2 little girls

My boys tend to get excited or impatient....who wouldn't?? LOL! DD would too though for that matter. DD would talk non stop at 100 miles an hour "I can't wait to get this home so I can play with it and then I'm going to do xx and xx, and do you think I could call xx when I get home so I can tell her all about it?" And on and on and on! :arrow: The boys would hold it in their hand until the last possible minute and demand to be the one to give it to the clerk. Would say No Thank you to a bag and rip it open right then and there. Now gum? That would be a 5 minute debate and negotiation between my boys. "You picked last time so I should get to pick this time" "Ya, but you picked a yucky flavor 3 times ago and I didn't even get any because it was so gross!" "I never get to pick so I should get to pick it out!" Enter Mom...who picks out the gum and they wait til we get to the car, all the while still debating...."See I told you before we asked her for gum that I should just pick it out so we could get the bubble gum instead of sugarless!" ;)

Sounds like you have some very fun shopping experiences!

Gum? We try to avoid gum at all costs! :evilgrin: I used to think my dad was Mr. Grinch because he never wanted us to have gum. Now, however, I think that parents who buy gum for their kids are either A.) brave in the extreme or B.) have children trained way beyond what mine will ever be. Gum in our house ends up in odd places or swallowed within the first 30 seconds. Well, there is this third option where the kid chews like all 40 pieces at once. I asked one of the kids (don't remember which one) once how much gum they had in their mouth. "3 ..." and I thought they were going to say 'pieces' but they said "PACKS." Well, duh! no wonder your mouth is full and your jaws are tired!As to anticipation and patience for an item none of mine have patience so we'll just skip that. Anticipation reaches frantic levels at least five times before we get to the cash register, and if it is an item that can't be opened in the car on the way home we have anxiety attacks in varying degrees by various kids, even if the item purchased is not theirs. Jumping, squealing, flapping, wrestling, incessant talking, LOUD incessant talking, constant motion , kicking , pinching, poking, scrabbling, scuffling, shuffling, elbowing, wriggling, skipping, and all of the previous are not malicious and are done in CAR seats, no less!We try to buy stuff without the kids knowing. :evilgrin: Saves on the nerves of the parents. LOL

I have had this issue with my SDs a couple years ago. I gave them 2-3 choices of what they could get. It was not good enough that I agreed to buy them a treat...they asked "can't we just have this?" (more expensive and not one of the choices) The went to the car without anything. That was the last time that happened. I am the same with the boys.

My boys used to be very loud, jumping up and down and talking a mile a minute when they were going to get a treat. The hardest was to get them to understand that they are going to share the one treat. Yes they would argue that one had a bigger piece or the other had more than one.....but now if they argue the treat stays in the store. Most times it works but at times we still leave the store with the 3 year old crying (well okay... full blown tantrum) all the way to the car.

At only 2 1/2, H can be pretty impatient and has been known to throw a little crying fit for the toy to be opened once we get it. I don't give in, so they're getting shorter. He usually can manage to wait until we get to the car. Of course, he's also young enough that we can still convince him that gum is YUCKY. I've also noticed that if I let him hold the toy or whatever (still in the box) for a while as we shop, he loses interest eventually and I sneak it out of the cart when he's not looking. Retail clerks everywhere probably hate me.

HBV, that is so funny! When I shop with DD, people probably think I am nuts, because she will say, "I want that...I want that..." I load the car up and by the time we are done, it has all gone "back" somewhere in the store. I feel guilty for "moving" the merchandise, but I think it's better for the customers than dealing with DD's nonsense!!

I used to let my oldest ds play with a toy while shopping, or hold a toy, and then we'd take it back and put it on the shelf and tell it "bye bye." That worked great, until he was 3. ;)

Ani, I was afraid of that!! haha

Oh, Ani, say it's not so!! To me, what's funny is what he will take a fancy to. One day we were shopping at Target and he went into crazed maniac mode over a soap dispenser shaped like a boat. "SEE BOAT! SEE BOAT!" which changed eventually into "Buy THIS boat!" I'm blaming part of this on my MIL. She's a HUGE sucker and gives in the minute the lower lip comes out. Even my FIL gets annoyed w/ her about it. You can always tell when he's been w/ them for a day or so.

THIS would be EXACTLY why my step-daughters are such spoiled BRATS!!! They can't go to to MIL's house without her buying them something! The EX even has them so that they know to dress in clothes or shoes that are too big, small, tight, etc...because MIL will go buy them something to replace it. She has been doing it since birth! This summer she actually got mad at them because she actually stood up and said NO to them and they sat around pouting the rest of the day. (gee, if she had not created these monsters!) This has always been one area DH and I have not seen eye to eye. He has this idea that "if she wants to do it". I have the idea that I want my children to want to visit their grandmother because they want to spend time with them...not so she will buy them things. Hard to control the EX and DH...but my boys will NOT act the way their sisters do as long as I have anything to say about it. Same here...wish he would get some backbone and put a stop to it...but then he is the one who has to live with her!

My FIL will put his foot down occasionally with her, and I'll give her this---if I say no, she doesn't do it. What is funny to me is that H the only child of an only child of an only child, so the potential for spoiling here is HUGE. DH was spoiled as a kid, and even he jokes about his mom's overindulgence of him. He often laughs about the horror he would be if his dad (my FIL) weren't so grounded. I figure that if FIL is pretty solid, and my parents are pretty solid, one indulgent grandparent once a week won't kill him. But I take heed at your warning!!