunk bed if given the chance, so needless to stay it totally threw me for a loop when I turn around half way up the escalator to find my son laying on the ground crying that he's too scared to go up by himself.
Great.
And of course there is 2 sets of escalators you have to go on just to get to the top and no way to get back down the current one I was on to get my terrified son. Once at the top, I discover that I practically have to go to the other side of the floor just to get to some stairs to get back down to my son. I check on him and yell "Mommy's coming" but of course he did not hear me over the crowd of people who are also all parents and seem more than content to leave a little boy crying at the bottom of the stairs and not try to help in any way. It takes me a little bit to get Milo and get down the stairs to Michael.
We make our way to the escalator and HE'S GONE! No sign of him any where! SHIT! Some how I remain calm, probably more on the outside than I was on the inside, and we begin the half hour long search for Michael. We search all through down stairs and then back up stairs. The entire time I'm pushing the horrible thought that someone must have snatched up my incredibly adorable boy to keep for themselves. Come on? You all know the type of thoughts we parents have when one of our little ones wonder off.
He was no where to be found and I'm going in between panic and fuming. Panic cause I can't find my son and what a horrible mother I must be to loose him in the first place and how in the world would I not know that he'd be afraid of the damn escalator. Fuming cause I just can't understand why no one would question why a little boy would be wondering around by himself or if one did, why not page me.
And of course the entire time I'm trying to find Michael, poor Milo is trying to check everything out and not getting to since his mother is yelling at him to stay with her while she's frantically searching the missing son and determined not to loose the other one in the process.
I finally manage to convince Milo to head back down with me to the main doors where I know there are some teachers sitting and would most likely help in my search. I never felt as horrible as I did when I had to confess that I had lost one of my children and could not seem to locate him on my own. Thankfully, they did seem to understand. Maybe due to the fact that he is Milo's younger sibling.
I stayed by the main doors with the other 2 while this wonderful continued on with the search. She succeeded in where I had failed and returned with Michael. Just like I've hear my mother say before, I didn't know whether to hug or spank him.
So the majority of our time at the Science Center was spent in searches for kids, not the most fun experience in the world, but at least we still had a good half hour till the last bus went back to the school. We did happen to get a little bit out of the whole event, but sadly had to leave before any of us really were.
This whole rant explains the state my nerves and patience were in by the time we left on the bus.
Now, sitting on the bus, Milo decides to not listen to me and go to the back of the bus where there are older children, like 5th graders, and act out like they are. He did eventually sit still in his seat but take it all in. The entire time this smart mouth little girl keeps yelling over at me hey lady control your kids. I try my hardest to just ignore her, but it just adds to how I'm already feeling. Worst was that her parent didn't even address her about being rude to an adult.
I finally had enough and stood up and told her to knock it off and stop being so rude. Really what else could I have done?
We finally get to the school and the dumb little girl decides to say once again as we are all walking through the parking lot to each of our cars, "hey lady, control your kids". Thankfully, the other adult in the group she was in actually said something, but where was it from the beginning?
I'm not sure what I could have done differently or if there was anything I could have done. But never in my entire life (well so far at least) I have just wanted to grab someones child and spank them.
Where is the respect? I would never let my children speak to another adult in such a fashion. Am I just being old fashion?
If so, I'd rather be old fashion and have my children treat their elders with respect. My thoughts are, if they are taught respect, then how do we expect them to be respectful of their peers.
