Tonight, we were “that” family at Target.
You know the one. The family that just projects noise like we have an amplifier following us. The family with two kids an hour before bedtime exhausted from a day of activities — and it showed.
And I will not apologize. Not tonight.
I’m tired of feeling bad. I’m tired of worrying about what other people think. Im tired of expecting my kids to act like mini-grown ups all the time. And I’m tired of explaining myself and my family.
My family is loud. My kids are a lot. My oldest lives life like a human tornado and my youngest is trying to live out his Olympic dreams with aisle sprints and shopping cart gymnastics, apparently.
And I’m just trying my best every day. It’s what a mom does.
I’m not going to hide us in a bubble because we sometimes make a scene. Im not going to thrust a tablet in their face every time folks start giving us looks. My kids need to have life experiences like the rest of us. The fun stuff AND the monotonous.
And anyways, who made the rules that kids should be seen and not heard? Or that kids should stay still and seated for long periods of time?
It’s asinine, it’s antiquated, and we need to do better. My kids are loud, active, and fun loving. One is neuro divergent and one just lives life on his own terms. And that doesn’t automatically make them brats or spoiled, or whatever else people might think as we steamroll past them in the paper aisle. It simply makes them kids.
As we reached the cash register, my youngest insisted on putting everything on the conveyor belt himself.
Since no one was behind us, I agreed and took a moment to breathe it all in as my son carefully reached into the cart to grab each item — one…at…a…time, like a scene in slow motion.
The young woman at the cash register smiled at me and giggled a friendly “no worries, mama! It’s all good.”
The knot in my stomach lifted. She gets it.
A lot of people get it. And while we tend to focus on the rotten apples, the truth is most people understand or don’t care.
And thank goodness, because today I will not apologize. It’s been a long day and we are all doing the best we can.
And that’s enough.
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