Today I did something I have NEVER DONE.

I took the kids to a cafe – BY MYSELF.

It was truly a moment of madness. I drove past my most favourite cafe in Perth – featuring a secret garden-styled outdoor setting, with cafe tables dotted amongst water fountains, vines, bushy trees, flower beds, and birds tweeting in the canopy high above. It’s absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t resist.

I explained to them that we were going to sit and have a nice, quiet cafe experience. The back of my eyes twitched as the words left my mouth.

I ordered a cup of tea for me, and some snacks for them.

I have always craved the day when I could take the kids to a cafe by myself. I dream that the kids would quietly colour in their scrapbooks and play a card game, while I’d sip a cup of tea and read the newspaper, and HOURS would fly by.

HA!

I know kids need to be taught the appropriate behaviour for different places. But it has NEVER worked out that way when it comes to cafes.

My boys are all over the place. Shaking the table, rocking the chair, dipping their fingers into the sugar, climbing on the table, licking stuff off the floor, running around in circles, bumping into other patrons, whinging and complaining, fighting and punching, shouting and crying.

Sitting in a cafe is always stressful and traumatic for us, and the boys! And double that, when I’m the only adult to manage them.

But today, my boys surprised me. They ate their Smartie Cookie. I sipped my tea. We chatted about the trees and birds. We talked about the week ahead. We took some photos. And the moment the cookie was DONE, we left.

It was all over in 15 minutes. But oh, what a glorious 15 minutes it was!

Caption for the photo : Sean gobbles up his cookie, Cookie Monster style. Callum carefully eats the biscuit around each Smartie, extracting them one by one, licking them clean, places them under a napkin (to hide them from Sean), and saves them for last – he’s just like me.

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