It was one of those days, one of those days that my kids were acting more toddleresque than usual, I told them I wasn’t going to take them on our usual Chick-Fil-A date after gymnastics because their behavior wasn’t worthy of a treat or playtime. But, they begged and I mistakenly gave in to their negotiations of “I ready to calm down”, “I be nice”, “I listen”. I negotiated back, “you HAVE to stay by mama, NO running, or we WILL leave”. Ya know, one of those days. I knew better, they knew better, we all knew better.
We walked in, holding hands, I held them while we waited in the typical long but quick line, ordered food, ate, the kids played and all was well…until it wasn’t. The play area became rather rowdy as two school bus loads of kids piled in, on top of the typical Friday lunch rush. The big kids took over so I decided it was time to go. I packed our bag, put their shoes on and out ran my son… right into the crowd of high schoolers waiting to order their lunch. I quickly turned around to grab my daughter so that I could catch him but it was too late. An ornery toddler in the midst of a busy crowd, mama eyes searching, fear rising and eventually tears flowing. I looked across every visible inch of the dining room, through the crowd, into the bathrooms, outdoors and back to the play area hollering his name – with no response.
A group of mamas who had been there all along became my tribe, in a moments notice, with no hesitation. I asked one to hold my daughter while I continued the search for my son – arms wide open. Like all mama’s, another in the group asked how she could help, went to the manager to alert them of the situation and continued the search outside while I continued inside. Then the question I wasn’t prepared for “What is he wearing? What does he look like?” and in that moment I had absolutely no idea – I was in shock. “Blonde curly hair and an OU shirt” I eventually reply with tears flowing. It’s a question you don’t think you’ll ever need the answer for but the day comes and when it does it’s a heavy question.
The thought that my baby could be gone forever put a fear in my mama heart that I’ll never forget. In all of a few minutes I located him back in the play area, looking out at me with a smile, a smile I hope to have for decades to come and a little voice that said “Mama, I was hiding from you”. I climbed up, grabbed him up in a big bear hug and began to explain how much he scared me and one of the other mama’s replied “you scared all us mama’s buddy” and in that moment I was reminded of just how special mama’s are, all of them.
At some point we all find ourselves stuck in a moment of chaos and fear, it’s part of this journey, so make yourself a part of someones tribe – even if only temporarily – it may be when they need it the most.
