Today the kids achieved another first. I left a store before I was ready to because I couldn’t deal with their antics anymore. Not exactly a first to brag about, but there it is.
I decided to stop in at a Bernie’s today to investigate new TV sets. I went to look at the first few LCD’s, and the urchins laid down on the floor. Minor annoyance, but manageable. So I moved on to look at some other sets and the kids come tearing after me. The daughter jumped in front of me and in the process almost trips a sales guy. Little Miss Oblivious. The salesman was good natured about it- “I’ve got big ones now but I remember…” sort of stuff. In retrospect, it was only a matter of time from here.
Then I’m standing next to a couple and the kids decide to sit down on the floor in front of them. I suddenly see the couple stepping back away from the sets they were checking out. I look down to see the dynamic duo laying on the floor and rolling around. The couple moved so they wouldn’t get rolled up on. Now the blood pressure is starting to rise. Of course, the couple is also good natured about it and I tried to laugh it off- but the countdown was too far along to stop.
I moved down the aisle a little only to hear “CLANG.” I look down to see the daughter looking up with the “caught with the hand in the cookie jar” look on her face. She’d knocked something down on the shelf. The boy was doing something on the floor again. That was it.
“Let’s go.” I said and I walked out the door without another word. They trailed behind laughing and giggling- certainly not helping their cause and completely unaware of the precariousness of their situation. I got them in the car and we started to go. One of them started to ask for something, but never got a chance to finish. It was also the last thing either of them said. I let them have it double-barrel for about 15 seconds- they couldn’t behave, they didn’t listen, they made me decide to leave. All the annoying parent stuff that needs to be said, but you hate to do it because yelling is “so much fun.” Then, I turned off the Disney music that they had requested for the ride, turned off the A/C in the car, lowered all the windows down to where I wanted them and then shut off the window controls so they couldn’t play with the windows and I didn’t say another word to them until we pulled in the driveway at our house about an hour later.
As I said, I don’t enjoy these episodes. But I figure sometimes you have to get a point across dramatically in order to get them to learn something. Time will tell if it worked.