It’s been many years ago, but I still smile when I recall some of our first shopping trips with my baby. One early purchase was a yellow Baby Beans doll. We held it up to her and she reached out and said “baby.” Even before she could talk it was obvious that she had caught on that you could go to a store and get things.
One day we were walking through a store and she noticed a huge stuffed bear. When I picked it up and let her hold it, she wrapped her arms around it and said “love.” My heart melted, but that didn’t provide the $20.00 it cost to buy the bear. “Want” was the next thing she said with all the pleading she could put into her little voice.
I was sad that I couldn’t afford the bear, but I believe it was a good experience. Even though she couldn’t make a complete sentence, she had communicated to me that she wanted the bear. Likewise, she learned, at least this time, that she wouldn’t be able to have everything she asked for. We told her why we couldn’t buy it, and she fussed a little, but I don’t remember her making a big scene over it, and the bear was soon forgotten.
As she grew older it helped to have limits set before going into the store on how much money was available to buy what she might want. That helped her to trim down her expectations and it made it easier for me to stand my ground.
Today my daughter is grown, and has children of her own. Now I have the privilege of taking grandchildren to the store. It gets trickier with two and three children at a time. I’m not going to pretend that I have all the answers. I don’t. But I came across a couple of great web sites today about shopping with children that I thought would be worth passing along to my readers:
http://www.highlights.com/parents-share-tips-on-handling-public-tantrums
Happy shopping with your children and grandchildren.
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