Feature
November, 14 2008
The Beauty of Separate
by Lisa's Pieces
Happy Friday, MommyTalkers!
If anyone is like me and has more than one child, you'll relate to the revelation I had the other day.
On Saturdays, my daughter has ballet class in the morning. Usually I take her, but unlike most weeks, I hadn't done my food shopping during the week and needed to get to the grocery store. My daughter wanted my husband to take her for a change anyway, so they went off to ballet and I decided to (bravely) take my son to the grocery store with me.
Now, I've done food shopping alone and I've done it with both kids. When I take both kids, I want to stab my eyes by the third aisle. They usually cry and carry on until I get them one of those carts that has a car attached to it and I've made the mistake a few times of obliging, only to have them scrambling out of it every time the cart stops and/or pushing and shoving each one of the other one's side. Needless to say, when we do go now and I have both kids, the little guy is in the front seat of the regular cart and my daughter either stands on the back or walks with us. The old ShopRite we went to before we moved had the double seated fronts, but it was a brand new store and I have yet to find those in my new neighborhood.
So, I venture out with my 2-1/2-year old son alone to ShopRite, fully expecting life to be horrible. As I went through the store, my cutie was helping me pick stuff out and gladly hoarding every item he could possibly fit up into the front part of the cart (a/k/a his lap). I got through aisle after aisle without any problems. I get to the checkout with my cart full of groceries. This is where my son usually starts pulling everything off the belt that I already put on and putting it back on the belt. This time, though, he caught the eye of a lovely lady in the next checkout who thought he was just the cutest thing (I must say I agree :). I couldn't believe how great he was being! I actually got out of there happy and content and made it home with no problems.
That's when my revelation occurred. When together, my children are demons. Cute ones, no less, but demons! Separate and alone, each of them is a wonderful perfect child. How does that happen? When they're in each other's company, I want to claw my eyes out after an hour of the screaming, pushing and fighting. I guess my solution is to spend time with each of them alone and relish in how wonderful they can be.
Bring on Thanksgiving! That ought to bring out the best in them!
