Oh, for the days of drunken parenting

Public tantrums are just a part of parenthood. I know this. Entire chapters of parenting books are devoted to this phenomenon. Theories are thrown about like so many pearls before swine.... "Let them tire themselves out", "ignore them","walk away" etc. etc......Yesterday, Lena proved herself to be the exception to the rule. I'll explain (you knew I would):

There is a playground next to Lena's preschool room. Everyday when I pick her up we walk by it without incident. Yesterday, she decided she MUST slide down the very tall slide. I had Pilar in a snuglie (I foolishly thought it would be easier to collect Lena if I had both hands free...HA!) and she was starting to wake up and root so I wanted to get home to feed her before she lost it and we had to listen to her cry all the way home. I told Lena we would play on it another day, but not right now....not the answer she was looking for.... She immediately threw herself on the ground screaming "slide, slide." When I went to pick her up she grabbed the side of the slide and would not let go. I finally pried her little hands away and held her by the arm attempting to pull her from the slide and toward the car. She went completely limp and yelled "owwie! owwie! hurts! hurts! stop it!" at the top of her lungs. This gained the attention of nearby teachers, parents and my friend Karen. Karen came by to commiserate, which helped, but this was apparently the cue for other parents to come by and offer advice. Usually I wouldn't mind; other parents are often full of good information. HOWEVER, I was nowhere near in the mood to listen to any unsolicited advice and besides they were giving me "that look." You know the one. If the look were a sound it would be "tsk, tsk." The way some of the parents were looking at me I expected them to throw me change and tell me not to spend it on booze. To be honest, some booze would have been nice at that moment. Anyhow, I managed to drag her to the car, buckle her in, put the now crying Pilar into her carseat and drive home without crashing.

Pilar is crying now and I have to go. There is really no point to this post other than: Aaargh!!