My "Ah-Ha" Moment

**Disclaimer** Please Oprah, don't sue me for using your trademarked phrase.

Five days into our Summer break, I decided that we've had enough of HOME. After swim today, the girls and I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some supplies for some projects I'm working on. I was dreading taking them out. They're at the stage where they just drive each other (and me) nuts. They love each other completely...enough to ask to sleep together every night; but all day long, they just pick at each other.
Hayden gets in Tay's face and antagonizes her. And Tay copies everything Hayden says, right down to the "Don't Copy Me". It's driving US ALL crazy!
Anyhow, we spent an hour and a half in Hobby Lobby today. I forced them both to sit in the cart. Taylor up top and Hayden in the basket. And of course, Hayden poked at her through the spokes and Taylor jabbed back with her infamous backswing. I kept threatening my canned...."If you cannot be good you will NEVER come back with me again". Hayden says "But Mom....I'm poking her because she's getting to help you better than me".

What??? They were fighting over who got to hold more supplies? Strange...but it prompted me to take a different approach. I divvied up the stuff so they each had the same amount and tuned in to them a bit more. Prior to that, all I could hear was "no ME.." "I wanna..." "You can't..." "my turn..." . And when I did tune it I hear "no Mommy, let ME help you", "I wanna hold that PLEASE. May I?", "You can't put everything under the cart Mommy, put some in my basket" and "Is it MY TURN yet"?
Yes, they were picking at each other, but they were vying for my attention. When in actuallity, I wasn't paying attention to either. They were using their manners and being very polite. And up until that point, I was tuning them out because it sounded like their typical sister banter.

Much to my surprise, another reveler noticed that they were very good girls. You see, it's not uncommon for older women to comment about how well behaved children are in public; or for a one of us mommies to notice the roll of their eyes when they think you're not parenting well and your kids are out of control. Because let's face it...back in the day, their kids were potty trained at 18 months and would never, ever have a tantrum in the Supermarket.
But today was different. Today it was a YOUNG MOM. Probably somewhere around my age with 2 girls also. They also looked to be about Hayden and Tay's age. And while we both waited in line for our fabric to be cut, she paid me the nicest compliment. She said "I've passed you several times through out the store and cannot get over how well behaved your girls are". I came back with "It's because I have them caged in a shopping cart"...and she said "Well, that may be true. But I've heard them speak to you and one another and they are so polite and kind. I'm not sure if I've ever witnessed two young kids so well versed in respect".
WHOA...talk about take me by surprise. Because you see, I feel like we work hard on our kids and their behavior, but I feel like we get nowhere. And for somebody else, a stranger...a mom with two girls like me, to make an observation like that, made me very proud of them.
And then, as soon as she walked away Hayden's lovely little mouth smarted off with something sarcastic and mean directed toward me.

Ah-Ha...they are just kids....and I went about my business threatening them that they'll never go shopping with me if they can't behave!