I Can Make a Great First Impression!

Amanda on May 8th, 2008

So, I’m in Target with my kids, Molly is screaming in the cart because she wants to get out and run away. Dylan SO badly wants a Star Wars toy that he is breaking down in the middle of the underwear/bra section. I am praying for some divine intervention. But I do need to do a little bit of discipline here. So I am trying to give my son a time out inside the basket part of the cart next to his screaming sister, and trying to reason with my 2 year old daughter. My voice was a little louder than it normally is, I’m sure I was a sight to see. It was awesome! And a lady approaches me and asks, “Are you Pastor Maguire’s wife?”.

Crap. This is a perfect time for a first meeting from someone from the church. I said, “Yes.” And then she just said, “It’s nice to put a face with a name.” And she walked away. What? Oh great, that’s just the “face” I want her remember. I wanted to run after her and say, “I’m really a great mom, I’m so nice, I tell my kids i love them ALL the time, and I clean up real good I promise!” But I didn’t. Oh well, what can you do?

Discuss (7)

jessicasheets.com at 7:11pm May 8

This post is awesome! I empathize with you completely and know that you are not alone!:-) That lady may respect you more for attempting to discipline in public instead of not doing anything at all–I know my grandma always appreciated that.

My daughter threw a fit in Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago. Of course she got reprimanded, but apparently she wasn’t through with testing me that day. At one point she even yelled, “Help!” because she was trying to get out of the cart, but all I could think of was what a passer-by would think I was doing to my two-year old! She had already thrown about five things out of the cart whenever there was no one to talk to in the aisles (she would whine until someone would approach her and then she would instantly stop and be all smiles–I was not amused, but I digress.) I was at my limit. I went to get a frozen pizza because I was worn out already and knew I didn’t want to think about dinner when…it happened! I turned to reach into the freezer just in time to hear a box hit the floor and pasta noodles exploding all over. “Noodles! Oh No!” my daughter exclaims and I had to hold my tongue so I wouldn’t exclaim anything!!!! Yeah, I just looked around, bent down to pick up what I could and prayed no one from church was there. We had already talked to one church member not ten minutes before but she missed the show–Praise the Lord! I pretty much left after that–with half my stuff still to get. Needless to say we skipped the free cookie at the bakery.

Deanna at 5:44am May 17

I recently discovered your blog! Thank you! I’m loving it and can SO relate! My husband was in youth ministry for 13 years and is currently serving in Family and Children’s Ministry. We have two boys (5 and 2), and I can’t begin to count the number of times I have thought “Please behave, please behave….” However, our 5-year old has shoved me out of the mold of putting on a show and acting like we have it altogether (dang…. he just won’t comply with faking it! HA!) In fact, I just got a call from his Sunday morning small group leader, to discuss what “we” can do to help (yep, because he is getting bored and acting out behaviorally). So hard to get calls like that….

BUT…. I have realized that it is much more helpful for people to see that we are REAL than that we have it all together (they know better anyway!) That we still have hard days with our kids. That we adore each other, but ARE still a “normal” married couple. I find that people are much more willing to approach me with their issues when they’ve seen mine firsthand!