The Disappearing Parents

If you have scrolled down my blog, you might have noticed a tag called The Secrets in the Sauce.  This is a group that highlights a different blogger everyday and you go to their site to wish them Happy SITS Day.  It is a way for you to see what other people, who you would probaly never get to check out, are doing on thier blog.  I always try to read at least one post from each blog I visit. 

This week, one blog I visited was Angry Julie Monday.  She had a post called I Was That Mom and it got me thinking about a great story, similar to Angry Julie's post, that happened to our oldest son, Knox when he was 3 or 4 years old.

Every 4th of July, we travel to a tractor show in Denton, NC. (I'll be talking more about this as we get closer to July.)  This show attracts around 10,000 people over the 5 days of show.  We had been walking around most of the morning when we decided it was time to head to the food court area and get some lunch.

We knew Knox was getting tried, but then "it" happened!  He melted!  I mean, he totally lost it!  He was having a full blow tantrum!  We couldn't get him to stand up; he just went limb--right there in the middle of the walkway, which was crowded packed with people trying to get lunch.

We were like every couple who has had this happen to them, totally embarrassed. So my Hubby and I decided we would just leave him and walk away.  Somewhere close by, but somewhere he wouldn't be able to see us.  He didn't even notice that we were gone!  He was so busy sloshing around that it took him about 2 or 3 minutes before he started looking around to see where we were.

When he finally realized that Hubby and I weren't there, he jumped up!  He just stood there for minute and was about to start balling, when this woman went up to Knox.  And without prompting said, "Son, if you hadn't been throwing a tantrum, your parents would still be here." 

The look on Knox's face was PRICELESS!  He had started to panic when we walked over to him.  He hugged us so tight when we got to him and would not let go of Hubby's hand!  This stopped his tantrums! Now, he would have mild tantrums but never the full blow Grand Mal Tantrums!

My parenting suggestion for those of you who are becoming "That Mom" is to let them go nuts!    When they do it, let them embarrass themselves!  We've all had kids do this to us.   Maybe you'll be lucky enough to have the angel come along like we did and stop the tantrums!  Remember, it's so much fun embarrassing your kids!!