Comments on: Meltdown Management

By: Cindy

Cindy — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 04:58:19 +0000

I think the grocery store is a little different than other stores My husband is a med student and constantly gone or studying at times I have no choice to take my child to the grocery story when she is not 100% pleasant you need food get in get out however there was a time in my teens I saw a child screaming in a stroller very loudly in a department store the mother was casually sifting through the clearance racks dutifully ignoring her child’s bad behavior I went to another section of the store there was not a place in the building I could not hear that child screaming and the lady didn’t leave for 45 min even as a teenager then I knew there had to be a way where mom didn’t have to miss the clearance sale and every other person in the store wasn’t driven out I probably would have given the kid food if the sale was that important to me and it was because I waited 45 min till that screaming kid was gone to get my shopping in

By: Afriye

Afriye — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:00:33 +0000

No, don’t just stop and leave a store. Then the kid, who doesn’t want to be there anyway, learns that all he has to do to leave the store is pitch a fit. You can hurry through, get just the basics at the grocery, or decide to slowly head towards the mall exit sooner than planned, but don’t let the kid know. Obviously, avoid shopping, eating, etc., when the kid is likely to be a complete wreck. Restaurants are a different story, though – the other diners are being unacceptably inconvenienced, and if a trip outside for some fresh air doesn’t work, you either have to leave altogether or have one person wait in the car with the kid.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:09:59 +0000

The mistake is thinking you can get through the line (or the meal, or the fill-in-the-blank) with the screaming kid. Nobody else should have to deal with your out-of-control kid. And since you can’t make them stop, leave. Every time they pull it, leave. Leave the cart, leave the restaurant. Just leave. Invest nothing in staying. Leave. If you do it every time they start, you’ll actually do it incredibly rarely. When my kids were at the age of the public tantrum, they learned to stop immediately the moment I got my car keys out.