Today was a long boring day for our 8yo triplets. They didn't have many jobs to do. They had to look pretty (sarcasm) and not fight. Oh and the occassional following of directions. Big sister was manning a mental list seperate yet complimentary of mom's. Big brother was hauling, pushing, and putting away things on top of making sure mom doesn't pass out from stress due to the heat and humidity (oh and the price tag of fresh foods and dairy;oy!). For some reason now that I am on heart meds I can't stand either, but that's beside the point. Everything went fine until the last store standing in the checkout line. Which of course was 4hrs from when we had started and 4 stores later. By all means we were making great timing! Yes, indeedy, it was a long, hot, boring day for 8yo triplets. They were hot and tired and bored with the fishbowl effect. The fishbowl effect for those that don't know, is when outsiders stare at you because there are so many of you or they want to stop and chat or feed the fish; much to mother fish's horror! So they started to do what any bored hot children do standing in a long dumb line. They pushed, hollered, yelled, and shoved. All the fighting in the fishbowl was like an attraction at SeaWorld. And now that I think of it, I should have been smart and charged admission fees! It did start out as small squabbles and drew about the stares of 5 others. I sorted it out and went back to business. Then it grew louder and more obnoxious and a lot more people stared. Again sorted it out and back to business, quite frustrated too. Then, WHAM!!!! All h*ll broke loose!! By now it was like one of those life takes visa commercials. Except I'm the one writing a check. Everything came to a stand still, everything goes grey and all eyes were on me. What was she going to do?! Oh I bit, just for a second. One tiny little second. I saw red and I opened my mouth to holler just as loud. Then a light flicked on, a safety light, reminding me that this is normal and it'll all be ok. That I didn't need to fuel the fire by throwing gasoline on it. So right there in that moment when time seemed to stand still, I sternly looked them in their eyes, grabbed  picked up the two offenders hands and joined them together. Then I told them that they were officially buddies and could not let the others hand loose. The stares of shock and horror from them were priceless(oh wait, that's mastercard !). You want me to hold her hand! You want me to hold his hand! Yes I do and you will not let go. Then the checker slowly begins to finish ringing up our things, the lights come back on, and people start breathing again. I pay for our purchases and head out the door behind two children holding hands. It worked! They didn't fight at all until later that evening, after supper time, doing chores. And life goes on!

Mrs. Carrot