I actually did it. I followed through with the age-old threat and pulled the car over in the middle of a drive. I got laughed at by a pedestrian and studiously ignored by the business-at-lunch set. But I did it.
We were on our way home from the gym a little later than usual and it was time for lunch. My son has been battling a nasty cough, so when he fell asleep in the car I didn't want to wake him up. He hadn't slept well the night before and sitting up allowed him to breathe a bit easier.
So I went throught the drive-though at the Chick-fil-A and my daughter and I had a "car picnic" at the park while my little baby slept. Then we decided to go for a ride to let Baby Boy sleep a little longer. This is where the trouble started.
We had a pretty good ride, but I noticed that it was about "nap" time (really just quiet play time in her room) and, more importantly, the bathroom break that accompanies nap time. I turned for home and my angelic daughter went nuts.
She started kicking the seat in front of her, flailing her arms, and screeching like a banshee. She, of course, woke up the baby. I took it for a couple of minutes and then I had this thought--"I want to spank her until she stops crying." Since this is an irrational thought, I realized that I might not be handling the screaming as well as I imagined.
I pulled into a parking lot, yanked her out of the car, and plunked her down on the curb. I told her that people couldn't act like that in my car and she could get back in when she could behave normally. It took about 5 minutes for the blubbering to stop, by which point she was covered in snot and beet red. It was not attractive.
I did feel a little guilty when it started to rain and the temperature dropped pretty rapidly. I stayed outside the car with her (no calls to DFACS, please) and eventually she started laughing. I don't know why. But at least she stopped crying and I didn't beat her or sell her to gypsies. Score one for Mom.
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