Usually when a fellow parent asks that type of question it is loaded enough to be a spitball. There is usually adoration at multiple children marching in a straight line or accusation of two kids running amok and causing havoc.
Not with the kind faced woman holding a small child's hand (age 2, I am getting good at this).
She was generally curious. Probably because Tyler was nestled away snugly in a baby swing while older Sienna pushed him while singing to him.
Note: Sienna is a mature nurturing child and Danielle and I take no credit for this.
I had asked the question years before of a rather distraught looking mother - totally admiring at the time how she had one child stuffed under her arm like a piece of luggage while pulling a second wailing child along.
Her answered had been a distraught, "I'm not sure I wouldn recommend it." Rather honest in the land of Brooklyn where child worship has become an art form.
"You don't." I said it with a smile so she would not think me flippant. Though really the next part of the statement failed that test, "you try to keep them from hurting each other accidentally."
Which brought to my mind my father's words when I told him the second child was on the way. "Follow them around with spackling to fill in the holes in the walls when they break things."
"Really?" Her eyes widened.
I shrugged. "Sure..."
I told her the story of earlier that day when Tyler tried to grab Sienna's Doc McStuffin's cell phone. Sienna gave him a well placed kick to his chest to get him away.
"Would you recommend it?" That was her follow up question.
"Kind of late to take it back."
Really though it is like managing chaos. You hope for the best, try to teach some manners, and feed them enough so they don't turn on you.
Though instead if spackling I follow them with a screwdriver - both really like taking things apart. Not so much management as damage control.
