A post in which I vent.

Children in the gallery.  Oh, y'all have heard the stories before.  Today was a bit of a doozy.  Wow. 

Pardon me while I vent. 

A mother, a grandmother and two boys came in.  The boys were probably 8 and 10.  I knew when they came bounding in the door that they were going to be trouble. 

They had to touch everything.  Obviously, the statement, "Look with your eyes," has never been said to them before.

They kept going in and out of the bathroom.  On about the 10th trip (not exaggerating), I heard one pulling and pulling on the door. 

(This is the point that I should remind all that I work in a converted house that was built in the late 1800's and the public bathroom is just your standard 1/2 bath with some storage shelves for boxes.) 

I walked to the bathroom and saw a kid pulling with all his might, actually physically contorted, trying to yank the door open.  His brother was on the other side.  They were actually playing tug-of-war with the bathroom door.

I looked at him and asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

[still pulling] "Um, no."

"Is he okay?  Does he need something? Is he all right?"

"Yes."

"Then please stop pulling on the door.  I'm certain that he would like to use the restroom and will be out when he is done.  Please don't pull on the door anymore."

I walked back to the counter and the grandmother and mother thanked me for saying something.

WHAT?!  Why couldn't they?  I purposely didn't say anything to them because I figured it wouldn't matter. 

They stayed with mom, surprisingly didn't trash the place, but I did find later that the kid was standing on the toilet.  God only knows why.

Later, I heard the wind chimes.  I heard many wind chimes.  Of course, it was the boys.  Their mother had decided that after a time in our sister store, she was going to send them outside to burn off some energy. 

I opened the door and said, "Boys.  Some of those wind chimes cost close to $400.00 and I really don't want to see one of them fall on your head.  I do believe that it would be a good idea for you to go shopping with the people that you came with."

A few minutes later, the grandmother appeared and stayed out there with them.  They had been running, arms fully extended, to see how many chimes that they could whack on their "flight" through. 

Not funny. 

Apparently, she spent $600.00.  That doesn't excuse the kids behavior.  She was lovely when I spoke with her.  So was the grandmother.  The only time that the mother got upset at the boys was when one of them burped.  My coworker heard it and had to tell me.  After their poor behavior, that is the one that got reaction.  Hmmm.

Smiles in my day:
-  Two rainbows!
-  K- is doing a really nice job with her reading.  This will be our third week of reading/speech tutoring and I can see a definite improvement.  She is reading with more fluency.  Words are coming easier.  The "1" books are becoming less of a challenge for her to read (though still challenging) and more enjoyable for her to read.  She couldn't wait to turn the page this evening to find out what was coming up next.
-  K-'s friend that moved back from Wisconsin will be joining her for Arts Camp over the next two weeks.  They will have so much fun.  I'm so glad that we were able to take advantage of Science Camp this week.  We've had our morning walks.  We've had our morning talks.  Gosh.  I missed that.
-  The massive downpours we've had this evening.  "Mommy, you know, we really needed that!"  Yes we did.
-  When I was doing tutoring homework with K- tonight, one task was to come up with words that rhymed with "sun."  She came up with "bun" quickly, but then I told her, "At Science Camp this week, you are having lots of this."  "Sugar?"  (In reference to the sugar cereal that they serve each morning.)  Well, yes, but not what I was talking about!

Have a great day!