Ok, this post is pertaining to parenting:
Yesterday was a beautiful morning - so beautiful in fact that after I dropped Aradia off at school I felt like grabbing a coffee. As I was getting my son out of the car seat he asked for his train. I set him down and grabbed his train from the Hummer. As I handed it to him it apparently was NOT the train that he had in mind and he threw himself onto the ground. We were still parked in the street so I coaxed him onto the side walk where he took a few more steps and threw himself again onto the ground. He is getting close to the age of 3 and this behavior has been coming on for at least a year. But the last few months he does it no matter where we are. I get so embaressed that I ususally grab him and go, but this morning was different. It was so lovely and the sidewalk was so clean and there was hardly anyone walking by and I was unusually calm - so I thought, I'm just going to take a seat and let him stop screaming and yelling and tossing about on his own. Of course two men walked towards me and one took a seat near the spectical, but I was committed - I was going to see this tantrum to the end. I sat comfortable at my new found sidewalk table and started singing to the old time music that Starbucks was pipeing through, enjoying myself. I notice a woman at the resturant across the street was looking at our show and she began to walk towards us. "I can handle anything right now even if she decides to have a tantrum too," I thought to myself. Instead, when she got to me she said, "are you ok?" I answered honestly, "Yes, I'm doing great!" She said, " I have to tell you, you're my hero! I have 4 girls and 1 son and it's only my son that does the same thing!!!" We smiled understandingly ( maybe even giggled) and said, "have a great day," to eachother and she with inside. Then a man in his 50's rode by on a bike and gave me a knowing smile. At this point Braeden is so mad that I haven't come to give him anything just to quiet him up, he begins to roll and drool. It was then that I noticed that most of the people under the age of 30 gave me confused and a few times nasty looks. Then a beautiful blonde woman in her 40's came right up to me and said, "You are my hero! My son is 12 and he STILL acts like that! What a great job you are doing. Keep it up!" Now I'm feeling better about taking a stand against my son's behavior. The man sitting at the other table finally got up and said, "are we having a bad day?" I looked him right in his eye and said, "I'm having a wonderful day, how about you?" I got back to singing and swaying to the music and I had the thought, "what if someone calls the police - is there something illegal about allowing a baby to have a tantrum in Public???" My face blushed at the thought...Then, the mother that had the 5 kids came back to me and handed me a beautiful gift certificate with the words, "to a good mama, love Jamie." It was a precious moment between two women that are sooo devoted to the character of their children, that they would even brave the waters of a sidewalk tantrum proudly and with honor knowing that one day soon, our beloved sons may get the lesson that sidewalks are cold, drool is messy and mama's won't fall for it any longer.....
Thank you dear Jamie where ever you are (and who ever you are) for your heart warming support. I needed it!
