A Pat On The Back

Yesterday we planned to take a trip to IKEA today. We got up and got ready this morning with the goal of getting to IKEA and shopping and then eating lunch in the little cafe. I was pleasantly surprised when everything went according to plan. I like having a plan and following it. The kids were great and behaved wonderfully! By the end of our shopping time they were getting hungry and a restless. The line for the cafe wasn't too bad, but all the seats were taken. I stood by with Levi in my arms and the older kids, the umbrella stroller and all our items (including a rug) filling up the double stroller. I watched for the first sign of someone finishing their food to pounce on a table (yes, I was that person..). A family left a ton of trash and very dirty table behind so after finding a place to park the stroller I got  the kids in their chairs and started to clean up someone else's mess. Jordan got all the food and brought it to us, and then of course Jayden needed to go potty. So I ran him to the bathroom and when we came back I had him take off his coat. As I was going to put it in the stroller another family who had no chairs was trying to stand by the table I had the stroller parked near. I apologized for my stroller being in the way and told her if I could find another place for it I would move it, but there just isn't anywhere for it to go. She complained to her husband that I was hogging two spaces and after he apologized to me they left. Not gonna lie, it took a lot for me to just shut up and go back to my table. As I stood and ate my food I noticed a man sitting alone at a table full of drinks and cinnamon rolls. We ate our food and again the kids were doing great, so we got them the ice cream cones we had been bribing them with all day. A woman sitting near us complimented us on how well our kids were behaved. She told us that "we run a tight ship"...

Before I had kids I kind of knew I would be a strict parent. It annoyed me when kids misbehaved and didn't obey their parents. I can't stand when kids are disrespectful to their parents! I would watch other parents with their kids and make mental notes on things I would do and wouldn't do. Since we became parents at 21 years old, I feel like we have something to prove to people. It's been a struggle for me because when someone praises us for doing a good job it boosts my pride a little bit, but when someone looks down on us for the way our kids are behaving it knocks me down twice as much. 

Back to IKEA... as we were cleaning up our mess and getting the kids ready to go the gentleman that was sitting near us stood up and shook Jordan's hand. He told Jordan that he had to congratulate him on how well behaved our children were. He has 4 young kids of his own and knows what a handful they can be and just wanted to tell him we are doing a good job. Then he gave Jordan a pat on the back.

It felt so good for a complete stranger to acknowledge all our hard work. Parenting is hard... Discipling is hard.. Keeping our word is hard... But today just showed me how it will all pay off!!