The Mother of All Meltdowns

If there was an award to give the child who threw the biggest fit in a public place AND embarrassed her mom to the point of tears, it would be handed to this girl:



Yes, she looks so sweet & innocent but don’t let that cheesy grin fool you! Last week she was that child in Target that was screaming loud enough to make you think I had been torturing her. I can honestly say I have never been so embarrassed. I’m just now getting over it enough to write about it. And I want to write about it so she can read this one day & see what she put her Mama through that afternoon on July 28th, 2011!

The day started off great & both kids were in wonderful moods. I got my hair cut while my mom watched them, then she dropped them off at the end of my appointment at the salon. We went to Chick-fil-a & played, then came home & both kids took a great nap. When they woke up, I noticed we were running low on diapers so I figured we would run to Target real quick to grab some.

We get to Target, I put the kids in the basket & head to the diaper aisle. As soon as we get to our original destination, Averly decides she wants to run around instead of being in the basket. She starts whining & trying to climb out. Nothing too major. Yet. I grabbed a box of diapers & then thought I would go check out the summer clearance stuff in the back. Bad idea. As we made our way to the back corner of the store, Miss Thang decided she was going to get her way. One way or another. She squirmed out of the seat & was practically standing up so I moved her to the big part of the basket. That pissed her off more & this is where things got bad. REALLY bad. She kept trying to swing her leg over to get out. I’m holding her arm/leg/dress (whatever I can grab) with one hand & pulling the shopping cart with the other as I walked beside it. She’s now super mad at me & screaming. This continues and worsens as we make our way down the main aisle. People are starting to stare. Some are sympathetic “I know how you feel” stares, but most were “Shut that kid up” stares. You can tell who has kids of their own in situations like these. They tend to have a little more patience & sympathy for you.

Then she decides to really go for it. She leans over the cart & flips out. All within the blink of an eye. Remember though, I have a death grip on her arm so I had her the whole time. One lady saw it & screamed "Oh my gosh!" while lunging towards her to try & catch her. Then gives me a dirty look with her mouth open in shock. At this point, I’m more mad than embarrassed. I’m thinking “Really, lady? The whole point of her fit is that she wants out. I know her intentions. I’m not going to let her fall. I don’t need your hateful glare right now.”

This should’ve been the point where I just gave up & go check out. But the clearance stuff is only a couple more aisles down. So I keep going. I’m now holding her as she squirms out of my arms several times. Flipping positions, throwing elbows, kicking, and screaming. At the top of her lungs. Now it’s unavoidable. People are popping out of EVERY aisle & corner to come see the train wreck that’s happening. I had what felt like 4,000 eyes staring at me & my uncontrollable child. I gritted my teeth & gave her a very stern “talkin’ to” in her ear. Didn’t help. I threatened her with timeout, but she couldn’t care less. She’s 16 months old. She has no idea about the concept of timeout yet. So then I spanked her, but that only made things worse. I even tried bribing her with dolls. She just slapped them down. At the time I didn’t think it was humanly possible for her to get any louder or squirm any faster out of my arms, but she did. Then she pulled the "go limp" trick which is worse than the twisting. As I’m trying to get a better grip on her, we are now stopped in front of the aisle with boy toys. So Riley (who I could barely hear through all the chaos) starts yelling that he wants to look at the Transformers. More people are staring. I’m pouring sweat & am as red as the Target shopping cart.

I finally decided that I had lost this battle & we needed to leave ASAP. There was NOTHING I could do but let her finish her fit. No form of discipline was working. I turned around holding containing Averly under my arm like a clutch. She’s still screaming & by now, hyperventilating since she can’t catch her breath from all this. And we are in the back corner of the store. So I had to walk back through everyone while the fit pursues. Joy. And did I mention, it was 5:30 in the afternoon? So Target was packed from everyone getting off work. I'm so mortified that I start crying too. Riley's still yelling "I wanna yook at da Transformers!" & Averly's meltdown is at its peak.Y'all, it was just a big fat mess.

We finally made it to the checkout line after what seemed like a mile-long walk. A sweet lady that was about to check out let us go before her. She was obviously a mom who had been in my shoes before. She told me how pretty Averly was & all I could think to say was “She’s not acting very pretty!” but it was so nice of her to try & pay us a compliment in my time of distress!

We made it through the checkout & got to the car. I have never been so happy to see my car & be OUT of a store in my life! Of course, she was fine as soon as we got in. She turned the waterworks off & was all smiles. Little girl, little girl! She is a hard headed thing that does not give up easily. A year or so ago we never would have thought this. She was so laid back & easy going. Nothing really bothered her & she just went with the flow. Now? Not so much. She has a mind of her own that can’t be changed!

I’m hoping she’s just hitting the Terrible Two’s early! And praying we never have another fit like that again!