today was NOT one of those days!
i decided to sign my littlest ones up for story time at the library. a chose a time when andrew was at school, so i only had the three littlest with me. i attempted our first story time last week and it did not go well. i should have accepted it and moved on. but, no. i chalked it up to it being their first time. now they will know what to expect. they will be perfect angels this time.
why didn't someone just knock some sense into me?
so, there i am. henry is in the baby bjorn attached to my front. ryan and veronica "sitting" on either side of me.
so far, so good.
ten seconds later.....ryan starts to scream. high pitched screams. over and over and over. this is new. brand new. where did this come from? why now? why at story time...in the LIBRARY!?!? he thought it was histerical....ignoring my threats of a time out. he finally stopped when he found something slightly more interesting to do. nope, not listen to the story or sing the songs. nope. playing with my wallet is much more fun than that. taking out my phone, credit card, important papers. why not?
as if all this disruption isn't enough, i have veronica on the other side of me making just as much of a problem. she wanted a granola bar. i said no. she threw a fit. full out fit. yelling "NOOOOOO" repeatedly. rolling on the ground. yelling some more. (on a side note, she doesn't at all like granola bars. she takes a bite and spits it out every time.)
then, they start fighting. over what i don't even know. the nametags i think. so, now i have the misbehaving children that also fight.
why are kids always the worst behaved at the most inappropriate times? is it to embarrass me? becuase really, they do not act like this all the time.
i can't leave. i am on the complete opposite side of the room as the door. i did this on purpose because last week, the kids were trying to escape. it seems that every other child in the room is quietly sitting on their mother's lap, listening to the story, singing the songs, smiling. they may as well all have little halos above their heads. i just keep praying that it would be over soon so we could leave.
it ends.
all the children go to get their stickers, i collect my things. the door opens. ryan runs out. i grab veronica's hand to go catch up to ryan before he starts taking books off the shelf. however, each and every other parent has now beat me to the door and are slowly piling out with their darling little angels. don't they remember that i am the one with the crazy little ones? don't they realize i need to LEAVE!?!?!
luckily i get out the door and ryan has not gone far and not done anything distructive. i grab veronica's hand to walk out the door and she throws herself to the ground, screaming, once again. seems that i was holding the hand with the sticker on it. how dare i!!! so, i pick her up and attempt to get out of there as quickly as possible.
so now, i have henry still in the bjorn (by the way, he was a perfect little baby. i think he was feeling sorry for me.) i am holding the diaper bag over my shoulder, and holding veronica on one hip. i let go of ryan's hand to open the door. he starts running toward the parking lot. now, i know this sounds dangerous, but there are steps and concrete before you get to the parking lot. so, i had time to get ry-guy. i, obviously would not have let him get to the street without me.
then, a little old lady stops me to ask how old beautiful little veroncia is. really? "two" i say politely as i start walking faster to catch up to ryan. then, spotting ryan running toward the street, the nice lady decides to start yelling at me...loudly......"grab his hand!!! you HAVE to hold his hand!!! grab him!!!!"
ok, really? i'm not going to let him go in the street without me. i am going to hold his hand. please lady, don't make this harder on me.
i get ryan's hand and we walk to our van. i hear the little old lady yell from behind me...."have a nice day!". i manage to utter "you too."
so, needless to say, that will be our last story time for a while. i think we will stick to reading books at home.
Oh Rayna, been there, done that! When Mark was 2 or 3 months old I was determined to start our library time again with Julia like we did the year before...how hard could this be, with a mellow newborn and a well behaved 21 month old, right, I wanted a nice Fall routine? Wrong! Mark was mellow, but Julia began getting up during the story, misbehaving, wanting her juice or a snack when it's not allowed...and after 2 times of trying I did exactly what you did. I stopped going for a few months, and it was a huge relief! We started back up a few months later (winter time) closer to home and it was much better! I'm praying for you sweet friend! You are my hero!
ReplyDeleteRayna,
ReplyDeleteThe library is off limits to my kids when I am the only one with them. I will take 2 max alone, without another adult. We have done story time MAYBE 2 times, when I had only two kids WAY back in the olden days. Storytimes, I swear, are for people with only children who have the maturity levels 2 years above the age the storytime is designated for. My oldest is old enough that he gets the honor of going into the library on his own now - grabbing the items in the hold section and checking them out, then running back to us waiting at the van. He is very proud of this and the rest of us don't have to step foot in the library. We LIVE by putting a zillion things on hold.
Oh and the old lady thing, yeah, I get that all the time. If I were in Kazakhstan I'd get it 10xs more (why isn't that child wearing a hat - he'll freeze to death!), so I try to remember that. When my kids were still in diapers, I would secretly hope I'd have an experience with a "kind advice-giver" while I was changing a messy poopy diaper. I fantasized about passing her the diaper, not nicely folded up like I can do with two hands tied behind my back, but in its full, open, glorious form, and saying something to the effect of, "Since you are such an expert and I'm obviously a retarded mom, I'm sure you know best what to do with this." Isn't that evil of me?!?! Oh and I've gotten very assertive as the years have gone on - for instance, with the situation at the door w/the slow parents, I would have loudly said, while nosing my way through the crowd, tugging my other children along behind me, "I'm so sorry, I don't mean to be pushy, but I had my child, you know the one who was distracting you all during the storytime, run out of the room ahead of this mob. If I don't get to him soon, he may destroy the whole children's section and therefore ruin any opportunity for future storyhours for anyone." The idea is to ramble creatively so you get both giggles and pity from the other moms. That way they don't mind your forcefulness and may even give you a hand later when you are at the door to leave the library itself and your other kid drops and breaks the bag of books you just checked out.
The best experience I had lately was at our awesome grocery store where the employees bend over backward to be super helpful. We got to the checkout area and my kids were climbing all over the cart, as usual (I swore I would never bring all 5 to the grocery store alone once I had 5 - haha, the grocery store is NOT like the library - optional, when you need more food essentials, you need them!!!), begging me for pennies for the horse, etc. The bagger said really loudly, "Geesh big families are SO obnoxious!" You could have heard a pin drop. The manager happened to be standing there, so it was him, the checker, the other checker in the aisle next to us and some other customers. The mouths were hanging open and the manager looked like he was going to blow his top. I busted up laughing and coudln't stop for a minute....no one but the bagger and my kids and I knew that the bagger was a close friend of the family. He's a teen who looks and, at first glance, acts just like quite the rebel, so it was SUCH a perfect moment for us all. The palatable relief of the staff (manager especially) when we established that we were friends and I was far from offended continued our laughter. So I wish for you that you will always see the funny side, and always know that the Lord is with you....and His angels are busy protecting you all from even bigger messes!
So long enough comment, huh?! Many blessings to you, sister. You are doing a great job!!!
Love,
Shan
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ReplyDeleteLOL I laugh b/c storytime was a fail for us too. I stupidly took her to the one at Barnes and Noble, b/c there is a "craft."
ReplyDeleteMaggie answers to no one. She is a free spirit. Well Miss Free Spirit is in awe of all of the amazing books around her (they sit in the children's book section), Dora, Tinkerbell, The Princesses, Olivia...it's almost too much to handle. Oh wait, it was too much to handle. She's taking books down, at first I let this go on b/c hey she's being quiet at least. Then she's handing books out to other kids!!!! Christ almighty, let's just start a chorus of meltdowns when the books are ripped out of multiple children's hands. I put all the books back when it's time to do the craft, Maggie is not happy. I have her do the craft which is coloring and making finger puppets. I hand her her finger puppet, she looks me dead in the eye and tears it into a million pieces. WHile I'm cleaning up she makes a beeline to grab more books. Meltdown, kicking screaming, leaving empty handed...All the while Jack was quiet in his stroller, thankfully!!
Then, I was a gluten for punishment and tried the following week. Needless to say the craft met the same fate.
I feel like CJ (and TJ) loved storytime. Loved the library. Was I delusional or is it a first child right of passage??
Our library is having a Gymboree session next week during storytime so we may attempt that. To be continued lol