Another place bites the dust

Today I found myself at the credit union, inside the credit union, with all three little ones and no stroller.  I won't get into how this happened but let's just say I had no other option and seemed to have found the only credit union branch in the state with no drive-thru teller.

I entered confident, I had talked to the kids in the car about staying by Mommy, not being too loud, not beating each other in public, etc. and I thought they may just be civilized.

From the moment we walked in the door all bets were off.

Parker headed to the brochure display and McKenna headed to inquire about getting her three year-old self a loan while I used all of my strength to keep a determined-to-get-down Sawyer in my arms.  I removed McKenna from her place in line, gave them each a brochure from Parker's quickly growing stash and steered everyone to the teller (who had NO sense of humor regarding my current children-going-crazy state).

So as I am trying to quickly handle things with the teller and stop Sawyer from ripping everything I sign I notice I can hear everything in the place too clearly and there is also a noise overhead that sounds like a speaker or microphone.

In the two seconds I was document signing McKenna had turned off their music/noise-filter and Parker had picked up the phone next to the radio and must have hit some sort of intercom button so the speaker noise overhead was MY CHILDREN.

I have to stop here and say, who uses a boom box anymore and who, in this world, keeps one two feet from their teller windows at the level of three year-olds and what is the phone for in case someone needs to make a call while in line?

I promise I have eyes in the back of my head and was turning to make sure they were not causing too much trouble every two seconds but they are fast little buggers.  Attempting to stop the madness I removed McKenna from the boom box and took the phone from Parker (silently, any comment such as "are you two insane?" or "I'm never taking you anywhere again" will be broadcast to all bank-goers).

Fortunately we were not arrested for disturbing the peace and made it out without further incident, other than the unavoidable fight over who was going to open the door when we left and then the obvious battle over who would close it.

I'm thinking our journey inside may have been worth it in the long run though.  There could be no stronger case for a drive-thru window that a visit from my children.

Parker practicing his get away run just in case I forget about today and decide to take him out in public again.