I had a major parenting win the other day and I just had to share it with all of you! Mason is at the age where his emotions are all over the place. One minute he’s excited and happy the next he is having a full blown emotional meltdown. The worst ones happen when we’re at Target picking up necessities and he begs to check out the toys. I usually let him as I aim to please and make him happy BUT if we don’t leave with a toy more times than not he cries and cries. So, I came up with a plan to hopefully help and guess what, it worked!! I was successfully able to minimize an in-store meltdown.
MAJOR Parenting Tip For Minimizing In-Store Meltdowns:
Anytime Mason says he wants a toy, while in the store, I tell him we will add it to our request list for Santa. I take a photo with him holding the toy he wants (more often then not it’s a Paw Patrol Toy). Then we put the toy back and I tell him I’m texting it to Santa. We leave Target, Walmart, or any other store happy and he’s excited that Santa knows what he wants. The list keeps growing and growing and I have more gift ideas than I need. I also try and keep track of how often he mentions a specific toy he wants. That way if he asks for it multiple times, then I know it’s a toy he really wants and not just one he decides he “needs” spur of the moments.
And if that fails to get the meltdown to stop you can redirect them to a less expensive small toy to take home instead. The other day my trick failed, I think maybe I’ve already used it too many times, and I was able to stop the waterworks by directing him over to the cars section where he got to pick out one car that was $5.99. Yes, to some that may be a parenting fail but I’ve been solo parenting a lot lately with Justin being super busy with work and so sometimes you’ve just gotta do what you’ve gotta do to have a happy child.
Oh and even times when we’re not at the store, Mason has started to breakdown when he remembers he doesn’t have a specific toy he’s been wanting and so I remind him that we already took a photo and sent it off to Santa. I’ll even show him the photos in my phone if I need to, to get him to calm back down again. So far, that’s worked every time! Justin is now using it as well so we are both having a better experience when we take him out on our own.
I hope this parenting tip for minimizing in-store meltdowns helps you out this holiday season and honestly year round. It never hurts to have a running wishlist for birthday’s and holidays. You can keep track of what they want by saving your pictures in a folder you make on your phone for easy access to them too! Just another parenting tip to make life easier for you!!
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As always, thank you so much for stopping by the blog today! I hope you enjoyed the post.
