Today, the small human had a strop. It was the mother of ALL strops. He was proper angry and mad and hated me, his granny (who was with us) and essentially the entire world. He’d had a really good day and had been good as gold. Then we had the audacity to suggest that we needed to head to the shop and buy food for tea. Then we said no to carrying him because basically, he’s too big! There were no trolleys for him to go in, which was also clearly my fault!
So we had started the shopping on the backfoot.
Then we tried to enter the shop and essentially, it hit the fan. The small human did that whole throw-myself-on-the-floor-and-scream thing. It was a MAHOOSIVE strop. Me and Mum told him he needed to come and then we walked away so that he knew it wasn’t OK. We had eyes on him, apart from when we turned to giggle because there is no point me stressing to, and he knew we were there. And so did every other bugger.
His strop was in the entry to a very genteel, smart shop- even in Trowbers there are nice shops!
And the solidarity of people was amazing. People are kind. People were lovely. A gentleman gave me a wink and my Mum a smile. So many people checked in with us, and showed support. Then a lovely woman- a little older than me I’d guess (I’m 40)- came up to me and said that I was doing an amazing job, not to worry what others think and that I was doing everything right. She was gorgeous! So kind and so lovely. I said to her that it was just fantastic of her to say that because some people in that painful, stroppy, ‘terrible twos’ zone may really need someone to boost them a little. After a bit, another woman came and had a chat with him and us, and his strop ‘broke’, we had a chat and he bounced happily around the shop helping us with everything. That is his usual little self!
I’m lucky that ultimately, I don’t really give an eff about making a scene when dealing with things like that and I’m confident enough that my small human 99% of the time is a little star. So in that moment I didn’t need that- there is the odd time when I wobble but around looking after him, it’s not often cos he is an epic little sausage and we are very blessed with him. But I’m not everyone and there are people that do sometimes need their confidence bolstering. That lady and the kind lady who helped break the strop, the chap at the till who then commented what a lovely boy he was, and how well I did, the staff who smiled with sympathy. Today we had a village help raise our small person and it was fundamentally kind.
We need more of that. Not everyone has the confidence I do with Mr Dr Ross, around how they raise their kiddo. So far he seems to be doing right and I’m not too worried (yet) about getting it terribly wrong. But if I was a person who did wobble, the Trowbridge Village in our most genteel of supermarkets would have boosted them and made them feel human in a way that sometimes is forgotten.
I think that confidence can be bred with a side of kindness here and there, so that’s my aim for the rest of my life really: use the areas I’m confident and help boost other people and try to be kind so that others are confident too. I will get it wrong I’m sure, because I am human and very flawed, but we all have to start somewhere!
