Public Humiliation

Well, she did it.  Eva made me feel like a jackass in the grocery store.  And not just any jackass; one with no control over her bratty, ill-behaved child.

Eva threw the biggest fit of her life today and she kindly saved it for until we were inside the store and I already had a cart full of groceries.  I’m talking a piercing scream, legs kicking, arms flailing kind of fit.  She even took off her shoes and chucked them over the side of the cart.  And her pacifier.  (Yes, she still has a pacifier.  Chalk that up as another one of my parenting flaws.)  You see, a few weeks ago I let her help me push the flat bed at Costco.  Now she thinks it’s her right to push every cart in every store we enter.  Today was no exception.  She wanted to push the cart and I wouldn’t let her.  First of all, I needed to hurry and it’s torture having a toddler push the basket.  Secondly, it was a larger grocery cart and she couldn’t even reach the handle.  Apparently not being able to reach is an invalid argument because she freaked out when I told her no.  And she continued to freak out once I put her inside the cart.  And continued until we reached the check-out. 

I was mortified!  People were staring and judging me.  I usually don’t mind strangers’ glares when my child is misbehaving, but this fit was so intense I was humiliated.  It went beyond Eva being upset to Eva being bratty. I was sweating and panicked because I didn’t know what to do.  I really wanted to march her out to the car and give her the what-for, but I didn’t know what to do with my cart of food.  I’ve never been in this predicament before. 

So I ignored her and hurriedly finished my shopping.  A few people made comments to me about the intensity of her screams but I ignored them too.  I was exhausted by the time we made it back to the car and gave Eva an emphatic, “No!” when she asked to listen to The Little Mermaid music.  I lectured her for a few minutes and then turned the radio up and ignored her screaming all the way home.

I’m too old and tired for this toddler business.