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People have an opinion on everything. I stopped caring years ago. I have a disabled child who wears diapers, noise-canceling headphones, and can't answer basic questions at age 5, and people STILL shake their head at the "brat". Can't win!! What I would give to just go buy a prescription without a stare or sneer...
Maybe I have a high tolerance, but I don't see brats. I see tiredness, hunger, boredom.
Bravo! It's amazing how a different perspective yields such different outlooks!
I say this often: when you only have a hammer, everything in your world starts to look like a nail.
Bravo! It's amazing how a different perspective yields such different outlooks!
I say this often: when you only have a hammer, everything in your world starts to look like a nail.
Tiredness, hunger and boredom are all things that are not inevitable. Go out after the nap, bring a snack, a favorite small toy, break your errands into smaller more manageable trips, include a stop at the park to work off some energy, etc. Sure there will be an occasional one off but for the most part the 'bad' behavior falls back on the parents. There's a difference between can't and won't.
I can see timing errands for the best time of day for a child. But what about parents of many children? If one has, say, 2-3 children (or more) and they have to run an errand, are they supposed to somehow magically time it right so that each child is perfectly satiated? Besides, how is a child going to learn to handle patiently waiting in line if they're constantly being plied with snacks and toys?
Look, I'm not condoning bratty behavior or negligent parenting. I do have kids, but I never let them run around or annoy other people. If anything, I err on the opposite end of the spectrum with my expectations for them. But they're kids and sometimes they do have slip-ups. Two of them have ADHD so even now that they're older I have to micromanage them a ton out in public (don't touch anything, stay right here, don't fidget, etc.) and between them and a toddler, we do the best we can. Try to have a conversation with a postal worker while you're focus is divided up like that! If there was a huge issue where I knew they wouldn't be able to hold it together (like if we're missing naptime) I wouldn't even set foot in the place. But we also live out of town and I don't have the luxury of running in and out of doing my errands if, say, the toddler gets antsy when we're almost at the counter. (Heck, it's hard enough to balance packages while holding a squirmy toddler as it is!)
There IS a difference between can't and won't. And VERY often, what some bystanders think is a "won't" is actually a "can't".
WHAT? I don't know about you honey, but when I was out in public with my kids, I controlled them. If they didn't want to hold my hand and they tried to stray away from my side, I just held onto their wrist or forearm. Little kids need to be controlled, for their own good and the good of others.
That uncontrolled kid could conceivably stop destroying things that don't belong to him and dart out the door into the parking lot. Or knock over a display onto himself or someone else. I can't believe there is even one person on this thread who disagrees that kids should be controlled in public. My pet peeve is people who let their kids roam around in a restaurant. When my kids were little, they were made to sit on the inside of the booth, with me and my husband on the outsides, to keep them in. Why do people think it is OK to let a toddler or walk around the aisles near their table, bothering other people and getting under foot of the wait staff? And what kind of lesson is this for the kid...No matter what other people think, it's ok to do whatever you want?
And these parents who don't hold tightly to small kids in a parking lot.....I can't stand to see it. If I back over the child, it is me who will be sued. All because I couldn't see a 2-foot tall toddler walking unattended behind the trunk of my car.
I don't control my children.
I teach them to control themselves. That is the #1 priority of being a parent.
Tiredness, hunger and boredom are all things that are not inevitable. Go out after the nap, bring a snack, a favorite small toy, break your errands into smaller more manageable trips, include a stop at the park to work off some energy, etc. Sure there will be an occasional one off but for the most part the 'bad' behavior falls back on the parents. There's a difference between can't and won't.
You seem to think most people can pick and choose when to run errands, pay bills, get groceries, etc. You're wrong. Most of us live on a tight schedule trying to meet all of our obligations.
You seem to think most people can pick and choose when to run errands, pay bills, get groceries, etc. You're wrong. Most of us live on a tight schedule trying to meet all of our obligations.
I don't know what fantasy land these people live in, that they think children should be quiet and still all the time, and that parents can schedule their days around any times that they might not be.
The OP goes to the post office, what, twice per week? For how long, I wonder? A year? That's 100 trips to the post office. She specifically mentioned one kid destroying cards, and one kid knocking over an elderly person (who was immediately removed by the parent). Those are isolated incidents. For the most part, people must be pretty well behaved during her visits, except for an inevitable meltdown here and there.
I'm glad someone mentioned special needs kids, too. I was going to. You never know what other challenges a family might be facing. People might try being more sympathetic and less judgmental when you don't know the whole story.
If you can't handle the people you encounter in public places, stay home.
Tiredness, hunger and boredom are all things that are not inevitable. Go out after the nap, bring a snack, a favorite small toy, break your errands into smaller more manageable trips, include a stop at the park to work off some energy, etc. Sure there will be an occasional one off but for the most part the 'bad' behavior falls back on the parents. There's a difference between can't and won't.
I'll remember to tell this to the slew of tired, hungry, bored ADULTS I encounter each day which vastly outnumber the children of the same temperament.
And for the record... Again, I'm not condoning blatant misbehavior by children, or letting them run rampant. But when did adults stop realizing the very basic fact that children are humans-in-training and can't be expected to have the same self-control as grown people? They're (hopefully) on their way to being able to, but they're not there yet. That's like tsk-tsk-ing when a first grader can't read Tolstoy fluently. It must be the parents' fault that the brats can't read properly!
COLMA, Calif. - Colma police are looking for a mother who allegedly beat up a woman who told her to quiet down her screaming child.
According to police 20-year-old Bree Hajek-Richardson was shopping at the Nordstroms Rack in Colma when she saw a child screaming, having a “tantrum,” in a shopping cart at the checkout counter.
"It wasn't bothering me, (the tantrum) but it was just the volume was a little bit loud," explains Hajek-Richardson, "it was hurting my ears so I asked her very nicely to calm her child down a little bit, you know the volume."
But the mother apparently didn't appreciate the request and according to Hajek-Richardson the woman got angry and started raising her voice.
She says the woman said, "don't tell my child what to do and I said didn't tell your child what to do I said just quiet them down a little bit."
The entire encounter inside the store, according to Hajek-Richardson lasted about two minutes and ended after, "I tell her to go to hell and she said I'll see you there."
She says she thought that was it, but when she went outside she says heard that same mother's voice.
"I hear her (say) ‘so where did you tell me to go?'" explains Hajek-Richardson, "I said, ‘I told you to go to hell' and the next thing I know she hits me with the fist and then hits me again and lays on top of me."
She says the woman eventually got up and took off. Hajek-Richardson was left with scrapes, a bloody mouth and a tooth she's not sure she can save.
She filed a police report and went to the emergency room where she was treated and released.
Colma police confirmed Tuesday that there was a verbal fight between two women that led to a physical altercation. They say the incident was caught on surveillance video and they are right now trying to track down the other person involved.
Hajek-Richardson admits this isn't the first time she's spoken to a parent about a loud child but says this is the first time she's gotten such a violent reaction.
She told KTVU she would understand if the woman was angry and told her off, but she draws the line at throwing a punch.
"You don't go hitting people. Who does that?" said Hajek-Richardson "talk to me and say I don't appreciate that."
All that story needs is a background track of "Jerry, Jerry." In fact, that mother's behavior was so ridiculous that it made the news.
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