Would you keep your kids in line?!

I'm questioning everything I know about parenting kids in public and I need your help.

My wife, Marisas, is out on a women’s retreat this weekend with the church so I’m with home with the kids. It’s no big deal. It’s not babysitting, right? They’re my kids. I like to fancy myself as a pretty competent Dad who’s not afraid to take the challenges of life on with my kids in tow. If you’ve been reading this blog or seen my family in the wild you might know that we try to be the family that brings our kids along for work, play and the everyday business of life. We have 4 kids under 10 and does it slow things down? Sure but we feel like it’s worth it. I jive with podcasts like the Family Teams podcast where dad’s talk about bringing a “well trained child” to work with you in order to let them enter your life and work at an early age. “I know some people find it easier to keep their kids in a familiar environment with a standard routine”, I’ll say but I value flexible kids where community comes first. More is caught than taught and there are plenty of opportunities in life, work, and ministry where kids fight right in.

Today is one of those days when I question everything I know.

Before noon today I made 5 public appearances with all 4 children at hand and on every occasion I either received a polite “do you need some help with all of that,” or a less polite “would you please keep your kids in line?” We got plenty of smiles and nice comments about how full my hands are as we went about our day as well. Our day in public ended with us packing up our unfinished lunch at Five Guys and leaving early as a consequence for a fight over the ever abundant french fry cup. (Like why do you need to fight about that? There are so many more fries!!!)

On balance the day has me questioning my strategy on all of this. Maybe it looks like I do need help. Maybe the burden my kids create in public settings is too big a burden to place on those in my community. Our family mission is to: Know and be Known by God and our Neighbors. Maybe it would love the community better if we stayed home longer to focus on training our kids so they'll be better behaved and bother people less when we’re in public. I know that our family can be a lot but I’ve always thought that it was best to do this training as we go about life to love, serve, and enjoy our community.

I had a recent argument conversation with my friend Marcus about an event where I thought I was serving our community well by turning my attention towards meaningful and hopefully encouraging conversation with members of our church community but a couple of our kids were making a mess. It’s honestly a tricky position to be present in conversation about also have some responsibility to keep our kids in line.

Son now it’s your turn. I’m looking for feedback on your thoughts on parenting. Post a comment with your thoughts/strategies on this parenting dilemma or whatever else it drums up. Here’s a poll, where you can help me understand what people like you are really thinking when you see my family in Five Guys.

I’ll share the results soon with subscribers of this here dad blog.

Finally, if you would, share this post on social media or whatever so I can collect more feedback.

P.S. I’m really ok. It’s been a hard day but no need to reach out.