Children behaving badly in public.

[Naomi]

I agree with her, *I* almost have panic attacks in B&L, it's always a mess, and way over-merchandised, with people everywhere and no room between shelves and racks to get past. I've been inside maybe three times in my adult life and each time has been unpleasant.

[Sparkles]

Did your daughter NEVER misbehave Melinda?

i think with time the memory must soften...
i cant say i can remember any one incident....
mmmmmm other than the shop litfting episode when she was 3 thats still talked about...she stole carrott seeds from a hardware shop she thought the rabbit pic on the front was cute.....anyway i marched her back there.....to return them.

[Cherie]

LMF, Re: the smacking thing...times have changed thats for sure. Believe me though, not all people condemn, some of us know about such behaviour and do feel sorry for the mother as well. I know it can be harrowing when the child plays up..some have disaproving looks others feel sympathy for all concerned. Life isn't all cut and dried. By that I mean , not everyone disaproves.

[mel76]

I remember once walking through Woolworths Supermarket
We had our older son & our Daughter with us at the time,
We didn't know she had asperger's back then (when you look back in time everything makes sense)

But Kimberlee was really playing up & i mean badly! I had spoken to her a number of times (nicely)
then my husband spoke to her nicely & then that was it for my husband he gave her a smack on the bum
Well this old lady (in her 70's or 80's) gave him the worst look he turns around to the lady & says
"You'll Be next"
OMG the lady couldn't get out of the shop quick enough all i could do is laugh

[Naomi]

When I was in the supermarket today (with Sophia, who was being delightful and discussing world politics knowledgeably) I passed an interaction between one of those people who feel the urge to comment on other people's parenting, and a young mum with a baby in a sling and a toddler in a pram. The older woman made a comment on how well behaved the toddler was - nice, all good. And followed up with a generic "you're obviously doing a good job" remark. Fine. Less than five minutes later, the young mum was in a checkout a few over from me, and the toddler was screaming his head off. I wonder if that means, now she's doing a BAD job

[MissSmack]

I sometimes glare at the child... I know it's bad, but my heart breaks for mums who experience public displays of the sort. The scary lady normally shuts the kid up, they snuggle into mum and she's at peace.