Agoraphobia Revisited

For those of you who know us, or who are familiar with our antics and stories of what goes on in our lives, you know that at first, I was all about taking my kids with me anywhere and everywhere.

Of course, I didn't get my first big stroller until my kids were five months old, so we had to make do with a single reclining stroller for all three to share, which wasn't really much of a problem because my little people were already soo very tiny!

Then, we became very mobile, and tried out going places like to restaurants, to the revel (Kai does NOT like bass or loud music at all) and even to see movies when they were a tad bit older.

We did really well at Superior for lunches with our GrandGary. We discovered that if we spaced everyone along the wall in their car seats mounted on the highchairs, we could peacefully have dinner and the babies could check out the hustle and bustle of everything.

We even tried Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, and even Strawn's successfully for eating out during the day.

We don't go too many places at night, because the evening routine starts with a five o'clock dinner, then progresses to bedtime, so evenings are out for the babies!

I even used to could take them all shopping successfully, until about a year ago.

That was when the comments and stares from people became uncomfortable for my tiny trio.

Apparently, they reached a point where they understood that nobody else was treated quite the same way that they were while out and about.

They seemed to pick up on the negative comments and the negative stares and it would make them leery of folks and sometimes they would even cry.

People just do not treat us like they do normal babies that they see out and about, either.

They send their kids up to the stroller to stare at the novelty of triplets, and think nothing of them touching them as if they were baby dolls and not little people born too early who are more susceptible to disease/germs than other kids the same age.

People got offended when I asked them to please not get too close to the babies for that very reason alone, and even more so when I asked their children not to touch them, even though I tried very hard to be nice about the whole thing (it was especially unnerving at the doctor's office for our check-ups.)

Then the day came of the last Wal-mart excursion. My eldest was in tow that day, and we were after some very specific needed things that day too.

We got as far as the first shelving unit in the main aisle before we were literally cornered.

One guy was on one of those motorized carts and headed us off in front and just blocked the entire aisle with the bulk of his cart & himself. He didn't say a word for nearly five minutes, but only stared at my babies.

Behind us, a lady stopped with her daughter in the buggy, to talk to her about how triplets are made (yes she did this out loud.)

We couldn't go forward, and we couldn't back up and go around because of the bins in the center of the aisle were blocking all alternative escape routes. I had no choice but to stand there with my babies and my eldest and try to keep the peace.

My son tried to ask the lady behind us if we could please get by to no avail. She was too in to the story she was spinning to her daughter about us.

I tried asking the man who was staring at us to please let us pass, too, but he didn't say a word in response. It was as if I were invisible and not even there.

We hadn't even been in the store long enough to do anything. In fact, we were barely really inside the store at all save for that main entry-aisle.

My kids eventually became as creeped out by the man staring at them without talking as I had, and began to cry over it.

He finally just pulled away after what seemed like forever, but the damage was already done. My kids were upset, and I had a heck of a time quieting them down and soothing them.

That mother who had been telling her daughter the triplet story continued to follow us through-out the store for a time as if she were the crocodile hunter and we were her prey.

My son and I did our best to try and get the things that we needed, but it was difficult to think because the babies were upset.

It seemed like every time I would get them calmed down, something would happen.


I parked our buggy and stroller in the produce section, sent my son to get some apples which were right next to the stroller, basically, and I turned to try and pick out some decent broccoli.

My kids started to cry again as I was broccoli hunting, so I turned around to try and soothe them, only to find that a lady had literally placed her buggy in the small space in between me & my stroller, thus blocking me from them completely.

It would have been one thing had my stroller been a small single, but our rather large and lengthy limo arrangement didn't allow me to be able to get to where the kids could even see me to know that I was still around. All they could see was that lady and her buggy.

Oddly enough, she continued to stand in between us and became upset with me for trying to get in front of her buggy so that my kids would even know that I was there.

After that day (and several other incidences that occurred that would make this posting more than too long,) I basically stopped taking my kids out on outings.

People expected me to be able to quiet them, yet these same people were the ones getting in the way of my efforts to do so. They were more concerned with satisfying their own curiosity than in the well being of the little ones they were ogling, all good intentions aside.

Fast forward to this past Friday, when I decided that, after a week of doing nothing and my eldest helping out with my little people, I would try taking everyone out to see a movie.