The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by db Conard, The Quill
The other day my mother went shopping in a local department store. As she walked in to the store, the first thing that came to her attention was the sound of a child having a tantrum.
There wasn't a person in the store who couldn't hear this kid screaming to have his own way. As my mom would move about, taking care of her business, she could hear this sad sound that confronted some poor mother as she had to say over and over again to this noisy child, "No!" to one thing and then the next.
We have all been there, and have either been irritated or sympathetic as we have watched and heard these eruptions that only children can make as they are exposed to stuff that they can"t have.
As my mom tells the story, the noise was pretty impressive and continued around the store as she went about her shopping until, as she turned down an isle, there the source of the racket was.
What appeared to be a little boy about five years old was walking along side of a young mother with a toddler and a baby in the basket.
It was everything the young mom could do to just keep track of her son as she was watching over the baby and the other young one.
This mom seemed to be at her wits end when the kid began to wind up with yet another, I want one, tantrum.
That little boy didn't know he was about to get the finger from my mom. She didn't hesitate and whipped it on him with the full power of the 87 years behind it.
She pointed her index finger at him and gave it a mother shake as she mouthed the words (you behave).
He didn't know what hit him, because with a look of surprise on his face, he got quiet in a hurry and stayed that way for the rest of the time my mom was in the store without another peep out of him.
The child's mother didn't have a clue what had gone on, or that my mom had lent her a hand with a mothering technique that only comes with years of experience.
A look in your eye along with a great finger shake can, if used responsibly, have a powerful effect if you can mouth your words clearly enough to be understood across a room.
Perhaps this boy's mother will continue to suffer with her very own "brat" who might for many more years ruin her days because she never could gain the control necessary in raising a child.
But for a moment she might have learned what could be possible if she could learn to take charge with sometimes as little as a finger shake backed by loving discipline.