Now I must admit to being blessed. In the 4 and a half years I’ve been a mother, this is the first time I’ve ever had to really face this dilemma. My kids can normally be brought back to reasonable behavior simply by asking, “Do you want to go to the car?” I guess it has been so long since I actually had to leave a cart in the store and walk out, my oldest has forgotten. I’ve never had to do it with my DD, and the baby is still too little to do anything that necessitates a trip to the car.
In truth, looking back at my actions today, I reacted badly. I threatened a trip to the car but didn’t carry it out. Why not? You ask. Well, the major meltdown didn’t begin until we hit the bread aisle, which is the very last stop before we checkout. So there I stand, with my entire weeks worth of groceries in the cart. Can I really just walk out of the store and leave all that milk and meat in the cart right there in the bread aisle? It’s not as easy as it sounds. I’m only about 20 steps away from the registers. I’ve got one of those Bean Trucks full of my food. There is no guarantee my food will still be in my cart when I come back in. I’m only 20 or so steps from the register… So I caved, I went through and paid my bill, had the bagger take the food to the SUV, and dragged my DS4, who screamed the whole way, out to the car along with DD2 and DS6mos.
Now, as I sit in the relative quiet of my home (it’s naptime, that’s why it’s quiet!), I can reflect on what went wrong this morning. My day started off on the wrong foot when I woke up to find my weeks worth of recipes had somehow vanished from the computer. The hour and a half I spent inputting recipes into Big Oven yesterday was a waste because every last one of them is now *POOF* gone. So that started my day off bad, and if I am honest with myself, I will have to admit that my attitude soured when I couldn’t get everything I had planned to do this morning done because of the gremlins who live in my computer and ate my recipes. If I continue in my pursuit of honesty, I will be forced to realize that I was indeed less than patient with the kids the morning when they woke up, because of my own bad attitude. So it is possible that my bad attitude rubbed off on my son… Throw in an entire morning of store after store, and I’m sure therein lies the cause of his meltdown. It’s still no excuse for his behavior… But hopefully I will have learned my own lesson about how my attitudes affect my kids, both for the good, and for the bad.
Regardless, he won’t be having donuts this week.