Parenting In Public

Here's the scene:

You're at a busy sit-down restaurant trying the enjoy your lunch.  You're sandwiched between your wiggle wormy 3 year old and your temperamental 2 year old.  The clock is ticking closer and closer to nap time and as the minutes pass, the emotions rise.

In an effort to just ease the situation and buy yourself some time, you hand your 2 year old your already destroyed iPhone, because, really, what's the point in fighting it anymore?  In between bites of your cooling meal and shoving food into your 3 year old's mouth, you notice that your 2 year old is partaking in your biggest pet peeve... holding food.  He has been holding the same bite of food in his mouth for the last 15 minutes!

You decide to ignore it because at least he's not pitching a fit... at the moment.  But then, just when you aren't looking, he opens his mouth and out pours a stream of watered down, drippy, mushy, mac n' cheese.  You try to salvage what's left of your phone, scoop up the soggy mess... and then what?

It's your choice... you're the mother... it's time for parenting in public.

Here's what I did:

When I snatched the phone away, it immediately resulted in an outburst of screams and tears.  Then I brought his face close to mine and very sternly said "No, no, no... we don't spit food! No, no, no!" and I proceeded to slap him on the wrist once.

Unbeknownst to me, there was another mother seated nearby with a precious angel of a daughter, who I'm sure has never thrown a single tantrum ever, and her own mother.  They were gawking at me with phones poised to dial CPS.

It was brought to my attention by my own mother, who was sitting next to me, that I had a fan club.  I turned to see the grandmother staring at me with unwavering eyes.

It was a stare-down.

I looked at her.  She looked at me.  Faces unchanged.  Tumbleweeds rolled past and cowboy music started playing (in my head, of course).

I was itching... nay, BEGGING for her or her smug daughter to say something about my parenting tactics.

All the while Jonas is still pitching his fit next to me with tears streaming down his little red face.

Once she looked away, I scooped Jonas up into my arms and exited the restaurant to have a one-on-one chat.  I calmed him down, we hugged it out and walked back into the restaurant.

Thankfully, for her sake, she didn't say anything to me... because I was ready to put her in her place.  And my sister-in-law was there... and she's got one hell of a mouth on her!

The bottom line is this... I'm going to parent my children, inside of the house AND outside of the house.  If YOU don't like it, LOOK AWAY.  The rules are the rules no matter where we are.  And a slap on the wrist with a stern voice are the least of it... that WAS my public parenting.  

So how do YOU handle parenting in public?