On a flight, I coincidentally sat next to a grandmother who used to be a foster parent. (There’s no such thing as a coincidence; I am a grandparent now and train foster parents!) We got to talking about common challenges of both roles.
She said, “My kids knew early on that I don’t DO tantrums. Now my grandkids know it.” I said, “What do you mean?”
She told me this story: “I once took my grandkids to the mall. When my youngest grandson saw a juice bar and said, ‘I want juice!’ I told him we were on our way to lunch at the food court and he could get juice there.
He instantly threw himself on the ground, in the middle of the mall, and started throwing a tantrum screaming, ‘I want juice! I want juice!’
I simply looked at him as he was rolling around on the ground and matter-of-factly said, ‘Oh you must have forgotten. I don’t do tantrums.’
After a few seconds of me saying nothing more, just standing there patiently, he stopped his tantrum, stood up, said ‘Oh yeah, I forgot,’ took my hand and walked calmly with me to the food court.”
