Me and My Herd

If I get one more weird / disapproving look or rude comment directed my way when I take my surprisely well behaved children out to public places I think I am going to unleash a tongue whipping that goes something like this. "Yes all these beautiful children are mine. I am older than I look. I am not an uneducated high school dropout but a highly intelligent college degreed woman who has chosen to stay at home and raise her kids, and it is perfectly acceptable for me to take all of them to the store with me!" Sorry for the tirade but I guess me and my kids are a strange sight here in Texas (in Utah I would just blend in!), and Texans don't have a problem stating their opinions or being rude (I can say this because by birth I am a Texan). For example, at Walmart two days ago I was at the photo counter when a man came up to me and said, "Ma'am you sure have your hands full don't you." (I hear this every time I take the kids anywhere). Now keep in mind that my kids were not acting up but standing quietly and patiently next to me. I just smiled and said yes I do. He then moved on to point out that my baby wasn't wearing any shoes or socks. I just laughed and said that with my hands being full, as he had so kindly pointed out, every once in a while something gets forgotten. He then went on to lecture me that it was cold outside and that he should call my husband to let him know that if the baby was sick by the time he got home from work it was because I had let him catch his death from the cold. I just laughed but what I really wanted to say was, "Give me a break ... One Weston doesn't walk so he doesn't need shoes, Two I parked right outside the store so we have been outside a totel of less than a minute, and Three mind your own business. And why exactly are you in Walmart at 1:00 in the afternoon? Shouldn't you be at work or something." Weston was wearing lined pants, a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt so it wasn't like I had him out in shorts and a t-shirt. Then the next day as I was entering Office Depot one of the clerks walked past and commented, "Brought the whole herd today didn't you." Excuse me, my children are not animals and I don't take kindly to you insinuating that they are.