That Mom

If you happened to be in a certain Super Target in Colorado Springs this morning, I'm sure you would have recognized me as That Mom.

You know, That Mom with the wild-eyed 6-year-old who refuses to walk near the shopping cart or hold his mom's hand as their walking from the car to the store entrance. That Mom with 2 other little boys she's trying to wrangle while she deals with the wiley 6-year-old. That Mom who really, really just wants to get the grocery shopping done as quickly as possible, but who realizes that the 6-year-old needs some in-store disciplinary action. That Mom who has no idea where or how she's going to give a time-out inside of a grocery store, but she has to figure out some way because she's not going home (she needs groceries!) and she's not going to let the 6-year-old keep misbehaving. That Mom who spots the Starbucks inside the store and heads to an empty table to turn a chair around, facing the wall, so she can administer the time-out. That Mom whose 6-year-old *will not* sit in the chair and do a time-out. That Mom who must hold her 6-year-old in her lap in a bear hug so he has some semblance of a time out. That Mom whose 6-year-old hits her after his lap timeout is over. That Mom who decides to pull out the Big Guns and reward the other 2 kids with strawberry smoothies from Starbucks since they have been behaving very well. That Mom whose 6-year old now throws an even bigger tantrum because he lost out on his smoothie privilege for bad behavior. That Mom who is encouraged by an older Mom watching from the sidelines in Starbucks who has been there and done that (God bless her!).


That Mom who walks wearily, but calmly, out of the Starbucks, with 2 very happy kids sucking contentedly on their smoothies, and one very tear-stained and loud 6-year-old, and gets every last thing on her shopping list (and then some). That Mom who finishes her shopping trip, with a now relatively calm 6-year-old and 2 other whipped-cream faced kids, only to hear her almost 2-year old ask "Cookie?" as she loads the groceries into the van. That Mom who searches the cart and car and realizes that his Cookie blanket has been lost somewhere in the vast jungle that is Super Target, and she really does need to go back in and find it or there will be heck to pay later. That Mom who reloads the kids back into the shopping cart, heads back into the store, and retraces her steps in the store .... and finds the lost blanket in the meat department -- hooray!

I know all Moms have their That Mom moments. Today was one of my toughest, but I think after 6 years of parenting, I'm finally getting the hang of the calm-and-tough-but-loving routine. No matter how much I wanted to cry or run away or just give up and go home, I managed to keep a cool exterior and do what needed to be done, despite the very public venue (I don't think I made eye contact with anyone in that Starbucks, though!). I actually feel like I handled it in the best possible way and it worked -- after Jack's meltdown, he managed to pull himself together and behave for the rest of the trip. Thank God for the graces to get through my That Mom moment today, and for all the many, many times when it's not my turn to be That Mom :).