Are you kidding me????

"Do you always make a habit . . .", that's how she opened the conversation. That's how this little comment started that has me ridiculously angry today.

Okay - I know I am way behind on writing about our summer so far. I suck. In my defense, I have spent the last two weeks dealing with one sick kid and then another. This last week has been brutal and last night was the first time in over a week that I got a solid 8 hours of shut eye. And I still want to tell you about all of the fun stuff too, but right now I am FUMING and I could not wait even one more minute to vent about my frustration today!!!

Because Riley was seriously contagious this week, we had to put off our weekly visit to see Tyler in Denton until today. However, now that we have successfully kept down (I am soooo tired of bodily fluids, I can't even tell you!) antibiotics for 48 hours, we could make the trip. Tyler's been gone 2 weeks and it feels like 2 months. The kids are antsy, they miss him. Well, we all do, but this is the 9th summer Tyler has gone off with his dad and I am pretty used to it now. I just push through and look forward to my weekly visit with him, counting down the days with the boys until he comes back home.

We left early this morning and made a trip out to Irving for cousin Liz to give Scooter and Riley much needed haircuts and then we drove to Denton and picked Tyler up from his Mimi's house. It was a light visit. I was bringing him his brand new upgraded phone and we planned to have lunch and then visit Sprint to have his contacts moved over to the new device. We decided to eat at Applebee's. I probably only eat at Applebee's once or twice a year and it's always when I visit Tyler in Denton. We've been going there on these visits since he was 3, it's kind of a tradition.

We arrived at 11 a.m., early lunch, and the place was dead. We got a booth and the kids spent the first ten minutes amusing themselves. Riley was playing Angry Birds on my phone, Scooter was doing a maze on his activity sheet and Tyler was busy exploring his new phone. We decided on food, made our order and settled in for an hour with each other.

I am not saying that my kids were perfect - they are kids. However, they were very well behaved for the most part. There were a few moments at the start where Riley kept saying he wanted an apple for lunch since there was an apple logo on everything and he hammed it up for a bit when he liked our reactions and all of us telling him they didn't actually have apples. The two little boys spent some of our food waiting time playing under the table in our booth, but then hopped up to enjoy their lunch when it arrived. Surely, they were rambunctious and we weren't the quietest table in the joint, but we weren't the loudest either. There was a table full of businessmen in the bar area that were laughing hysterically and loudly.

My kids stayed in the booth and acted in an age appropriate manner at the table. They didn't scream or throw fits or bother anyone that I could tell. I did offer a heartfelt apology to the one fellow customer we interacted with when we got there as Riley had dropped his menu over the back of the booth and next to this gentleman while he climbed into our seat. The man said it wasn't a problem, made a comment about his own grandchildren and then asked how old my boys are before turning back to his lunch. Anyway - it was normal and fun. The boys jumped together for a photo and Aunt Asheley called me during lunch and both Tyler and Riley spoke quietly to her for a few minutes. Actually, their voices for that call were probably lower than my own.

Just after I asked for the check and we boxed up our leftovers, the kids started getting antsy and tried to leave the booth. I quietly asked Scooter to sit back down and Riley tried to fight me, but I picked him up and whispered in his ear that if he didn't behave himself I would take him to the bathroom for a spanking. He immediately got quiet and sat next to me while I fished for my debit card. And that's when it happened.

This little older couple, probably in their late 60's or early 70's, toddled by. (Yeah, sorry, not gonna filter on this because my opinion of them is extremely low right now - they were toddling.) The woman made a point of stopping next to the table and turning to speak to me.

"Do you always make a habit of ruining other people's dining experiences?"

And then she kept on walking. I sat there for about 20 seconds with my mouth hanging open before I replied 'Are you serious?' Then, her husband who was walking behind her turned around and said 'Yes, she's very serious' with this nasty little expression on his face and then they walked off.

Ooooooh, I was steaming. There was a huge part of me that wanted to jump up and follow this couple and give them a serious piece of my mind. I would have 10 years ago, maybe even 5 years ago. But not today. Today I took a big breath and tried to shake it off and turned back to my kids. That's when I saw Tyler's face and he was ticked off big time. So instead of blowing up at misguided strangers, I worked on calming my son down. Scooter asked to go to the bathroom and I sent Tyler off with him to the restroom while I stayed with Riley and waited for my card receipt. As I was signing and chatting with the waitress, she told me that she hoped we both enjoyed our new phones (it was kind of obvious we were excited about them) and I just asked her straight out if we had bothered other people during our lunch. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, 'No, I've had a lot of tables with kids that are not good, your kids were fine, they were really good.'

As we were leaving, I was trying to explain to Tyler that their comment had little to do with us and more to do with them. They were obviously bitter, unhappy people. And then I remembered that I had seen where they were sitting. I had left the little ones with Tyler while I ran to the bathroom when we first arrived. (Can I just say how awesome it is to have a big kid? He can't be responsible for everything yet, but he can definitely handle the boys for 2 minutes while I go pee!!! And the place was pretty quiet, only 2 or 3 other booths filled at that time.) Anyway, on my way back to the table, I saw this couple being sat at their table. It wasn't anywhere near our table. In fact, to come by our booth on their way out, they actually had to take a very indirect, out of the way, route to get to the door. They should have just walked across the bar area instead of up and down steps to come the long way around by us.

Granted - we could have been louder than I thought if we bothered them way over there, but I don't think so. After all, it's not like you hear everyone's conversation at tables that are even right next to you usually. These people were probably 6 tables and 2 rows away from us. Even though it was quiet when we arrived, the lunch rush had hit and the entire restaurant had filled up and gotten much louder. My kids weren't yelling or anything - they had to just be annoyed that I had kids there in general. And the people around us didn't seem to notice us at all. Maybe I'm delusional, but I think these people were just what my mom would call 'crotchety'. Icky, cranky, bitter, miserable people who must have had some terrible kind of life that they can't just let kids be kids at lunch.

I stayed calm for Tyler who told me he was 'really offended', but I admit I was just as mad - if not more. I wanted to tell those people that if they didn't want to dine around kids they should pick a place to eat that wasn't family & kid friendly. It's not like I took my munchkins to a 5-star steak place at 8:00 at night where I would expect perfect behavior if I even dared take a minor. And trust me, I wouldn't take a 3 year old there anyway! It's Applebee's for goodness sake! Kids aren't always going to be perfect in a restaurant, but you have to keep taking them so that you can teach them how to behave and what is and is not appropriate behavior in public. And really, what was the point? Why did they NEED to say something so badly? They went out of their way to tell me that my kids-being-kids was rude and disruptive when it wasn't to anyone but them.

Looking back, I know that I wouldn't normally let my kids play under the table if Scott was there to help, but those were probably their quietest moments of the day. Riley was definitely not very quiet when he was going on about the apple, but that was before the cranky duo arrived. Other than those two things, I can't figure out what they were so riled up about. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I am going to go heat up a cup of coffee and hang out with Scooter for a while since Riley is napping. I am going to thank God with every breath in my body for my three amazing, wonderful, beautiful children and their fabulous, miraculous, stupendous NORMALNESS. I am also going to pray that whatever else happens to me in this life, that I remember until I am cold in the grave how wonderful it is when kids are kids. I pray that I am the kind of old people that my grandparents were, grinning at every kid and baby they saw, and not like these people were - bitter and miserable and itching for peace and quiet in a public place.

Alrighty then - that's my vent! Done!

God Bless and Have a Great Day!