Once Upon a Time

In a state far, far away from Texas lived a family of three. There was a daddy, a mommy, and a sweet little girl. They were very happy, except they missed their families in Texas very much. In fact, their wonderful family of three would soon become a family of four. The little girl was especially excited about becoming a big sister.

Soon after the little girl turned 2, and for the next year or so, she decided to exert her independence and test her parents' patience. Most of the time she was still as sweet as sugar, but every once in a while she turned demanding and unpredictable, irrationally screaming and crying for no apparent reason.

One day, early in the morning, the little girl woke her mommy and asked for breakfast. Her mother, suffering from morning sickness and exhaustion, crept down the stairs only to realize there was no milk in the house. Knowing her sweet little girl wouldn't be satisfied with any breakfast that didn't involve milk, she decided they would run to the grocery store around the corner.

While at the grocery store the little girl asked to be carried. The mommy lovingly obliged because she knew soon she would be carrying a new baby in her arms and not have room to hold the little girl. However, once the mommy grabbed some milk, she began to have trouble holding both the milk and the little girl. So, she gently put the little girl down and told her she'd have to walk the rest of the way.

The little girl did not like being put down one single bit. She began to cry and tug at her mother's clothes. As the mommy continued down the aisles, the little girl cried more loudly and began to stomp her feet. She blocked her mother's path and even sat on the floor refusing to walk. When none of that worked, the little girl began screaming as loudly as she could. She screamed, "MOMMY! MOMMY!" She screamed, "NO! NO! NO!" She screamed, "HOLD YOU!" You see this is how she asked someone to hold her.

The mommy finally made her way to the register amid many gawks and gapes. She literally had to drag the little girl through the parking lot to their car. Once in the car, the little girl continued to cry and scream and kick her feet.

Once the mommy and the little girl were back home, the little girl ate her breakfast, sniffling the entire time. Then the mommy carried the little girl to the couch, snuggled her, the little girl apologized and everyone lived happily ever after.

Not really, but what really happened once I got Addison home isn't nearly as fairytale-ish!

This is the first memory I have of Addi throwing an absolute temper tantrum. I told this story not to prove that my child can be a brat just like yours can, but because while my 3 and I were at Target today a screaming, angry, irrational little boy and his mommy passed by our aisle we were sharing with another shopper. My reaction? Distract my children so that mother wouldn't have any more gawks and gapes than she was already getting. The other shoppers reaction? Look right at the mother and loudly tell her, "Oh, my, he needs to go home!" She then continued to groan and gripe about the little boy as long as we shared that aisle.

I don't know the lady. I didn't even really look at her. She was old enough to have children, maybe even young grandchildren.

Honestly, I couldn't believe someone of that gender and that age in Target (which, let's face it, is sometimes nothing more than a field trip destination for young mommies on a week day morning when you just can't spend one more second inside the house!) would react so negatively to a situation that every mother (and probably every father) has to endure at some point. It stinks being on the receiving end of criticism, especially smack dab in the middle of a time when you are being most critical of yourself.

There were so many things I wanted to share with the other shopper. SO MANY THINGS! None of them were nice and I really tried to find a nicer way to phrase what I wanted to express, but, in the end, I just let her rant. She might have been having the worst day of her life. Who knows. I do hope that she's thought about her reaction since and will handle a similar situation differently in the future. As for me, it was a good reminder to love my neighbor...always...period...amen!

Here the sweet little girl is holding a sweet little boy and the sweet little baby the family of three was so excited about is taking a nap. She has also had her demanding moments as I'm sure the little boy will too.