I WAS LAUGHED AT TODAY

I was laughed at in the grocery store today.  I don't think it was a bad thing, but I could be wrong.  I wanted to go shopping by myself since I had to go to no less than five stores and get the baby's prescription.  BUT, when I announced it was time to head to town all of a sudden there were five kiddos in various stages of dress screaming on me to wait, they all wanted to go.  Needless to say I was delayed getting to town and had the kiddos with me trying to navigate the crowded grocery store.

We were down to our last few aisles.  What should have been a quick trip through Publix turned into almost an hour long ordeal.  For the most part the kiddos were good.  We had already been to the Dollar Tree and now we were in the grocery store.  I still needed to run by CVS and then Wal-Mart.  The kiddos, especially the younger two, were already at their shopping limit.  It was at this time that I was laughed at.

We were on the bread aisle.  I only needed to get peanut butter, bread, cheese, and bacon.  We were so close to being done.  I asked the kiddos to stay with the buggy so I could run back to get the buns we needed.  As I was walking back down the aisle, my precious Cole came running up behind me whining the whole way!  As politely as I could, I turned him around and said:

Son, I asked you to wait at the buggy.

I didn't ask you to whine and run after Mommy.

That's when it happened.  There was a woman standing next to me who burst into laughter.  She was laughing hard as she smiled at me.  All she said was: "I'm a Grandma now, I am long past this stage."  That's why I am not sure if she was laughing at me and if it was a good thing.

The simple truth is that one day, Lord willing, I will be alone in the grocery store.  I won't be buying five loaves of bread to feed five kiddos for three days.  I won't have two grocery buggy's full of food.  I will see a mother with young children, and I will smile, maybe even laugh because I will know that this time does pass.  More than that, I will know that these days pass by too quickly and it's okay to be laughed at in the store.