It started with throwing food around the restaurant at other diners and tipping their water over their heads, it escalated into lobbing ice cream into grandma's soup and peaked at faking very loud puking noises that silenced the entire room. No wonder we got an ASBO from my favourite little restaurant at lunchtime.
Please, please tell me about your children's most spectacular tantrums, as I know hearing them will make me laugh away my humiliation!
As a mum of triplet girls who have just turned two, I knew it would be hard. But seeing old ladies tutting as they picked my girls' soggy oatcakes from their blouses, which had been hurled by my girls at full pelt, really nearly pushed me over the edge. It's a lovely little farm restaurant and going there used to make me feel I actually have a life.
Now I've resolved never to go out to lunch with my girls - until they're ten, 12,, 16. I tried the old "ignore bad behaviour, praise good" tip but there was no good behaviour to praise and ignoring them made me appear like a neglectful cow (and resulted in my face dripping with yoghurt which had been pinged at me from three little spoons). In the end, face burning scarlet and eyes stinging with tears, I almost catapulted my girls into the car and escaped.
I'm new to this, so please forgive me if I don't quite get Mumsnet etiquette quite right. But this is me reaching out to you for salvation!