And my post in response was about the fact that not all parents do anything about their tired or hungry kids. You can quiet a hungry kid, you give them food, which any halfway decent parent has some of in the diaper bag. Tired kids are harder, largely depends on what you’re transporting them in and if they’ll sleep in it. And then of course there’s always the possibility of removing the kid from the situation, like netmilsmom said in post 16. There’s nothing about parenthood that says everybody should have to listen to your kid cry. There’s always something you can do. And there are parents, again not saying you not making this personal, that literally do NOTHING they just let the kid cry no attempt to fix the problem or comfort the kid, you’re not even sure they know the kid is crying. And those are the parent that really make people mad, and make people less patient with the good parents that try.
You have to understand that children are not perfect and neither are parents. There are situations that just happen and cannot be controlled. You just get through it the best you can. Children cry. It's just life.
Understand that I am NOT talking about temper tantrums. That is a different subject. I have been addressing the problems of shopping with a 2 year old. You want a nightmare, shop with a 5 year old, a 2 and 3 year old because you forgot bread.
you said:
"You can quiet a hungry kid, you give them food, which any halfway decent parent has some of in the diaper bag."
My wife doesn't like to have food in the diaper bag because she worries that people in the store (not just shoppers, but employees also) will assume that it's been stolen from the store. I tend to disagree with the sentiment, but I see the point. This is an argument I've chosen to shy away from after letting my opinion be heard once on said fear. This is just another dynamic that I have to deal with. When in a wal mart, I can grab something off the shelf, open it and give some to my child, then pay for it at the register. I have done this several times to soothe my child in lieu of her driving everyone else around me and myself nuts from the crying, whining, etc... the problem is then that the child believes you will do that anytime they start to whine. They think you will always cave! Sometimes a lesson needs to be learned, and sometimes life is inconvenient. sometimes people forget things, sometimes people have no other options. I try to remember that myself but sometimes fail in that regard as well.
At any rate, I certainly didn't mean to make this personal, I just thought I'd share this perspective with you. No response needed or expected - do what you will there.