Real Mothers,
As a mom, I know that bringing your kids into a restaurant can feel like a gamble. You never know how your small kids are going to react and if they are going to behave. We have all experienced the epic kid meltdowns and annoying stares and sly comments from strangers that either don’t have a clue or have completely forgotten the throws of motherhood. A few weeks back my friend Ashley had an incident at a restaurant with a woman who shamed her and her kids to the point of the ugly cry. We all know the ugly cry. So, I asked Ashley to share what happened to her because while this woman was awful, the end of the story ended absolutely beautifully.
With that said, welcome to Ashley. This picture was taken right after the event:
Last year my husband and I started building our new house. To provide some backstory we have been married 7 years this month, and have fully gutted and remodeled 2 homes, moved to the Middle East, partially renovated a 3rd home and are now building on raw land, let’s just say mama is tired! Building a house is stressful. Having your husband as the builder with a 1yr old and 4 yr old is on a WHOLE. OTHER. LEVEL!
On this particular night, my husband had to work late, I’m talking did not get home until 11:30pm late, and I had to be at the property late as well so I didn’t have dinner ready. I didn’t want greasy food so the boys and I went to a restaurant I wouldn’t normally take them to (it was nice).
Before I could get a
second drink of my wine, and before our food came, a lady several tables over came
over and gave me a piece of her mind about me having my kids in that restaurant.
To my surprise my boys were great, however my 1 yr old did shriek several times in excitement, but I didn’t think much of it because the restaurant was fairly loud. Before I could get a second drink of my wine, and before our food came, a lady several tables over came over and gave me a piece of her mind about me having my kids in that restaurant.
She said something along the lines of “I just wanted you to know that the noise from
your table has forced us to have to leave the restaurant and I thought that you
should be aware of that!” I apologized and felt so embarrassed and really guilty for
about 15 seconds as she walked away.
Then something came over me! I got up and walked over to her table and gave her a piece of my mind that ended with me turning around and pointing at her saying, “NO I will leave, but you did not need to walk over and say that to me!” and I grabbed my boys and walked out of the restaurant with my 4-year- old say, “but mom I’m hungry.”
What is most important comes next!
Another woman out with her husband followed me out the door, asked if she could hug me, which caused the ugly, and I mean snot in the shoulder, body jolting, UGLY tears to really flow! This sweet soul then invited me in to finish my meal with her and her husband. I didn’t, I was too out of sorts, but she gave me her phone number, invited me to coffee and told me she had also built a house with kids and understood how hard it is! She also said that she would be praying for me.
This woman saved a terrible night! The restaurant refused to charge me and brought my
food to my car so that I didn’t have to bawl in their lobby! All this to say, be the one
who loves on someone, even if it is awkward, you just do not know where people are
at and what that person or mom is going through! Be the #huggerwoman! Be the
one to chase someone out the door, in the rain, and give them a hug; because
sometimes as moms we need to support one another, and sometimes gosh darn-it, a
mom just need’s a hug!
You can find Ashley on Instagram as: Livinginalandofgiants
This is a test comment!
optimum article, i love it