Sunday, May 17, 2009

Marissa, this one's for you (and everyone who has lost a child in a store)

Yesterday my sister and I loaded up all the kids and ran some errands.  One of them was a much needed trip to Sam's Club.  For the most part, we were doing well in the store.  We'd have the occasional, "Where's so-in-so?" and we'd find them looking at an end cap or standing in front of those demonstrators with the food samples.  We finally made it to the register and then the door....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, yup, all kids counted for.  We get to the car, get the groceries loaded into the trunk and do a final check for seat belts.  Wait, where's Aiden?  Not playing in the front seats of the van, not in Nichole's car and he's not walking on the lines that make up the parking spaces, which he loves to do.  I go back into Sam's and the woman at the exit asks what I needed and I said, "My son."  She tells me to wait right where I was and gets on her radio.  Meanwhile, I'm scanning all the check-out lanes and a man getting ready to walk out the door says, "There he is," and points.  I see one of the workers holding him, don't even thank the gentleman for pointing Aiden out and start walking towards him.  The lady at the door tells me I can go ahead and go on over there.  Ummm, thanks lady.  The woman holding him had put him down in a chair with a pen and pad of paper.  There were about 5 or 6 employees all circled around him, staring at me as I walked up.  One woman said she had begun to worry because she had already sent out two pages through the store.  I thanked her and said Aiden's name.  He turned around and I asked, "What are you doing?" and he said very innocently, "Nothing," giving me this huge smile.  Everyone laughed, which broke the tension and all the employees turned around and went back to work.  Of course, now I feel like this horrible mom.  We are never going shopping with seven kids again.

3 comments:

Marissa said...

Isn't that the scariest feeling in the world?! Ugh, so glad everything turned out ok. Whew. I don't have that excuse though - I only had two with me when I lost Mister.....

Natalie Wagner said...

When I was in preschool, and we would go on field trips, the teacher had a rope with one knot for each child to hold on to. You just had to hold onto your knot. The teacher could immediately tell if someone was missing, if there was a knot empty. Might be a bit embarrassing for Shannon and Bryson, but maybe you could do something similar with the little ones. You aren't going to be able to avoid shopping with all of them all together. Sometimes it has to be done. Think outside the box. There is always a solution to any problem. Deep breath. In with the good, out with the bad.

Natalie Wagner said...

P.S. Losing a child has nothing to do with you being a good or bad mother. Children are curious and easily distracted. It happens to everyone at one time with more than one child.