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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Mortified

He was great at Wal-Mart so I expected no different at the video store. We walked inside and he ran to the gumball machine. I watched him from the corner of my eye and told him we'd get one before we left.

Then he began throwing his tantrum.

His screams echoed throughout the store. I tried ignoring them at first, hopeful he would just follow me as I continued walking but instead he threw himself into the floor in a full out fit. I walked back to him and told him to stop, it did no good. So I put Annabel's car seat (with her snugly inside) on the ground to grab his arms and get on face level.

"Stop right now." I said in a firm voice. My temper was starting to rise as did my embarrassment.

When this didn't work I grabbed him by the hand to lead him to the video I wanted. I knew exactly where it was and all I had to do was to grab it and go. This wasn't to happen however as he immediately threw himself to the ground, his body dead weight. I struggled to pull him and carry Annabel before finally reaching the other side of the store. I felt eyes bore through me and tried to keep my cool.

Suddenly Vincent spotted a Thomas video and immediately stopped. He stood and rushed over and was back to the sweet loving boy I know. We quickly made my selections and hurried to the front. Vincent was pleasant as I paid and I placed Annabel just over the line with DVD's in her seat to quickly buy a gumball for her brother.

A orange one came out and this led to another fit as he wanted the white one. He began to scream and tantrum yet again. I regretted my decision to be nice and watched as he threw himself into the floor and began his thrashing, kicking so hard he lost his shoe. I grabbed the shoe and tried to place it onto his foot after this I pulled him around to Annabel to try to leave. This is when he played his little dead weight trick on me again.

As this occurred an older man was walking out of the store. He stopped to watch the show and I felt like asking him if he would like some popcorn. I was mortified, embarrassed and fed up so I did what I should have done in the first place.

I spanked his little hiney.

He continued to cry but he followed me as asked out to the van. I told him when we got home it was straight to bed for nap. And that is exactly what happened.

From here on out, when he tantrums like this, I'm not requesting he stop. I'm demanding it. I refuse to have my child behave like that.

1 comments:

Lawfrog said...

My nephew was a champion tantrum thrower and since my mom had (still does) custody of him when I was 17, I had many occasions to witness the lovely fit throwing you describe when I would go out with him in public.

I finally figured out something that worked when we were out. When he started throwing a fit, I left the store or wherever we were at. He knew I meant business when I was willing to leave whatever items I had picked up by that time.

Also, he got no gum balls, candy or anything else. Throw a fit and we were out of there. One time, I literally had to drag him through the aisles of a clothing store because of his fit throwing.

I feel your pain.