I had a 10% happen this week. I was in a store with our children, Jayda and John, and the staff was very rude to them. Now I ran a retail store for 12 years and I have been in business over half my life, so I completely understand how children can be in retail stores. I remember all too fondly how the ring bearers would come into my tuxedo rental store and knock over mannequins or re-merchandise my entire store.  Mind you a few groomsmen did that too.. ha ha.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that our children are full of energy. I often say if you think your children are busy, just spend an afternoon at my house with our joy-filled children and you might reconsider!  

In this particular 10% retail experience, our children were great. Truly. I am not delusional they were great. They are 8 and 9 years old and have been on dozens of airplanes and eaten in dozens and dozens of restaurants and they know how to behave in a store. I am not saying there have not been 10% days, but this wasn't one of them.

There were three retail employees who repeatedly told my children not to touch anything, not to lean on anything etc. And they WEREN'T! They were simply waiting for me to finish and pay.

So as nicely as I could muster in my "motivational speaker" way, I patiently explained that I did not feel my children were touching too much and they were simply leaning to wait for me. The employee announced that they have "problems with children in the store".  We paid and left.

Now the discussion in the car with Jayda and John was based around this, "How can we as friendly, caring people, be patient with the unkind?  How can I defend my children without being rude to an obviously depleted woman?"

Jayda and John felt very rattled from the experience and both exclaimed that they would NEVER go to that store again.  I shared with them that the hardest thing to do is to love the unlovable. I tried to remind them that we did not know what happened with other children in the store and we did not know what was going on in the three women's personal lives.

We turned this 10% experience around in the car by sharing a few teachable moments.

#1. Jayda and John saw their Mom stick up for them.

#2.  We learned how not to treat children when they have their own businesses some day.

#3.  We prayed for those women.

As much as I wanted to be very impatient with the staff, I remembered I can TELL my children what it looks like to be patient or I can SHOW them. Being positive is great, I work very hard at it but the greatest challenge I have is being a 90% person in 10% situation.

Quotes to Ponder:
"It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences."