On the last day of Thanksgiving vacation, we had lots of plans. 

First, we went to the orchestra, where they played Beethoven, Brahms and Dean.  Brian wasn’t too excited about Dean’s Pastoral Symphony, but it was the kids’ favorite.  Lots of percussion and birdsong in it.  Anya wasn’t too impressed overall.  She was a bit bored.  As you can see below, the kids amused themselves in between the sets by playing on our smartphones. 

Thank goodness for smartphones.

Upon leaving, the lady behind us said to me, “Your kids were so well behaved!  How does that happen??”

I just smiled and left it at that.  I could have said that we actually parent our kids, and they know they would get in trouble if they acted badly in public.  Years and years of training have allowed us to take our kids out to nice places without having to worry about them making a scene or being disruptive.

Next, we went to the downtown Macy’s (the original Dayton’s store), and went up to the 8th floor where they had moving displays showing “The day in the life of an elf”.  It was really cute with all the mechanical elves moving and some singing trees.  A nice person even volunteered to take a picture of all of us while we were there.

Then, it was about time for dinner.  I just made reservations that morning, but being a Sunday night they were pretty open.  We got a seat by the window and proceeded to enjoy some fine dining while watching the lighted floats go past.  The kids loved it, and were very excited watching all of it.

The restaurant we went to was a pretty nice restaurant, and one of my favorites downtown.  I knew our kids would act well while we were eating dinner.  Unfortunately, there were other parents present that didn’t feel the need to stop their kids from screaming in the restaurant.  Sometimes, you just want to go over to these parents and instruct THEM on the proper way to behave in public.  They just don’t get it. 

Those parents are the reason why we have strangers comment on how well-behaved our children act.  It seems to be a rarity these days that kids are taught to be well-mannered in public.  Our kids aren’t little angels and have their moments, too.   They just know the level of consequences increases greatly when they don’t act well in public.

It really isn’t that hard to make kids behave, but it does require some effort and perseverance.