Temper Those Tantrums: One Mum's Strategy

Children seem to be programmed for tantrums. We have seen them all. They whine, kick, scream like the world is ending, making sure to embarrass mum or dad (or both) and they will do this in the most inconvenient of places because they seem to also have a built in capability for swaying public opinion (or is it pity?). This is what I saw the other day at Shoprite. It was one of those times when I had to get a quick snack and be on my way somewhere. I had just been cleared at the till, walked out to the parking lot and that's when I saw it: a war in progress. Here was a mother with the shopping in both her hands, walking like she came alone. Behind her, Junior was crying for something like Kamba Puff (a biggie for toddlers in Malawi). He was standing at the entrance of the shop while doing this and his mother just kept going like he does not exist. I had to get the whole act so I got in my car and waited, watching the developments.

Junior then goes on his knees, and then on lie down flat on the floor! Still screaming and pounding his fists on the floor for that much needed snack mum just didn't buy in the shop. In the meantime, mum has packed the groceries in the car and is just standing by the drivers door just watching him do thing. Finally, a security guard goes to the boy and says something to him, to which he gets up and dashes to the car, Tom chasing Jerry kind of speed, and still screaming. Here is where it gets interesting.

Mum stops Junior in his tracks, gets down so they are seeing eyeball to eyeball and says something to the effect that if he wants to come with her, he should stop crying and, for the record, she was still not buying that snack so the crying won't help anyway. Junior calms down (in record time) and gets in the vehicle.

That is the one woman's strategy for tempering her kid's tantrum. I say she either had read Dr James Dobson's book "Tempering Your Child's Tantrums" or she had been watching BBC Prime's Super Nanny.

While most have a tendency to pamper tantrums, I don't and I give that mum at Shoprite full marks for standing her ground. Which side are you on and what would you have done with Junior.