"OH, EVIL WOLRD, SWALLOW ME NOW!"
That is what I thought when my kid was like this:
At that very moment, everyone around and in the store turned to stare at me. What was I going to do? Only this came to my mind: "Oh, evil world, swallow me now!" So I said to him, "Okay son, but first let's leave these bags somewhere safe so that we don't have to carry them all along until your father comes and picks us up." I think Jumbo saw that because many people were watching, he obeyed and followed me quietly until I found a place to rest the suitcases.
Once there, I told he should never do that in public. "Never ever" I repeated him. "If you want a cinnamon roll, pizza, ice cream, candy or anything else, you should ask me to my ear 'Mommy, can I please get some ice cream?' Then, I will think about it and choose whether or not I am going to let you have some. For this time only, Jumbo, I am going to let you have a 'cinnabon', but only for this time. Do you understand?"
"Yes mommy," he looked at me in a guilty face.
"I don't want you to repeat this again, okay. If you do so, I am certainly NOT going to buy you what you want." He hugged me, as if saying 'I'm sorry' and then I said in a happy mood, "Now, let's go buy you a cinnabon." And we walked happily holding hands to the Cinnabon store.
In the end, I think I did the right thing because, well, if I would have let him have his cinnamon roll right there and then without giving my speech, then he would still make tantrums in public just so that he receives what he wants. "Kids think differently than adults," says Jean Piaget, who created the belief of Cognitive Development, "but they can think logically because they are in the Concrete Operational Stage of Cognitive Development."
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