It started off as a normal Saturday morning. I needed to collect a prize I won from Kids Emporium at Tablebay and then we needed to grab some food.
We pottered around the house, completing some chores and by the time we needed to go it was bears nap time.
I contemplated rather letting him sleep first but decided he’s been staying up way past his nap time lately and after all we weren’t going to be long.
Right?
I mean how long would we really be grabbing a weeks worth of food. Maybe half an hour . An hour max.
All was going well.
He climbed into his car seat enthusiastically and started singing with the song on the radio. (I’m sure we’ve brainwashed him with our 80s playlist.)
He jumped out when we got to the mall and willingly climbed into the trolley. Normally he wants to walk and just getting inside the lift takes half a day . Toddlers can run as fast as a leopard when they want something and yet rival a sloth when you need to get somewhere.
We collected my prize and he was full of smiles. He loves visiting Kids Emporium in Tablebay and the ladies are always super friendly to him.
We weren’t there long before we headed to grab some groceries.
Once inside Pick n Pay he started to moan a bit so I ran towards the snack isle and grabbed a packet of Nick nacks, then i ran down the coldrink fridges and found an orange juice for him to nibble on as we shopped.
It was a challenge juggling holding bears food and remembering what was on the shopping list as he also wanted to help us shop and hold the toys along the isles.
Somehow we managed to full a trolley, entertain bear and keep our sanity.
Whew! I stupidly thought. Not bad going for a tired bear.
Then we got to the till … bear was niggling, I was unpacking and so papa took a fussy bear out the trolley and let him walk.
Well, bear made a bee line for a black plastic bike and that was the begining of the end.
Bear rode on the bike as I unloaded the trolley and papa even took him with to get something we’d forgotten.
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and papa removed bear from the bike.
Hold your ears because bear screeched loud enough for people the other side of the mall to hear him.
I took bear from papa and walked out the pick n Pay .
Placing bear down in a less crowded spot outside the store and reassured him it was ok as my child flailed and thrashed as if possessed by the mall rat demons.
The gentleman outside the mall looked at me unimpressed as I reached bears eye level and spoke gently to him throughout his temper tantrum.
You see it wasn’t my goal to scold him.
He’s just a little person and some days his emotions are too big for him to comprehend. He hasn’t yet developed a full vocabulary to express himself efficiently and after 7 kids I’m not at all phased by a screaming , thrashing toddler in a mall.
Papa came out. Picked up bear and marched out the mall. Totally unamused with bear screaming the roof down.
Poor bear had calmed down a bit by the time we placed him in his car seat and I stroked his foot gently n the drive home until he fell asleep.
For me we had created the problem.
Bear was tired and it was now almost an hour after his nap . We’d allowed him to ride the bike – honestly in his mind he just wanted to finish playing and we had taken his toy away.
I reflected on this as we drove home.
But I also reflected on the differences between both mine and papas parenting styles.
I often forget papa hasn’t been through the troops of kids I have and that although we’ve been together for 4 years we’ve actually only been sharing this parenting gig together for the last 20 months.
We are still learning each other as parents.
We are bound to disagree on how the other approaches an issue but will work through it to understand each other’s thought pattern or find a compromising manner to fix the situation.
