Well, you sure have your hands full!

I get a lot of comments and strange looks when I go out with my four kids.

It ranges from disbelief, "Are all of these yours?" (no, I stole a couple), to stupidity, "Two sets of twins?"  (really?!  A newborn and a 1 year old?!?), to judgmental, "Well, now 4 children is just irresponsible!"  (Wow.  You're a b#$%@).

But I can handle it.  I mean, I get it.  My parents had 4 and I grew up listening to them fend off the comments.

The one comment that is guaranteed to make me nuts though?

"You sure have your hands full!"

DUH.

And by the way, you are not original.  Nor are you funny.  I hear that comment at least twice when I go out with my kids.  My left eye starts to twitch when I hear it.  My smile has moved from forced to mildly feral when I hear it.  I hallucinate about punching people when I hear it.

And I can (usually) predict exactly who is going to say it.

However, I was wrong last week.  All four kids and I were Christmas shopping and were waiting in a long line.  The shopping trip had stretched into naptime and I was running out of tricks in my "Mom bag" to keep my kids quiet, well behaved, and entertained.

Just then, an elderly lady walked past us.  I watched her pause as her eyes widened.  She turned back and I could see her counting how many kids I had.  I gritted my teeth and prepared myself for the standard, "I sure do," response that has to follow "You sure have your hands full!"

But she through me for a loop.  She looked at me and grinned and said, "You really need one more."

I was speechless for all of 15 seconds.  And then I burst out laughing.