If you say "Shut up or we're leaving," you better be prepared to follow through. Otherwise, that four-year-old just called your bluff and you're sitting there with a pair of deuces and he's raking in the pot.
Look. Your kids know that unless you plan to follow through on your threats, they have the upper hand. They have an incredible grasp of psychology.
I was trying to cash a check for a man Saturday and his child was literally running around screaming at the top of his lungs. The man kept telling the kid "Behave. I don't know what's wrong with you."
I had problems with the check because he had folded it and gotten it wet, so the check machine was having trouble reading the numbers.
The kid is screaming and yelling and running around and the man never raises his voice going "I need you to behave. I think you're tired. I'm talking to you. I need you to listen to me. Look at me. I'm being serious now. I need you be quiet."
Dude. Seriously. Grab the little howler monkey and put your hand over its mouth.
Or say "I'm sorry, we need to leave, can I get my check back?"
It is your responsibility to make your children behave in public. And if you can't control them at four, how will you control them at 14?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
You got it exactly right. Becoming a parent is easy. Good "Parenting" takes some effort & determination.
I'll be honest...it makes me CRINGE when I hear children called Howler Monkeys..... but you are correct. If my kids pitch a fit in public, we leave. Plain and simple. Thank goodness my kids don;t pitch fits all that often...probably because they don't get rewarded for it.
But before I became a Mom, I worked at Retail stores....and there are some really bad children out there. But I am convinced that bad kids = bad parents!
Oh and if I see a parent saying SHUT UP to her kids...I will always say something. Usually it's "Good Parenting" No wonder the kids act up, being talked to like that.
It takes some balls to do that. Actually walking out and generally following through with such talk.
My partner and I, along with our son (just the one at the time) did just that. He was running riot around a small bookstore, screaming when we tried to accost him, so we grabbed him and stormed out of the store with him.
One elderly woman (bless her!) stopped me. I was expecting a lecture about 'why smacking kids made them behave etc', when instead she congratulated me and complimented my partner and myself for our actions. We spoke for a while (as I was basking in the compliments, as I don't get many!) and I felt rather smug :)
I've visable piercings and tattoos, so people usually seem to expect me to do a shite job with the monkey.
Eeek, long comment, sorry! Keep well,
MM x
Post a Comment