As they were . . .before the reminder! Is Gillian winking?
Barry didn't often go shopping with us unless there was something he needed to get that I couldn't buy for him. On one occasion he had to buy an overcoat but before we left the house he was surprised to hear me speaking very firmly to the children. They had not misbehaved in any way but I was just giving them the usual reminders to behave themselves while we were out. Of course, he had no idea this was the normal routine.
As they may have looked after the reminder! Expecting rain, Gareth?
When we arrived at the shop he was further taken aback when I told them all to sit on the (carpeted) floor. Without any fuss they all sat down, crossed their legs and folded their arms and waited patiently while their father set about trying on coats.
He was puzzled at what may have seemed draconian methods of dealing with his offspring but I think he had forgotten the time a few months earlier when Gillian had ended up in a shop window display, tangling with the clothes. (No-one offered to buy her!) He certainly wasn't there at a school assembly when Susannah marched onto the stage to be with her big sister, while all the other younger siblings sat obediently with their mothers. Gareth and his sisters could never look only with their eyes - their tactile sense was very pronounced so passing close to anything that was remotely fragile was worrying. 'Mummy, what's that?' Prod, poke, crash!
Actually, they never did break anything while we were out but table lamps in our house were doomed! Everything else lived up high out of harm's way. We considered having a pulley system whereby precious things could be raised to the ceiling during the day and then lowered in the evening when the children had gone to bed.
When Bethan was born a few years later, shopping was an altogether more relaxed affair.
Effectively, by the time Bethan was four years old she had two parents and three young adult siblings watching over her - poor child!
Keeping your eyes on one child is so much easier than constantly counting to make sure three are still present and correct.
