Crying and Yelling at WalMart

Against my better judgment my family took a trip to WalMart last night. I avoid Walmart if at all possible. It's big and it's filled with stuff Jordi thinks he must have. But we needed a few things that only Walmart could provide, so we made our journey into the big, black money sucking hole.

We walk in the door. Jordi starts running. I start running after Jordi. Like most parents, I don't want my child running wild in the store for fear of him getting "snatched." I have had this talk with my son over and over. I have even tried scare tactics, "Jordi, if you run off from mommy, some person will "snatch" you. And once they "snatch" you they will cover you in bees, and the bees will sting you." Not a crowing moment of mothering, but I really wanted him to stop running off, and at the time he had a big fear of bees.

The goal was to pick up a few items and keep clear of the toy aisle. Jordi thinks that every time we go somewhere he needs a prize, so I did not want to risk the battle of the toy department. My plan failed, and Jordi's child radar drew us to the dreaded toys. Bring on the melt down.

"Jordi you are NOT getting a toy. It is too close to your birthday." The battle begins. It starts with Jordi just ignoring us. As we try to make it register that he is not getting a toy, he gets more excited. "I need it." Really, you need it. You need a shark race track. How have you lived without it for so long? Tears start to fall. Anger starts to boil. Jordi really thinks he needs it.

As my husband tries to drag Jordi out of the toy aisle, my son starts screaming "Daddy, you're breaking my arm." All the "perfect" parents and their "perfect" children start to stare. Jordi breaks loose and runs back to the shark race track. He really, really needs it. The drama continues and continues and continues.

Bad parenting alert! Bad parenting alert! We gave up. Jordi used his money to buy the darn race track. We all just wanted to go home. I think we all might have shed a tear at some point during our WalMart trip. However this was not a happy ending. The battle started all over again when I tried to make Jordi stop playing with the race track and go to bed.