Chocolate Milk

You know when you are out and see the parent with the screaming or crying child? I think most people look at that scene and have some internal conversation with him or herself about how the parent is handling the situation. Are they giving in too much? Are they being too strict? Are they yelling too much? Do they just need to give the kid a hug and make everything all better? To some of you that I know, the sound of the uncontrollable child is like fingers on a chalkboard. It's ok. I know it bothers you. I'll try to keep it at a minimum and do everything I can to have my children behave. To most parents, the scene invokes the "I've been there and understand" look. Sometimes when I see the parent so frazzled, it's the parent that I want to go over and hug and say "hang in there."

Today, as you can guess - I was that parent with the screaming kid. It always amazes me how long Julia can last with screaming and crying. Our task: groceries (isn't this usually when it takes place?). The market is probably a 7-10 minute walk from our apartment. It's small with narrow aisles. When you are going with two kids - one in a backpack and one in a stroller and carrying a bag to put all your stuff in, there isn't much wiggle room for other customers around you or for you to move through the store. It isn't very pleasant even with a well-behaved child and definitely not even close to being pleasant with a child that is going crazy. Our babysitter, Armi, comes a few times a week and I make sure that during that time, I run to the store for everything I need that day and also walk Bob. If I get to exercise - bonus! Today Armi came but my time was spent in another welcome - "here's what our office does" meeting. I'm glad I went but it meant that I had to take both kids right before nap time to the store. It's shabbat and the stores close around 2 or 3 so it was now or never.

Julia definitely didn't want to go so I tried the whole bribery trick. It didn't work - in fact it completley backfired. The bribe: Julia - if you are good and don't cry or whine while we make this quick trip to the store - you can have some chocolate milk when we get back home. The results: I want the chocolate milk NOW!!! She then proceeded to scream and cry for the chocolage milk for the ENTIRE time it took us to go to the store. I bought the chocolate milk at the store and thought that maybe if she saw it and realized she needed to be good to get it when we were home, that she would quiet down. Nope. I really wanted to give in. I know if I had just given it to her at the store, she would have been quiet and it would have made my shopping trip and everyone else's much more pleasant. But I didn't - I held strong and still didn't give it to her when we got home because of how she behaved. This really set her off. I think she expected it no matter what when we got home.

Finally, after lunch, she quieted down and I've got her upstairs for a nap. She is so tired but I've already been up and told her she needs to stay in bed a little longer. Won't she just sleep? We'd all be so much happier. I love her so much but some days she drives me crazy. It makes me think that I'm not fit to be a stay-at-home mom. But that's a whole other blog some day......