Today I was THAT MOM. 😞

The mom I used to say I’d never be! “If my kid ever acts like that one day, when I have kids….”

I read one time that pride is what keeps the human race alive. We all see other parents struggling and think to ourselves “well I’d never!” Fast forward to the day that you actually have the kids, then comes THAT DAY and you get to eat those words.

Remember a few weeks ago I talked about our oldest son (4)? So it finally happened!! He slept in his bed, all night long!! 🙌 So to celebrate we had a special day, all about him. One of the things he chose was to go INSIDE Target and pick out one toy. Ever since COVID, we’ve been doing curbside and he desperately misses going in- so here we go. We walk through the toy section no less than 57 times and touch exactly EVERY. SINGLE. TOY. 🤦‍♀️

We finally pick the toy (and a pair of Paw Patrol shoes and some Paw Patrol mac and cheese) and we’re leaving. Miraculously there isn’t a long line up front so we go straight to the cashier. While I’m checking out and paying, our son continues his new found favorite hobby of touching EVERYTHING. He picks up one piece of check-out-line candy, asks for it, I say no, he puts it down, picks up another- on repeat. At this point I’m finishing up paying, putting my wallet back in my purse and he finds a tiny lego kit and decides his life will end if he doesn’t get this lego kit. So again- I say no and it’s time to go and he starts screaming. Like full-out murderer is chasing him, screaming. Crocodile tears. “But I NEED it!!!” I have a buggy full of things, already paid for- so now what? I can’t threaten to take it all back because that’s a threat I can’t keep right now; no way I’m standing in line at customer service and waiting to return his stuff as he kicks and screams. I’m trying to drag him off, the line is quickly piling up behind us, everyone in the entire Target is now looking at this scene unfolding. I feel the sweat beads on my forehead as I try to calm him down and reason with him but of course he’s way passed reasoning at this point. The oh-so-helpful man directly behind me in line says “you’re much nicer than my mom was; she would’ve beaten me!” Well thank you for that insight sir 😡

I finally struggle to drag my kid in full melt down and push my heavy, loaded up cart out of the way and over to the little picture kiosk area at the front of the store. He’s still clutching the Lego kit with every ounce of strength he has. I sit in the floor (if you know how big of a germaphobe I am, you would know this is a big deal for me!) and hold him until he can breath again. Anyway we finally all calm down, and can talk through the fact that this toy is not coming home with us and we have to take it back and apologize to the cashier. Once we’re in the van, we talk through what went wrong and how that can never happen again. By the time we get home, the time for spanking has passed and he’s back to his pleasant little self, he is naturally ashamed as we tell my husband about the events at Target. I’ve never been a parent before so I have no clue how to handle this situation, if I did it correctly, if it will happen again, or anything else- BUT what I do know is that younger version of me that used to say or think “well I will never let my kid act that way!” was oh so very very wrong! And friend if you ever find yourself in one of those experiences, just know that I can fully empathize and I am so very sorry!! God gave us these precious blessings, because He knows that you can parent them better than anyone else- even on the days they are being difficult and having a full-on melt down at the front of Target. Deep breaths, lots of prayer- we can do this, friends!!