10 minutes of HELL

Yes, my beloved little sweet pea decided to throw an all out fit of tantrum yesterday while I was with my mom at the mall. It started out with her finger grabbing everything she could touch, which I warned, "if you don't keep your hands to your side, then we will not ride the train." She stopped for all of five minutes and then proceeded to mess with the t-shirt display and so came another warning, "keep it up and we will wait in the car." So then my little man starts to follow suit of his sister and as I'm giving him his warning, she takes off and hides behind one of the displays (I see her instantly) and tell her to come over to me right now, she doesn't listen, I ask her again, nope.

Ok by this time, I had it, I could feel my blood pressure rising and my mom gave me her car keys, I grabbed the kids and proceeded to head out and that is when it started. "I'll be good!" she screamed. No, sorry - I gave you three opportunities to be good and you didn' listen, so we leave. She kicks, she cries, she screams for her nana as we head up the escalator and people are giving me the "Oh my god, what is she doing to that child" look.....Yes, people I'm holding my child's hand as we go up the escalator and yes she is screaming bloody murder because she doesn't want to go, and yes I am praying for the higher spirit to give me the strength to survive this unbearable moment. Meanwhile, my son (I think) is in complete shock of the whole event because he doesn't make a peep.

We get to the top and I see the exit door, yes, this horrifying moment is almost over as she is continuing to scream and yell, I want to say "f#@$ it" and just stay for the sake of her to stop, but I knew that if I did that, what message does that send? That your behavior was acceptable and throwing temper tantrums gets you what you want in the end, so I forced myself to continue the walk to the door, I could sense a few people behind me and finally reached to open the door and then pixie grabs anything to hold her from making into the exit door, the woman behind me almost falls on top of us. I apologize, she gives me the "poor you" look and proceeds to say something that I didn't hear because of the crying. We make it to the car, I open the door, get my little man in and then I look at my daughter and want to cry.

I say nothing to her and get in the car, she proceeds to kick and says, "I will be good, I promise." I look at her again, and said, do you think that is good behavior, what are you doing right now - I tell her she is getting a naughty check mark for her behavior and that sends her into another tizzy, finally after about another minute or so, she settles down - just in time for my mom to come back to the car.

My mom says nothing and we start to leave, then my son says, "Nanny, are you mad?" and she replies, "No, bub I'm not mad." Then he says, "Oh,okay, mommy is mad, she's f%$#ing mad."

I wanted to die at that moment - oh calgon...take me away...


"While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about." ~Angela Schwindt