I received this update on June today:
“It may be embarrassing when your toddler throws a full-blown screaming fit in the middle of the produce section, but rest assured that other parents feel your pain. The most useful response is to take your child out of the store (even if it means leaving a cart full of food behind) and sit with him in the car or on a bench until he finishes crying. When the storm is over, your child will feel close to you and happy again. And you can take some comfort in knowing that eventually your child will outgrow this behavior.”
Harrison is 71 months. When do they outgrow this again?
Hmmm… I dunno. My boys don’t seem to do this anymore (in public anyway) but Brooke is almost 7 and there’s no sign of her emotional outbursts curbing anytime soon. I keep telling myself that well behaved women never make history.
exactly who did this update come from? did someone pass this on as a note to you? i’m stumped.
The answer- NEVER. I have this problem with the hubby sometimes and he is 400 months old. WOW, seems super old to me.
You know I was just kidding, right?
My first compliant is – “the most useful response is to take your child out of the store…” I’m not sure who wrote this the child or the childless shoppers near-by. That sounds to me like declaring victory for the child. Isn’t that exactly what they want, to leave the store? I say, never surrender. Finish that shopping, show the child that they don’t call the shots – at least not all the time, tantrum or no tantrum.
I’m not sure if they actually outgrow it. But if it makes you feel better I think it gets better after 5 or 6 or 7 or 8….oh crap, each kid is different. Hang in there?!?!?!
I think the question is DO they outgrow this? lol. so far, no luck over here. sigh.
I guarantee those “helpful” solution people never had kids. They tell you that so you can take the kid out of the store because they OBVIOUSLY want to shop in peace in quiet…my favorite part of this was “when the storm is over, your child will feel close to you and happy again.” I have a feeling that if a tantrum happened in, let’s say, Target, I leave my grocercies, that I’m in desperate need of, and I’m dragging my 30 lb plus child while they’re kicking and screaming, I am dragging them through the parking lot up to the car, shoving them through the door, all the while they are screaming bloody murder and their face is turning red with purple blotches, and I try to look composed while everybody is staring at me. After ALL that, the child might be happy after it’s all over, but I wouldn’t..not for a long time.
Too funny. They left out one phrase that might have cleared this up for you … “when the storm is over [like in 22 years], your child will feel close to you and happy again.” See? They were just missing a key phrase.
This came from babycenter’s weekly update.
I apparently only ever tried this once and my mother completely ignored me and continued shopping. I followed her screaming and crying and she completely ignored me.
By all accounts I got bored of it after a while.
Whoever wrote that obviously coddles their child too much!
I would never leave a full cart in the middle on the store. Someone would for sure swipe all my carefully selected produce and deli items. That’s just plain silly. Get the goods and get out. If the crying and screaming from your (or in my case) my teenager bothers the other shoppers, let them leave their own carts in the middle of the store and go home.
The advise and predicted result are pretty much the script for my tantrum thrower who is 114 months and definitely NOT coddled. Every kid is different, but I we only had one and a half meltdowns at Disneyland this year, compared to multiple times daily when he was three, so there has been improvement.
I am EXACTLY like Camille! What she said!!!