So here you are…. walking down the cereal aisle of the supermarket and suddenly young Matthew begins to throw a fit because you refused to let him pick up the box of frosted flakes.  As his voice crescendos like an orchestra your only thought is “to shut this kid up because he/she is embarrassing me.”. So what do you do?

Well we have all seen that mother who grabs up her child and slaps him/her right there in the aisle to the disapproving gasps of onlookers.  Or the mother who bends down and with clenched jaws tells her kid to “stop that now or he/she is going to get it when he/she gets home”.  Or the mother who literally drags her screaming kid, snot running down his/her face, as she hurriedly tries to complete her shopping.

So what should you do.. The first thing is to pre-empt this melt down by setting some rules BEFORE you enter the supermarket.  The second step, is to lay down the consequences if the rules are not followed.  Do not take the child shopping a) if the child is tired b) has not eaten since the 10:00a m lunch time at school or c) if you are in a rush.

You can avoid a supermarket meltdown if you include your child in the activity.  Ask the child to reach items that are within his/her reach and are UNBREAKABLE.  In some things, offer your child LIMITED choices in choosing things like cereals, ice creams.

So what if after all of this your child begins a meltdown.. This is where your superior knowledge of your child comes in… KNOW what triggers your child’s meltdown and try to avoid them.  Use distraction.  And if all else fails leave the shopping cart in aisle 9 and take the child outside.-