Clint Edwards is a blogger who shares his parenting stories with others.
He admits that he has no idea what he is doing as a father. The truth is, most parents don’t know what they are doing. Babies don’t come with a manual, and it’s pretty much just one of those things where you learn as you go.
Most parents tend to not judge others when it comes to how their toddler acts in public.
We all know that even the best-behaved children can have tantrums, and no matter how good a parent you are, you just can’t stop them sometimes. Clint recently found himself sitting in the car with his toddler daughter, and he decided to make an example of the situation. He posted:
“I’m stuck in the van with my toddler. We went out to dinner as a family, and she had a meltdown because Mom wouldn’t let her throw chicken strips. So, she screamed, and screamed, and kicked and kicked, and since I was the only one finished with my meal, I had the pleasure of dragging her out of Red Robin.”
“I carried her past the bar and everyone stared at me, most of them childless, I assumed. No one with children would give me that straight-faced, lip-twisted, look that seems to say, ‘If you can’t control your kid, then don’t go out.’
“Well… no. I can’t control her.
“Not all the time.
“Not yet.
“She’s 2, and it’s going to take years to teach her how to act appropriately in public, and the only way I am ever going to teach that is to take her out and show her what’s right and wrong. By saying ‘no’ a million times, letting her throw a fit, and telling her ‘no’ again.”’
“These lessons take patience, hard work, and real-world experiences, and I’m sorry to those at the bar who got irritated by my child’s fit, but you are part of this practice. Your parents did the same with you, and that’s how you now know how to recognize when a child does something irritating in a restaurant. It’s how you learned to look at a situation and say, ‘That parent needs to control their kids.’
“It’s how you learned to be a respectable person.
“I get it. Kids are irritating when they are loud in a restaurant. I know. I’m living it. But before you get angry and judgmental, realize that what you are witnessing is not bad parenting, but rather, parents working hard to fix the situation.
“You are looking at what it takes to turn a child into a person.”
There are dozens of stories in news headlines that are focused on kids behaving badly in public.
Some restaurants have even banned children under a certain age because of their behavior. It’s a fiercely debated topic, and everyone seems to have a strong opinion about what is right and what is wrong.
Nobody wants to listen to a kid throw a tantrum in the seat next to them, but if children aren’t put in these situations and taught how to act in public, they will never know how to handle it when they get older. This dad and many other parents are just trying to teach their kids how to act.
If people were a little more understanding and a little less quick to judge, things might go a little bit smoother for everyone.
It really does take a village to raise a child, and that means having a little tolerance when children are behaving badly and parents are trying their best to correct them.
Nobody has or was a perfect child, and everyone has thrown a tantrum at some point.
Now that this dad has brought this to everyone’s attention, maybe people will start to be more understanding when they see an upset child and a parent at their wit’s end.
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