My Name is Mommy

So, we go to the park today to meet some buddies. The kids have fun, it’s lunchtime. We often just pack up lunches or snacks, but not today. We all decide to go to McDonald’s together.

I’m looking for the tables first. There are 3 moms, with 7 kids between us (ages 1 through 5), for whom to find seats. A big task, but I’m up to the challenge.

This particular McD’s has a big, kind of separated, space in the middle. There is room for all of us there, but there is an older lady sitting by herself. In order to be POLITE and try to not bug her, I go out of my way to look for other seating that will accomodate us all. Surrounding this prime section of fast food real estate is a ring of booths. Booths that will not accomodate all of us. Booths and really high tables and chairs that, if we tried to seat our kids there, surely one will fall off of and break his/her head. Not gonna happen.

So, we head back to the prime seating in the middle. Mind you, the lady is sitting and reading the paper, apparently having eaten all her lunch. We seat 4 of the kids at one table, 3 sit with the mommies at another table. None of these tables is adjacent to said newspaper lady.

A few minutes after we’ve been sitting there, one of my mommy friends (have I mentioned lately how much I love my mommy friends? wouldn’t make it without them!) says, “Did you hear that (newspaper) lady? She got on her cellphone and was complaining to someone about all of the kids that are sitting next to her and how loud they’re being.”

Now, my first thought was, “Wow. You think that’s loud? You have no clue.” Because these are all kids I know, kids I’ve known since they were babies, and I know the volume potential of every one of them. We hadn’t even reached half of their potential. (Hmmm…maybe I should have shown her, by a comparison, how loud they weren’t being!)

And we’re all like, “Seriously, lady? You’re at MCDONALD’S. At NOON. In the summer, one block from a PLAYGROUND. At MCDONALD’S.”

Then, as we’re leaving, my other mommy friend hears another grandmotherly type saying again that KIDS were being LOUD. Shocker of all shockers.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I fully appreciate the desire to have a nice, quiet meal without the noise of children (I can almost remember what it’s like…….no, nope, sorry. I was wrong. I can’t remember.). And IF I didn’t have my kids with me, I would not want to hear other kids while I was dining. But, guess what, people, I wouldn’t go to McDonald’s expecting to find a quiet dining atmosphere.

Do you go to McDonald’s expecting a serene dining experience? Do you KNOW that the mascot for McDonald’s is a clown? Do you know that they were the forerunners of the HAPPY MEAL?

Truly, there are enough places where I feel guilty when my kids are being kids and end up disturbing other people. I try to avoid those places when I can. McDonald’s ain’t gonna be one of ‘em. Get a grip, live in reality, or go somewhere else.