> When I was two, I was usually left with a
> babysitter (usually my gramma). That's an
> amazing concept a lot of today's parents
> have never heard of--apparently.
Come on! Not everyone has a relative living nearby so that they can go shopping without their two year-old. And in any case, the kid is still going to have to go out in public for the first time at some point. And unless you wait until he's eight, you're not going to be able to follow the route that you suggest and explain to him beforehand how he ought to behave. Kids will cross lines. Kids will (hopefully) be corrected and, if required, punished for it. But to pretend that kids can be kept out of view until they can be verbally instructed as to how to behave is ridiculous.
I don't know. My folks, and my aunts and uncles, managed to keep the kids well-behaved in public. It's a pity that seems to be a lost art.
And yes, sometimes one of us would overstep the line--but we were rushed out before creating much of a ruckus, and forced to sit with one or the other parent in the car until the movie or dinner was over. At home, we got "what for." But we were NOT allowed to ruin the evening for the other diners or movie-goers.