I'm THAT mother

Yesterday on the beach we sat near a mother and her two children, a girl and boy about 6 and 4. The entire time we were at the beach this mother was yelling at her children:

"come here"
"give your brother/sister a turn"
"we're packing up and leaving"
"your behaviour is unacceptable"
"listen to me"

Part of me could feel her pain. Who knows how much time I spend every day saying the same thing to my kids....the constant disciplining and negotiating. But at the same time I was happy that, for the most part, my kids were listening to me and getting along.

And then today, the tables turned. We were at the park with another set of friends and all the kids were in deaf mode, running around, oblivious to our screams and shouts for their attention. My friend and I battled our way through lunch, hoping, pleading inside our minds that our kids would start to listen and we wouldn't be forced to lay down the law and pack up and leave. But they just wouldn't listen. They fed off of eachother, each child tempting the others to keep running. So we packed up and my daughter threw a fit. She screamed at me and marched away, growling and mumbling under her breath, a sign of the teenager to come. As we tried to herd them to the parking lot, they all took off and my loudest voice appeared, yelling my daughter's name and counting like the numbers one and two had never been counted before. Today I was THAT mother, the one that yells, the one who's children don't listen. Today it was my turn.