Good Kids

We had a fantabulous 4th of July Weekend. The weather was awesome and the company was great. My friend Harriet and I talked about the kiddos a lot. We get ideas from each other as do most moms. When walking on the beach one morning we were talking about how hard it is to make your kids obey, not whine, stop fighting, clean up, be respectful..etc. It is certainly a full-time job and one that is exhausting sometimes. Harriet kept saying that she felt like she was constantly getting onto the kids. Anyways, it does pay off and we experienced that twice over the weekend. When you go somewhere with six kids you get lots of looks especially when you have a baby and a two year old. People usually clear the room or wish they were almost done with their food so they could get up out of that restaurant before we all walk in. We got comments like "wow look at all the ducklings" or "is this two families I hope?" We walked into this restaurant on the last day we were there (I'd like to add that we had been holding the kids off from eating b/c we were cleaning the condo, it was like 2:30 and they were starving) and a middle aged couple made some comment like "look at all the kids." They said they were cute and that we certainly needed two tables. They commented that they had four kids and 13 grandchildren. Our five big kids sat at one table and the grown ups sat at a table directly behind them. Baby Molly fell asleep in her car seat carrier sitting in a chair beside me. When the older couple started to leave they got up and came over to our table. The gentleman said, we just wanted you to know that all of your children are very well behaved and so respectful. He said they had been watching us and that one could tell we had done a good job and to keep up the good work. It made us all smile and we bragged on the kids. WOW I guess all the correcting and disciplining does pay off. At the end of the meal another table of ladies said to us as we were walking out, "Your kids are all so cute and so well behaved." It meant so much to all of us that total strangers would notice! And the kids were really well behaved and we were very proud. My mother has always said that you know if you are doing a good job by how your children act when you (the mother or father) are not around or when you are out in public. My mom always says that my children are great until I walk in the house :) So yeah it is hard work but it does pay off sometimes and John and I made a promise that when we are older and have grandchildren ourselves that we will make a point to tell parents "good job" when we see kids that are well behaved.