An epic tantrum!

Written by Gerard on Saturday 30 January 2010

Rachel had a memorably epic meltdown a couple of days ago. We'd gone to one of the local outlet shopping centers where there's a Subway that we frequent. Afterward, we let the kids run round the pirate park for a while to burn off some of that excess energy.

Before we went, Lisa and I wanted to pop into Next to look at a few new clothes - you know how the children always come first in clothes shopping when everything you own is misshapen and ugly. Time to buy a couple of new shirts.

At first we browsed around in peace. I picked up a couple of nice shirts, Lisa found some new jeans and stuff. The kids followed around in fine fettle, tolerating the experience but not exactly loving it. Until Rachel spied a little pink hat, that is.

The hat itself was a bright pink, a kind of woven material with a couple of garish feathers attached to the front of it as some weird kind of decoration. It had an elastic band to attach it to your head, and oh...it was tiny. It actually was a better fit for the teddy bear Rachel had brought with her than it was for Rachel. The hat was clearly a novelty item or one of those little pieces a girl might wear to draw attention to herself. In other words, it was more of a toy than a serious fashion item.

Naturally, Rachel wanted this for herself. We initially said no. It's not our policy to encourage impulse buys, but I guess with Christmas just behind us, the message had been forgotten somewhat. So, I asked how much it was. "Only £44," came the reply. Well, I laughed before I had time to control myself! "£44? Do you know how much money that is, Rachel? Absolutely not," I told her.

The tantrum began about a nanosecond after that. It wasn't fair. She never got anything she wanted (despite the fact that the boys were happily following us along without making a single request). She started trying to hide in the shop, and I followed her - partly to make sure she didn't get lost or abducted (it was a busy shop) and partly because I thought the comedy value of being followed around would shake her out of her tantrum.

Nope, no such luck! Eventually, I had to take her by the hand and lead her out of the shop where we waited for Lisa to finish. But she grumbled and complained the entire way home. At one point I lost my cool and told her not to make any more noise, because she was grounded for Friday and she'd be grounded even more if she kept talking. When we got home, she was sent straight to bed to think over her behaviour.

The next morning, I came downstairs to discover she was already awake. But instead of trying to raid the house for goodies, she'd made herself a bowl of Weetabix. Clearly she was on a charm offensive! The behaviour being much improved, we both talked to her individually. I had a chat to her today about how she didn't really need the hat and that sometimes we - as her parents - were going to refuse to buy things, either because they cost too much money, or she didn't need them or we simply might not think having that item was in her best interests.

It's not often she has these volcanic meltdowns, but when she does, they can be a mixture of funny and frightening! But in the main, there's no point trying to talk to her about it until she's regained her composure.

How do you guys handle tantrums in your family?