Humiliation

You would think that the older I get the less what people thought of me would bother me. For the most part I really don't give a (you-know-what because I'm watching my cursing). But I do find it important that people (even strangers) think I am a good mother. Not a great, fantastic, super-mom kind of mother but a good one.

I met Tammy and her kidlings at a local park (which will have to remain anonymous unless someone who was there today is reading this). We had a yummy picnic of sandwiches and oatmeal raisin cookies. This park is special because it has a "little-kid" area that is enclosed and a "big-kid" area that has more daring playground equipment. It also has a public wading pool for kidlings 7 and under. We decided to let the "big kids" play at the "big kid" park while we watched Maddie and Paige in the wading pool.

Maddie did not really go in because she was feeling a little overwhelmed I think by all the other kidlings paddling around. Paige, of course, jumped right in and was soaked in a matter of seconds. Paige was constantly moving and jumping and pretending to be a lobster. Right near where I was sitting some girls started shrieking, "EEEEEWWWW! There's a piece of poo!" I was alarmed because I did not want my little one to get sick. So I tell her it's time to get out. The girls who shrieked ran off to get the manager and I struggled to get Paige out. She thought this was a game and started running away from me through the water. More moms had gathered around to collect their various kidlings and wanted to know what happened, etc. The manager then comes out, stares at the offending (very small) piece of material and yells "EVERYONE OUT!!!!". It was pretty much straight out of Caddyshack except this was a wading pool with toddlers and upset mothers. Paige stood in the middle of the pool refusing to come out. If you haven't guessed by now, Paige was the culprit of the horribly awful, very disgusting,what kind of mom lets their kid poop in the pool, pooper.

Now that the pool was empty (except for Paige), it was strangly quiet. I was now on stage (via pool) to retrieve my little stinker, remove Her Smelliness from the area, and receive many not so nice glares as I gather my screaming child in my arms and try to hurry out of there (I am now soaking wet also). You see, it has been in the high 80's - mid 90's with high humidity. Any mother with young kidlings knows the power water play has on a hot day.

I think they are going to charge me with a crime for being the one responsible for the pool closure. Or they might just throw their soiled diapers at us. So much for keeping up the good mother image...