The world does not care about fragile egos

The scene took place in the supermarket. When the little boy picked something from the shelf which the mother did not approve of, he started yelling and throwing tantrums. In sync with him, his mother threw herself to the ground and started making a scene while shouting.

 He was stunned and he immediately kept quiet. The other shoppers in the supermarket looked on in amazement. As quickly as she had thrown herself to the floor, she picked herself up and continued shopping, like nothing had happened.

I understood what the mother had done and why she had done it. And she must have been quite exasperated by previous tantrums.

Children have the ability to be so manipulative that sometimes it requires drastic measures to snap them out of their place of inflated self-entitlement.

Oftentimes, a child will do something in public that ordinarily they would not do at home. They know that by doing so, they will gain sympathy from onlookers, which will gilt-trip parents into taking any punitive measures.

Some parents also easily play into this manipulation because they want to avoid a scene or because they have the notion that they do not want to upset the child. Unfortunately, this behaviour grows and escalates into other spaces. Children grow up to be schemers and manipulators, who believe they must always have their way in everything.

The challenge though is that the realities of the world have no place for self-entitled citizens. The world is extremely harsh. As parents, we must love our children enough to skill them with a level of tenacity to deal with real life experiences. They need to build their emotional and mental muscles to navigate life. Otherwise, they will grow up to be bitter and upset with everyone.

The real world does not care about fragile egos and will hand anyone with that mindset, deal upon deal of hardships, which hopefully grow rather than kill them.

What is your child’s emotional intelligence like? How well are they placed to handle situations, especially when they do not get their way? What is their temper like? Do they throw and break things every time they do not get what they want?

Erratic behaviour is an indicator that some things need to be addressed. It might not be pleasant but we must walk the journey of deliberately guiding and moulding them. Sometimes to do this, a parent must apply unconventional means.