ups and downs of storytime

Today I manned the desk during a coworker's storytime.  We had one patron who was frustrated that we were out of tickets for the first storytime.  She kept telling me how frustrated she was, and questioned why she was able to get tickets two minutes before storytime last week but not this week.  Thankfully, my branch has created talking points about our new ticketing system, which we've been using in situations like this.  Basically the reasoning behind our ticketing boils down to a positive storytime experience and safety.  Most patrons seem understanding of these reasons.  Today's patron was one of the few who was too upset to listen so I did the good ol' broken record routine, offered tickets to the later storytime, handed out stickers and stamps, and even brought out our storytime toys a bit early.  During her moment of frustration a very funny thing did happen.  Her daughter looked up at her at one point and said, "you're being a bad mama."  Now I don't know if this was something the child was currently fond of saying and whether it had anything to do with her mom's frustration towards me, but it definitely brought me much-need comedic relief, which I most certainly did not express.

On a brighter note, while waiting for storytime to begin, a family comprised of a mom and three little ones, realized they left something in their car.  As they scurried to get it before storytime began, the oldest boy, who was about five, hollered, "don't start storytime without me!"