sometimes i feel like going to Walmart is a part-time job because of how long it takes to get through it with two children hanging off the cart.
seriously, if there is a purgatory, i think it is probably one GIANT Walmart with a huge shopping list and borrowed children that number in the 100s. you would literally be there for 600 years unless enough people prayed for your poor soul and you could start scratching things off the list. and then you'd roll up to the gates of heaven looking all haggard in your yoga pants with pasty skin and a greasy ponytail and be like, "now?? can i come in now?" maybe all the time i spend in Walmart now will cut a few days off for me later.
anyway, meanwhile... in Walmart.
sometimes when we are shopping and N is helping me 'push' the cart he nearly maims innocent passersby so i keep him on a pretty tight leash (metaphorically speaking). yesterday was no exception and as i stopped to pick out eggs, he kept pushing. when i told him to "stop, stay here" he started to swing the cart around into a suspecting woman- i say suspecting, because she seemed to anticipate her demise by cart pretty accurately. so i took two steps, grabbed the cart and repeated "stop, stay here" followed by "N, you are going to knock someone out if you are not careful" and then i hunched up my shoulders and turned ready to receive the stink eye from the suspecting woman.
only she smiled at me.
and then she said, "you are a good momma"
and i had no words. for once, someone was not judging a tired mom in a store with her stir-crazy kids? every time i am at the store i see some old lady stare down a young mom whose child is crying or whose kid is singing their ABCs a bit too loud (exhibit B is us) and it always makes me frown. and now i think i might be jaded, because for a second, i thought she was joking.
i am convinced that motherhood is the only job that if given a compliment on your skills, you just think someone is messing with you...
but i think maybe she was serious, and she can't possible know how good that felt or how i thought about it all evening long. i hope God was watching- surely that was good for a few years off my purgatory total :)
