A Stormy Evening

The last few days have been very stormy, which means, we have been staying indoors. Last night was suppose to be the stormiest evening of all. The way the weather people were talking, we were going to be getting widespread tornadoes. Because of this, I had planned an evening hunkered down with the family.

As the day wore on, it looked as if we were looking at late night storms. My dh called to see if we all wanted to go out to eat at the favorite Mexican Restaurant. One of my sons was wanting to spend the night at a friends house, and the other son was not wanting to go anywhere (he's pretty much a homebody), so it was just the two of us. By the time dh got home it was 7:00. The storms still didn't seem anywhere near, so we headed out. When we got there we found we were not the only ones that had the idea of going out to eat.

We always like going out to eat, and we've taken our kids with us a lot, even when we had four very little ones. We took them out to eat to teach them how to act, and they have always been very good. From the beginning, though, we taught them that you do not get up and run around, and that you use a quiet voice, etc. I have found, though, that a lot of people do not teach their kids manners when going out to eat.

As a college student, I was a waitress, and it really got on my nerves when people let their kids run amuk. Numerous times, I can remember a kid barreling into me when I had a full tray of food or drinks--not fun. Last night was a night mare. As I mentioned before, the resturaunt was very busy. Many of the patrons were families, and most of these families let their kids run wild. I could not believe it! These kids were probably around 9, 10 or 11--old enough to know better. The resturaunt had a free ice cream machine at the front, so after you pay your bill you can get an ice cream cone for the road. These kids were running from the back of the resturant to the front and back again getting numerous ice cream cones. There were about 10 boys in all. They would run, get their cones, run back, finish their cones, and then run back for another one, making an extremely big mess of the machine. This went on the entire time we were there. Don't get me wrong, I love kids--I got four of my own--but I really hate it when other peoples kids are making such a nusinance. Not one time did I see an adult say anything to these boys.

When we got done, we went up front to pay our bill, and decided that we really did not want an ice cream cone. It was really a gross mess, and I noticed the kids opening doors on the maching and sticking their fingers and hands in it, I just really could not believe it. Anyway--it was nice to get back home to a quiet house...and the rest of the night was pretty quiet too, as the storms we were so worried about past us by with just a few drops of rain...