About Me

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I have three fabulous children and a terrific husband. I was recently laid off and have decided to try the stay-at-home gig. We'll see how it goes!

Sunday, March 23, 2014

New Crazy Stuff

I added a new "Crazy" to the crazy page.  Check it out.  Still more to come.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Screaming Baby

Have you ever been in a store and heard the screams of a child echoing throughout the entire building?  If you have, it's probably me and my youngest.  That girl has some lungs!  And if she doesn't want to be there, the whole store knows about it.  And rarely does she want to be there.  My two oldest almost never acted up in a store.  The few times they did, we were able to whisk them out.  I don't always have that luxury anymore.  When I wasn't 'that' mom, I used to think things like, "Why doesn't she take that kid out of here?" or "Doesn't that bother the parents?".  Now that I have first-hand experience I can tell you the answers are, "It's complicated," and "Yes!".

I'll start with the second question.  Of course it bothers me.  I hate taking my screaming child through a store.  It annoys me and I'm sure it annoys others.  It used to embarrass me, but I've learned to ignore it and get done what I came to do.

The answer to the first question gets a bit more complicated.  Our youngest has something of a temper and if she doesn't get her way, she screams.  We've worked on it.  We've done time out, tried to ignore it and when possible removed her from the situation.  We almost never eat out because we don't know what she'll do.  The problem comes when it is just me.  I don't go to stores to shop for fun.  There's no loafing around or window shopping.  I go to get what I need and get out.  I know I should take her out when she starts up, but we have to eat.  My husband travels a lot, so I often go to the store with one or all of my kids.

At one point my son had strep throat when my husband was out of town.  I had to take both him and the baby to the doctor's office.  I was prepared with games and snacks and she did pretty well.  When it was time to go the to store to get his medicine, however, she was done and wanted to go home.  She wailed the entire time we were in Target.  My son was half asleep in the big section of the cart, looking pitiful, while she was screaming like a banshee in the front seat of the cart.  I looked like a terrible mom; dragging my obviously ill son through a store while my  toddler's cries echo through the store.  But my son needed his medicine.  I wasn't going to wait, so my only option was to take them into the store.

People stared at me as if to say, "Do something.  Why aren't you trying to make the kid happy?"  I don't try to make her happy because I can't.  Nothing short of getting her home can make that child happy, so I don't try.  I keep my head up and ignore the ear piercing noise as best I can.  I have no idea how to stop this behavior.  I'm hoping that as she gets older, I'll be able to reason with her better and she'll understand that there are consequences for her actions.  Right now, she's too young to understand.  Just another thing I have to look forward to.