Super Nanny - Aisle 5
Tonight Ava had her first certified supermarket monster, knock-down, drag-out fit. She's been upset or whiney before while grocery shopping, but this time made those times seem as bad as an ice pop on a hot day.
Ava's latest thing is to grab things off the shelf and throw them into the cart. While she is searching for her next addition to the cart we reshelf her previous choices. It is much easier to just let her throw things in the cart and reshelf them than to not let her put them in the cart in the first place. By the time your child gets to two years old you choose your battles.
Ava spotted a Dora the Explorer backpack and, instead of throwing it in the cart, she started wearing it around. After a while she got sick of walking so I put her in the cart. The backpack was now on top of her head because it was hitting the back of the seat in the grocery cart. It was time for the backpack to go. I took it off of her (apparently she didn't realize what was happening at first because she didn't put up a fight) and set it on a laundry detergent display. Let the mayhem begin.
She went ballistic! She started to climb out of the seat while screaming at the top of her lungs. I went into soothing father mode and began holding her as we walked away from the backpack. Usually this works. Even when it doesn't work right away, she'll quiet down in a minute or so. This time was not a usual time. This time was not like any time before in Ava's history.
I think other shoppers got the impression that I was pinching her repeatedly as she screamed "BACKPACK!" and fought to get out of my arms. She wanted nothing more than to once again have what she thought of as HER sweet, sweet Dora backpack. The problem was, now that I've taken the backpack away, I can't give in and let her have it just because she's throwing a fit.
This went on for what was probably only the next ten minutes, but it felt like the next ten days. She has never had a fit of this proportion. It was as if someone had bottled up all of the energy from a 10.0 magnitude earthquake, gave it to Ava to drink, and then rubbed her favorite doll's face in the mud. I was looking around for the horsemen of the apocalypse.
I guess one good thing came of this awful event. When I see someone else's kid writhing and screaming while their parent is just trying to peacefully get some milk and eggs, I will be much less judgmental. Sometimes kids take a whole bottle of crazy pills at the worst times and make their parents look downright cruel to bystanders. Their parenting skills must be lacking if their kid would act so poorly in a public place, right? Wrong. Some days the terrible twos or threes or twelves present themselves in an embarrassing way.
The good thing is, some days are not most days.
Ava's latest thing is to grab things off the shelf and throw them into the cart. While she is searching for her next addition to the cart we reshelf her previous choices. It is much easier to just let her throw things in the cart and reshelf them than to not let her put them in the cart in the first place. By the time your child gets to two years old you choose your battles.
Ava spotted a Dora the Explorer backpack and, instead of throwing it in the cart, she started wearing it around. After a while she got sick of walking so I put her in the cart. The backpack was now on top of her head because it was hitting the back of the seat in the grocery cart. It was time for the backpack to go. I took it off of her (apparently she didn't realize what was happening at first because she didn't put up a fight) and set it on a laundry detergent display. Let the mayhem begin.
She went ballistic! She started to climb out of the seat while screaming at the top of her lungs. I went into soothing father mode and began holding her as we walked away from the backpack. Usually this works. Even when it doesn't work right away, she'll quiet down in a minute or so. This time was not a usual time. This time was not like any time before in Ava's history.
I think other shoppers got the impression that I was pinching her repeatedly as she screamed "BACKPACK!" and fought to get out of my arms. She wanted nothing more than to once again have what she thought of as HER sweet, sweet Dora backpack. The problem was, now that I've taken the backpack away, I can't give in and let her have it just because she's throwing a fit.
This went on for what was probably only the next ten minutes, but it felt like the next ten days. She has never had a fit of this proportion. It was as if someone had bottled up all of the energy from a 10.0 magnitude earthquake, gave it to Ava to drink, and then rubbed her favorite doll's face in the mud. I was looking around for the horsemen of the apocalypse.
I guess one good thing came of this awful event. When I see someone else's kid writhing and screaming while their parent is just trying to peacefully get some milk and eggs, I will be much less judgmental. Sometimes kids take a whole bottle of crazy pills at the worst times and make their parents look downright cruel to bystanders. Their parenting skills must be lacking if their kid would act so poorly in a public place, right? Wrong. Some days the terrible twos or threes or twelves present themselves in an embarrassing way.
The good thing is, some days are not most days.
posted by Jeremy @ 9:58 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
At 3:45 PM,
Jessica said…
Good times... We had a similar experience in Target with Lucas one time. We ended up leaving and just abandoned the cart full of stuff in one of the aisles!
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