Public Persona

I'm lucky, my girls are fairly well-behaved when we're out in public.

Other than the occasional look of utter distain that Alyssa tends to give to my friends who are just trying to be friendly/helpful and A isn't sure how to respond, that is.

Mostly, they stick by me when we're out and about, they aren't really all that loud when talkin to me or each other, they aren't tantrum throwers (now that I've written that out, one of them is going to prove me wrong in the very near future, karma, baby, it's about to bite me in the ass.)

However...Olivia loves the echo that occurs when she sings in public restrooms. The restrooms in our local WalMart have especially nice accousics, as far as O is concerned.

She will sing at the top of her lungs, just taking in that echo, loving the sound of her own voice.

Now, because I'm all about being considerate to others and teaching my children to do so as well, I've been known to say to the artist currently known as Olivia, "Livie, let's not sing quite so loud, Sweetie. While I find your mucical talents delightful, others might not enjoy it quite so much."

See, I'm all about honesty with my kids. Sure, they're the center of my world and all things they do are marvelous as far as I'm concerned, I do realize that no everyone enjoys being seranaded while the pee in a WalMart restroom.

I want to raise polite children who are aware that others have feelings, thoughts, opinions too and that we all have a right to pee in peace.

One afternoon Olivia was particularly boisterous, belting out the theme to the show Victorious (only because Alyssa watches the YouTube video of this song all the time) and I reminded her gently that I adore her singing but others might not.

As we were leaving the stall, another door opened and a WalMart employee joined us at the sinks. She told Olivia, "I enjoyed your singing very much too."

Love!

As stated above, I realize that not everyone enjoys the presence of children. In fact, I've encountered some especially sour-faced individuals in the stores, who just glare at me with my kids. The girls aren't even doing anything I'd consider all that obnoxious, except maybe laughing or heck, breathing too loud.

But that nice lady in the WalMart bathroom? She went out of her way to make my four-year-old's day.

I'll continue to remind O to use her inside voice even when she's working for echos but to know that there are kind strangers out there who will tell O that they enjoy her presence too? I'll keep trying to restrain my children from being annoying to strangers and keep hoping that strangers will continue to look past the mere fact that my children are in public and MIGHT end up being annoying to see that they are, in fact, pretty good girls.

When they don their public persona, that is...