So embarrassed!!! (My family in the 'Raw')

My husband and I drove the 15 mile short trip to the car dealership to test drive a newer, but still compact and small SUV. Our little 'Black bear' Ford Escape has been holding together well for the past 4 years (when we purchased it already used) pretty well, but within the last few months it has progressively shown more and more signs of age and wearing. Jesse, my husband, had been researching various and more safety conscious vehicles online and I wasn't entirely sure which one's he was interested in, but today he stated that he wanted us to go and test drive one. I was surprised as we pulled up into the Mercedes Dealership and actually parked our aged Ford in their lot. Thankfully I had the kids dressed decently and though I could have looked a bit nicer myself I still passed for looking like a (somewhat) serious consumer, interested and ready to do some car shopping with my spouse. LOL! My husband and I were quickly approached my a well dressed dealin' man when my husband swiftly chimed in and asked for a woman by the name of Nikki. The 'dealin' man' was courtesy and asked our names so that he could let her know we were there to meet with her. After about just a half a minute a middle aged, professional looking woman appeared to greet and introduce herself to us. After getting some simple information from my husband she 'passed' us back over to Gary, (the 'dealin' man') who had first met up with us in the parking lot. Gary walked my family over to the Mercedes ML320 BlueTec (Diesel SUV). I have never owned so much as any kind of classy, high end, vehicle like this; shoot I don't even own any expensive perfumes, so getting the specs on this vehicle was on the rather uneasy side of my comfort level. I felt out of place in so many ways and my children didn't help my anxiety in the least. In fact they heightened it by many levels with their childlike misbehavior and disobedience. I guess my husband and I must admit to taking some of the blame, since we aren't always the best coaches when it comes to our kids acting overly silly and not teaching them about improper times for such misconduct and loony acts of foolishness. Let me clarify. My kids are good; no, great kids, but there are times that they tend to get rather silly and with more recent learning 'skills' they have picked up from peers their ages they have begun to laugh at bodily noises that 'occasionally' escape the human body. This being said, my kids have been (can you handle me sharing this?) having the biggest laughing attacks about 'toots' that we all have experienced ourselves; sometimes and preferably when we are alone, but others times we aren't so lucky and this 'escaped' noise can be quite the embarrassment. Such an event had occurred today by my family and then our 3 year old son broadcasts it ever so loudly in laughter to the entire dealership! That's right! Just when I didn't think my kids could embarrass me out in public any more than they already have this past year by various things, they seemed to have called my bluff. I did not expect this at all and I was red in my face in a matter of Milli-seconds! I wanted to die. Do you visualize what I am sharing here? If not let me break it down. While we were visiting and test driving this somewhat pricey and very classy Mercedes SUV I had done the unthinkable by accidentally passing some gas with noise, and my almost 4 year old didn't allow this to go unnoticed. Of course not, why would he?! NO, instead him and my almost 6 year old began laughing in such hysterics that the sales man began to ask in a friendly manner as to bond with my children by asking them 'What's so funny guys?'. My face was already probably 10 shades of red as I quietly begged my mind, hoping that my son would read my mind with the threatening tone as I sweated in fear, 'DON'T say it!' Did this help? Of course not!; we're talking about a 3, almost 4 year old little boy who just recently began to get the giggle bug over this whole concept of laughing over such things. And then it happened; little 'Happy' announced to the entire showcase floor room in one of the loudest and most giggling voices, while pointing directly at me 'MOMMY TOOTED A STINKY!!!' followed along with even more belly holding laughter which this time was accompanied by my almost 6 year old daughter. I was glad to see them get such a massive chuckle at my expense (sarcasm obviously) but I was utterly embarrassed beyond expression that they had humiliated me! Could I ask for anything worse? I wondered this as the salesman was very gracious in how he tactfully pretended to not hear my child's loud and obnoxious broadcast to the entire dealership! I thought this was very nice and courteous of him but even still I was just as red, probably even more! My husband gave this goofy like smile to me, as if he too wanted to begin laughing along in disbelief over what had just happened, but he knew better and quickly began to pull in the reigns on our 'Happy' and 'Jewel's' out of control hysteria. Well this whole scene came and went, thankfully, on the rather quick side but none the less, I was still very much in disbelief over what had happened, and I began right there and then to start teaching my kids about 'appropriate behavior' in public. Since my husband and I didn't want to pull out both the kids car and booster seats out of our own truck to test drive the Mercedes we decided to test drive the SUV separately by taking turns. When my husband was out on his turn I began the training of 'Appropriate Behavior 101' to both 'Happy' and 'Jewel'. I picked a spot in the showroom that had two chairs together and had them both sit still while I explained that their loud laughter, accompanied hyper, and little 'Happy' telling the salesman and everyone else in earshot that mommy tooted was inappropriate behavior and that it embarrassed mommy and daddy when they acted this way. To which 'Jewel' interrupted with 'What's embarrassed?'. I explained to them everything as best I could within the time frame of my husbands test drive and can say I happily managed to get them both under control and acting respectful and proper the remainder of our car shopping visit. What did I learn? Well for starters, if I ever felt that I might accidentally let 'one' get lose that I will quickly get as far away from my kids as possible. But seriously what I learned is that, though my kids are great and silly, that they have been lacking the parental teaching of proper conduct in various situations. God calls us as parents to teach our children in His ways so that they can behave and act accordingly so that others who observe and witness our conduct will take notice to how self controlled and orderly we manage ourselves in various settings; both public and private. We are a witnessing tool to the world, and this gave me the perfect opportunity to repeat the meaning of the song 'This little Light of mine'. I was able to remind my kids that the 'Light' represents Christ and the words 'I'm gonna let it shine' describes how we expose the 'Light' (Christ) in our lives to others. If they see us acting foolishly and out of control this obviously does not serve as a good example to reach others, however the followers of Christ that possess self control, wisdom, peace, rational discipline and upright behavior is one that may surely win over the hearts of others to bring them to know and serve the Lord. But we can't do this if we are acting out of control and wild; we must learn self control, something that isn't taught to most of us but is a very necessary and amazing thing to teach our kids to get a grip on. There are many times a child (or adult for that matter) can appear out of control, or in other words may not have self control over the urges they may have to say or do whatever may enter their minds; instead they will just 'act' and 'do' things impulsively, without regard to others around them or even to themselves, which is a big concern. Because we, after all, desire our children to learn self control so that they aren't acting on impulse and making decisions that may harm them or potentially put them in danger. No, we want them to THINK with their brains before acting, in a fashion that is pleasing to God and nothing less. This means, it is up to us as parents to teach our children how to do this. Self-control takes focus, concentration and mainly discipline in NOT acting out of impulse but instead walking in mature and wise decision thinking before causing disrespect, embarrassment, dishonor, or disgrace to themselves, those around them, and ultimately Christ. And don't think this can't be taught to the youngest generation because it can. After coming home and speaking with my kids about the days events we still had about an hour before their bedtime and I challenged both of them to exercise and practice 'self-control', and believe it or not they both (yes, even my 3 year old 'Happy') showed and gained this much needed lesson on this act of will. My friend Jill at Forever n Ever n Always, explains this so perfectly on her blog post entitled 'What Better Witness'. I was very impressed and proud that both my kids actually understood and listened to mommy tonight as I used the day as a teaching tool to correct and teach them proper ways of handling themselves in private and public surroundings. It's just the start, but I really think we are onto a good thing with this. I'm not saying that I'm glad I experienced the humiliating events from tonight because I didn't, but I am glad that it resulting in God showing me where I need to regain control of my kids and their lack of discipline in certain areas. Through this episode tonight I began a new journey of teaching my kids something of utmost importance in my opinion; learning self control. I believe that as they learn this that they will carry with them a very powerful tool that will last them a lifetime and prevent and hopefully protect them from making unwise, quick decisions that might possibly and negatively affect their future. But now with learning this they can know they have the power to show the world how they want to behave and be viewed by others as, not just outstanding citizens, but more importantly ambassadors for Christ. PS. We did not get this nice (oh, so nice) SUV; not tonight at least. I told my husband that if we do decide to purchase it that we are not returning back to that dealership anytime in the near future again, hopefully never. But if we do, we will not be bringing our kids along for the journey. :D Do you have any brief embarrassing story that one of your children put you through that might make me feel just a bit better that this kind of thing doesn't just happen to me?? If so, I would love to hear about it and it really would help ease the pain and suffering I endured this late evening tonight! God bless you all my great friends. I always enjoy your visits! And remember 'God's Not Finished With You Yet!'. Ephesians 5:1