A friend of mine shared a blog post on Facebook this week and it really hit home with me after this past Saturday. I have been very lucky as a parent because for the most part Nate is an angel when we are around other people. He’ll get hyper and act up a bit but in his 5 years he has saved his meltdowns for my house and my parent’s house. I have always thought that the comfort of both places and the people in them is what makes him think it is okay to go completely mental at the drop of a hat.
As far as I can remember Nate has only had one major meltdown in public and it happened last month. Of course I wonder if it is like childbirth and you forget how bad the pain really was. This particular incident happened the day after his birthday party. Nate had some Toys R Us gift cards so we took him to the store. He didn’t find exactly what he wanted so I suggested we try another Toys R Us or order the toys online instead of spending the money on something else. He agreed and we went to a second Toys R Us right down the road. We looked around and they didn’t have the toys he wanted either but he saw an Angry Birds mystery pack (a $3.00 little plastic bag that contains a small figure but it’s a crap shoot on which one you get) and he insisted he was going to buy it with his money. I calmly explained that if he spent the $3.00 he would not have enough money for both of the other toys if we ordered them. He said he didn’t care and grabbed it anyway. I grabbed it and put it back and told him we were leaving. He grabbed it again and ran to the next aisle. I grabbed him and he threw himself on the floor screaming that he was buying it with his money. At 7-months pregnant I had to pick him up and drag him out of the store while he screamed and cried. I was so angry at him for embarrassing me but honestly what parent hasn’t been there? I was lucky this wasn’t a regular occurrence. He apologized after he calmed down and we moved on. What else can you do?
Saturday was his first soccer practice and Nate is a nervous kid. He talked about practice all morning and kept asking when we were going because he was excited. I figured it would go well because one of his friends would be there. Then we got there and all he did was whine and cry about how he never wanted to play soccer, he hates his “man socks”, doesn’t need to practice, was hungry…he went on and on and after 45 minutes I finally lost it. I told Love to take him to the car and take him home. He started yelling and crying and Love took him away. I said goodbye to my friend and she kept saying that as parents we have all been there before. I know it’s true, but it is still embarrassing, and he was disruptive while the other parents were trying to enjoy their kids having fun. I’m not looking forward to this weekend when we get to try it all over again.
This blog post really made me realize that my friend is right. We have all been in a situation where your kid is totally embarrassing and it does not make you a bad parent when it happens. We had tantrums when we were young, and no matter what style of parenting you subscribe to you are going to hit bumps along the road. I think that if you handle them with dignity and take charge of the situation then you have nothing to be ashamed about. I know I sympathize with other parents when their children are challenging in public. It goes with the territory and I think this guy sums it up quite nicely…
themattwalshblog.com/2013/09/15/dear-parents-you-need-to-control-your-kids-sincerely-non-parents/
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