My children can drive me nuts

I love my children dearly but sometimes they push over the boundaries and make me quite angry with them. Today they could have done with listening to the sermon in church as one of the verses was:

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Col. 3:20

This comes in the same chapter as the controversial Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. My friend and I did exchange funny looks at that bit and the minister was at great pains to water this one down. Basically the sermon summed up that if we are devoted to our spouse/children and show them love then they will wish to please us. 

My children decided to prove this one wrong this afternoon....

We went from church into the town centre to the good old cheap shoe shop Shoe Zone. On Saturday we had browsed in there as I desperately need a pair of boots and they are the only affordable shop on my budget. I rashly promised that when I came back today with more money that we could all try on some shoes/boots. My son and I were successful in finding pairs of inexpensive boots that fitted well. My daughter kept asking for new boots but as I'd let her spend all her birthday money on an expensive pair last month I refused. She then targeted the shiny party shoes, at £7.99-9.99 I was quite prepared to let her have a pair..... but as she is currently a 12.5 with skinny feet she couldn't get any of them to fit properly (no half sizes!). She desperately tried on every single pair but to no avail and I refused to buy them. So she sat down in the middle of the shop and had a screaming tantrum.

I purchased the other boots and we left the store with her still wailing about how horrible I was... I had promised a trip to McDonalds before walking home so we went in there and she seemed to be happier. The kids ran off into the soft play area leaving me as part of quite a long queue. I could at times distinctly hear my daughter sounding over excited in the play area. Then my son ran out crying saying his sister had bitten him and she followed saying he had hurt a little girl. I therefore abandoned the queue and told the kids we were leaving. My daughter ran back into the tunnels of the play area leaving me to get my son ready to leave. I had to pretend to walk off without my daughter to get her to get her boots back on and leave.

We then had to walk back down the main road with both children wailing about how horrid I was. Despite this my daughter wanted to hold my hand. I made a potentially dangerous to decision to take them into the Table Table restaurant for a more civilised lunch. My son was still wailing about his McDonalds and my daughter wasn't exactly behaving. Typically I knew people in there!! I did get sympathetic looks from other parents and the waiter didn't bat an eyelid. After a long hug and a pointing out that the menu contained chicken nuggets and chips my son became a rational human being again. My daughter was also an angel.

We had a lovely meal and I was even complimented by a waitress on how well behaved my children were (after their entrance performance). My daughter has decided that eating there was much better than McDonalds, my son doesn't agree! It was certainly a much calmer place for children to eat and the food was a better quality. Unfortunately its more expensive than McDonalds so we won't be able to go back soon and we maybe eating beans on toast for the rest to the week...