If ever

you decide that taking your three young children to Watergardens with your mother is a good idea give yourself a firm smack upside the head. It is not.

I had never been to Watergardens before, so I dutifully googled where it was, got a vague idea on the map and off we set. We turned at a roundabout and were on the way, the wrong way, but the way nonetheless. So then I felt perhaps we were actually headed towards nowhere so did a uturn and got on to the highway, taking the next exit, which then made me realise that was not the correct exit, but the road that we had first been on was in fact the correct road, and after a 15 minute detour we ended up back on that road, about 1km further down than we had previously been.

Upon arrival at Watergardens I unloaded the kids, after parking spot stalking some poor lady with a pram, because there were simply no parking spots. How a carpark that size could have no available spots is beyond me. We were lucky enough to get a pram park too, bit wider, closer to the entrance, good work. It was lucky. It was very lucky. Shorter distance to travel on the eventful way out.

So we got lunch first. Nothing spesh, subway, but it was nice. Have to make sure the girls realise that food courts sell things other than chips now don't we? I then made the cardinal error of putting them on one of those little carousel rides. They had a ball. So why was it an error? Because I made them get off. Actually Tabitha was quite glad to get off, she had even attempted to get off while it was still moving, however Lexi was not impressed. She wanted another ride. Loudly. And then I became one of those mothers who people look at when their child is going off their heads saying oh that child must be so spoilt to behave like that and oh how awful. Well sorry to break it to you world but that simply isn't the case. She carried on like that because she is 2 and in her world that is the most tragic injustice that could ever occur - her not being allowed to have another ride on the carousel.

Tabitha decided that she would throw herself onto the ground too. Just for good measure. So I had Lexi screaming "nooooooooooooooooooo" at the top of her lungs and Tabitha rolling around on the floor in her little pink tracksuit. I might add that Angus was awake, looking suitably unimpressed, with bottom lip trembling, looking up at me from the pram.

So how did I solve this problem? Bribery? Smacking? No. I picked her up and whispered in a very firm tone that she was embarrassing mummy and if she behaved this way after everything good she got she would never get anything good. See, ending it there would probably have been the good mummy way of doing it. However it did not end there because Lexi kept screaming. So I, mum of the year, told her that if she didn't be quiet I would leave her there. Oops. Probably not the best thing to say. She did stop crying though........

Well by this stage Angus had chimed in too and was giving Lexi a lung for her money, sorry a run for her money. So mum sat and fed him and I took the girls into Target to have a look around to see what they had. I was seeking furniture (storage in particular), and a whole list of things I had prepared earlier. Unfortunately I have no idea where that list finished up and as it turned out we exited Target 10 minutes later with three bags of lollies. While in Target I realised that Lexi loves the toy department. I also realised that Tabitha is a lot faster than she looks. And I also realised that bribery does work. Thus the exiting with three bags of lollies. Why three? I had to bribe myself as well.

So I thought yep that'll do I can't do much more, it was probably a bad idea in the first place. But we trucked on in search of a supermarket trolley, something I had sought in the first place but was unable to find. And I spotted one. The holy grail. Tabitha threw herself onto the ground (for perhaps the fiftieth time) as I grabbed it. Might I add that she is not screaming as she throws herself down, she is actually on occasion laughing. She just thinks it is hilarious that I have to pick her up. Yep. Loving it. Anyway, got the trolley, popped Tabitha in the front seaty part and Lexi got to sit in the trolley, we went in, got the stuff, came out and made a beeline for the car.

When I saw the car I can't tell you the relief I felt. What was the funniest thing was that within the first five minutes of being in the mall we were doing brilliantly. Lexi was helping push the pram, I was pushing the pram with one hand and with the other hand I held Tabitha who was walking alongside like a good girl. I even turned to mum and said that people would be looking at us thinking ah how lovely and they are such good kids. An hour or so later when things had become distinctively pear shaped I commented that for that five minutes I felt on top of the world, and I won't take back what I said, but I would look back from the carnage that was our shopping trip to the commencement of said shopping trip and realise that for a brief moment it was perfect. And that's enough.

And it's now 7.03pm and all the kids are in bed. Not asleep, but relaxed enough that they'll be catching zeds soon enough. I have managed to scrape the house into some semblance of organisation in preparation for buzzing off to "school" for the girls in the morning, the arrival of Mr Foxtel (thank god because if I see repeats of Play School one more time I'm going to go postal) and Mr Maintenance Man to look at some stuff around the house.

Me, I think I'll make a start on getting the books I need for uni. Get on top of things a bit. For now though I might surf the extensive four channels I currently get and see if I can find something to watch. If not, I'll surf the net a bit then hit the hay myself. Big day. But still, we did it. Won't do it again, have no desire to, but we did it once. And as I have said before, that's enough.