Addressing Bad Behavior in Children

My husband and I were working our way slowly through an incredibly crowded shopping area in an open-air retail outlet complex. You’ve seen those complexes; on a weekend day an outlet strip mall can make Disney World look positively barren in comparison. As people accidentally bumped and jostled each other, apologizing quietly and continuously to one another as they trudge cautiously forward, a pair of children came flying down the concourse, screaming uproariously and flailing about, darting through the masses. My danger radar flicked on immediately. “This won’t end well,” I thought to myself.

Sure enough, before those words had a chance to transfer input from my conscious mind to my physical reflex network, much less to my verbal response system, one of the children, a girl of about six, came slamming into my husband, bounced off him, and landed on the ground in front of him. Alarmed and confused, my husband stopped dead in his tracks. The little girl jumped up and, screeching hysterically, ran off, her voluminous screams amazingly eclipsed by those of her mother. “Watch out for the children!” The mother shrieked at us.

I took a deep breath and immediately pushed back the temper tantrum that was trying to jump up from my gut and out my throat. With a light, but controlled touch, I pressed my husbands hand and continued forward. “What was that?” my husband asked. “Errant child, she’s okay,” I responded.

But, the mother wasn’t finished. “WATCH OUT FOR THE CHILDREN!” she hollered again. I stopped in my tracks, as did the crowd around us. I signaled to my husband to let go of my arm and turned to face her. Looking her dead in the eye, I responded with two words. “He’s blind.”