Nanny Nightmare

I have now been watching Juliet for 4 weeks, and so far it’s been smooth sailing.  Juliet has been listening to me, doesn’t complain, doesn’t run off, and as of today has never even cried!  While I knew this couldn’t last forever, I could not possible have been prepared for what I was about to experience, a public tenter tantrum.

We’ve all been the spectators of these humiliating experiences. Maybe you’re walking down isle 9 in the super market and there’s a child screaming at his mom that he wants to buy every candy bar on the shelf.  You walk past, trying not to stare, and think “that sucks”, but what you should be thinking is “what am I going to do when that happens to me!” because let me tell you one day it will and it is as awful and embarrassing as it looks.

There we were sitting on the corner of 76^th and Amsterdam, enjoying our ice cream we had just gotten from 16 handles. We had had a long day but still had one more thing on our agenda, art class. When Juliet was done with her ice cream I stood up and said “ok let’s start heading over to art class.” When Juliet said “no, I want to go home.” I looked at her confused, and said “what do you mean, you love art class! We’re going to be late so let’s start walking over.” Next thing I know she’s crying and jumping and screaming. Obviously at this point all I wanted to do was take her home in order to have all the people stop staring at me like I was a kidnapping this child. However while that was what I wanted to do I also didn’t want to reward such outrageous behavior by giving her what she wanted; one of my many parenting tips I’ve picked up.  All I could think of was to sit and try and wait for her to calm down. I wasn’t about to start yelling at her in the middle of the street, and she was acting like a crazy person so I couldn’t talk to her.  To make a long story short, she never calmed down, I had to call her mom, and ended up taking her home.

So next time you see a mother/father/babysitter dealing with an unreasonable screaming child in a public space know that it is as embarrassing at it looks, and that one day it will probably be you, so have some empathy