takes us back to our grocery store example, where the child was
having a major fit in the candy aisle. What some parents have done is
simply leave the child on the floor and move on to the next aisle.
They ask the next person they see, “Boy, do you hear all that racket
over there?”
Seriously, what often happens is that the child starts worrying
where Mom or Dad went, forgets the candy, and runs to find his
parent. Naturally, you wouldn’t want to get too far away, depending
on the age of the child. Then again, some kids run to find their parent
and then remember the candy and continue the tantrum. What should
you do then?
The answer to this question depends on two things: How badly do
you need to shop and how brave are you? A number of years ago, I
was shopping by myself in our local grocery store. I saw a lady come
in with a four-year-old boy. She picked the boy up, put him in a cart,
and pushed the cart past the bubble-gum machine. The boy asked for
gum, the mother said no, and the boy went ballistic. The mother kept
moving and said nothing.
I shopped for twenty minutes, the mom shopped for twenty
minutes, and the little boy howled for twenty minutes. Wherever you
were in the store, which was not large, you could hear the kid’s blood-
curdling screams. But his mother was great. She paid no attention to
her son. She had come in for milk, green pepper, and converted rice,
and, by God, she was going out with milk, green pepper, and
converted rice. I remember passing this duo in the rice aisle. While
the child wailed, his mother was calmly looking at the rice box:
“Let’s see, four ounces times six. Yes, that should be enough for
tonight.”
I was impressed. But Mom was soon to fall off her pedestal. I
hurried along because I wanted to get out of the noisy store. I got to
the checkout line. The racket behind me started getting louder. There
they were. This lady and her unhappy son got in the next line, and she
marcin
(Marcin)
#1