tantrum

I decided to start a series of posts chronicling some funny, embarrassing mishaps that happen to me. We all know that motherhood can be a huge adventure, so I hope by reading these embarrassing moments in my life, you can feel better about yours!

Let’s set the scene….You are at a store and you hear a screaming child. You look around and see a mom just going about her business and you wonder to yourself…why doesn’t she do anything about it? You judge her, you feel sorry for her and/or you do your best to not make eye contact. You don’t want her to see you watching. Before having a toddler I too judged that mom. Luckily I haven’t been in that situation (at the store), just yet, but I now know that judging just brings on bad karma. Because every time I think “thank goodness that’s not my kid”….karma laughs and my son BECOMES that kid.

A good friend of mine told me a funny story about her son throwing a fit while leaving the park. At 9 months pregnant all she could do was hold her head up and get to her car as quickly as possible. She said to herself “don’t look back”. And when she told me this I laughed, because I knew exactly how she felt. You feel everyone is staring at you, and you just want the scene to end. If you don’t look back you don’t see the looks. My son has been throwing these “fits” for some time now when he doesn’t get his way. They are no fun what so ever, and figuring out how to deal with them has been one of my biggest challenges.

Take our library class for example. Two out of the 3 classes I had to remove my son from the class early. The first time his fit was over someone else’s water cup he couldn’t have and a toy that had to be put away. He screamed and cried for what felt like FOREVER! The worst part about that class was earlier there was a child misbehaving and I thought “thank goodness that isn’t my kid”. Enter Karma…It was me that had to leave the class. The second time was even worse! Nothing could distract him! This time the fit was over the fact that I wouldn’t give him peanut butter crackers! We had to leave the class because I didn’t want to be that disruptive mother. I guess I already was. I made jokes and faces about it all so that the other moms there knew that I knew it wasn’t appropriate behavior.  My friend tells me I won because I didn’t give in and give the cracker…but I am not so sure!

I wish I could say I have learned how to “handle” these fits, but I still haven’t. What I have learned is that I won’t judge that mom in the store any more. I have found ignoring the fits work sometimes, and maybe that mom is doing just that. People say to remove the kid from the situation, but come on! Do you know how much of an effort it is to get out of the house just to go to target with a toddler? You’ve come too far to abort the mission!  Do you really want to leave your full cart and leave? I think not!

I think as moms all we can do when the situation gets tough is hold our heads up high, laugh about it, and whatever you do…..Don’t look back!

What’s your latest embarrassing moment?