NO MORE TANTRUMS

So says the headline.

What follows is a lot of blether about...don't know, it's blether. Blah blah expert this...blah blah expert that. I wonder does this "expert" actually have any children of his own...

Anyway, fast forward to the list of dos and don'ts.

1. Ask your child to repeat a set of supermarket behaviour rules before entering the store. (Yeah, that's right - talk to it like it's an adult - like it can understand. I've news for ye - as soon as you enter the shop, once it sees all that's on offer you may well have spoken Chinese!)

2. Praise good behaviour and give them a treat and the end of each tantrum-free shopping trip. (Maybe a pat on the head and a belly scratch! Roll over boy).

3. Have your child help with retrieving items or hold the shopping list at the supermarket. (Be prepared for it bringing back everything shiny that appeals to it).

4. Reward your child with a sticker once each supermarket aisle is completed if they haven't misbehaved. (A sticker? Pulease!)

5. Take regular shopping trips with your child to teach them how to behave.


There is one vital action that seems to have been forgotten here. We'll call it 6.

Give the wee bastard a whallop!!! A whack speaks a thousand words. Trust me - I know!

**

Of course, if you're a nurse of some twenty years experience and you smack an unruly child in your emergency dept, then you can expect suspension and an investigation by both the police and DOCS (Dept of Children's Services) as happened to Jeanette Stewart in an Australian hospital. (Same paper - a few pages before the "Tantrum" piece).

Y'know, I remember the time when the police, teachers, and your average sister(nurse) often gave out a whallop to kids who were getting out of control. And it did the kid in question not a bit of harm. Quite the contrary actually, it taught the wee bastard some manners.

And I ask again...is it any wonder kids have zero respect nowdays? Simply because the bleeding hearts refuse to allow the sort of chastisement that in my day brought them into line and taught them that there were just some things that weren't acceptable.

Jesus is still weeping!