I'm the expert??

At the end of my last semester of college,sitting in my discussion class for my internship my professor told us that we were now the experts. We all laughed when he said it. It just didn't seem possible that we could be an expert in any subject at this young age. But he persisted. "You are the experts in the field of child development. After studying this subject for the past four years, you now know more than most of the population about the development of children." While this may be true, I still question, "I'm the expert??" And to back up my case I present the following evidence:

First I must tell you that whenever the subject of parenting came up I would always say that I thought it was the parents who contributed to a lot of the tantrums and discipline problems their children had. As "an expert", I would wisely state; "If you take a hungry, tired child into the grocery store at rush hour at the end of a long day, they will have a meltdown. That's the parent's fault, not the child's. Based on the circumstances, you are setting them up to fail." I have probably shared this illustration a dozen times or more- it's my favorite to explain how parents need to be smart about helping their children succeed.


Well as a parent and as an expert I failed yesterday. Miserably........ Let the me set the stage by giving you the facts:

1. Bethany had a bad cold all weekend and is still recovering. She has endured congestion, coughing, sneezing, disturbed sleep, and her parents sticking saline drops up her nose every few hours. And I must say she has done it with fewer complaints than I do when I am sick.
2. We took a 6 1/2 hour road trip to see my parents this weekend. 13 hours in the car all in one weekend. Not to mention she had to sleep in a new place for the first time, all while battling this cold.
3. Yesterday we took her to the dentist with us and she wouldn't take much of her bottle while she was there.

So yesterday my child was tired, sick, and hungry but I against my better judgment I went to Wal-Mart after leaving the dentist's office. Mistake number one for the child development expert. We get to Wal-Mart and I find that the sling I use to carry her around in when we are at the store was unpacked at home with the rest of the stuff from our weekend. So mistake number two- I decided to shop anyways. I thought I could just leave her in the car seat in the cart. We get all the way into the store and I realize I left the diapers that I wanted to exchange in the car. So, out we go to the car and then back and into customer service. She sends us to the baby dept. to get the new diapers and then back to customer service. They tell me that I have to bring the diapers out to the car before I can shop more since I didn't have a receipt for them. So back out the the car we go and then back to the store to do our shopping. Yeah, so far this is not going smoothly. So about 5 minutes in, she starts to fuss. No problem, I have the bottle. So she downs the bottle. Good- now we keep shopping. People ooh and aah over her. She obliges and smiles. But then it happens; she's had enough. She begins to scream. So now my grocery cart is half full and I really don't want to have to make another trip out here so I decided to proceed with the trip and carry her. This was mistake three. I could have stopped and fed her some more. I could have abandoned the cart and gone home. Instead I carried her, pushed the cart and found the groceries I needed. Any attempt to put her back in the seat resulted in more screaming.
On our way home as she cried herself to sleep I thought of my "expertise". I know better than this. I am now the unwise parent.
Unfortunately our day of drama does not end there. I wanted to give my introvert husband some alone time after a weekend full of togetherness. So I decided I would leave dinner for him and take Bethany with me to the movies. I deserved a movie after the morning we had right? We've taken her to the movies before and she slept through the whole thing. So I made sure I had the sling and the nursing cover and off we went. Get through the credits and my little sweet baby starts crying- I am now that annoying person who brought their baby to the movie. I quickly start feeding her. And she eats and eats and eats. Any attempt to move her results in more annoying crying for theater goers. Finally she's had it and starts wailing. So I gather up our things which are scattered among three seats and scurry out of there, totally embarrassed. I get out of theater and realize we are missing the cell phone and a beloved paci. Aaaaaahhh! So I calm her down and hike back into the theater. Found the cell phone, not the paci......Whatever, I just want to go home.
On the way home I get a message from Tom. Remember, I was surprising him with alone time? Well, the clocks on the computers at work are off an hour so he is an hour late coming home. So right as he pulls in the garage, so do I, with a hysterical, screaming baby who has just spit up ALL OVER herself. So he got no alone time, I didn't get to watch much of the movie, and I will no longer consider myself an expert!

Last night I cried, this morning I laugh! What else can you do?!?!