A Drama Mama Confession

The other day I took my kids to play at the mall play park. We do this on occasion because there are no expectations of purchasing something, and it's fun, especially for Scooby. We also attend family nights at one of the Chick-Fil-As. We've never run into anyone we've met at Chick-Fil-A in the mall before, even though they are near each other geographically. This particular evening, we did.

Well that's not so bad, you say.

Just wait. I haven't started the confession yet. I'm just setting the stage.

This particular little boy is not one that comes to Chick-Fil-A on a regular basis like we do, but Scooby has impressed him by giving him a random hug goodbye the last time they played together. He was on a playdate with another little boy, though, and focused all of his attention on his friend (and rightly so). Scooby hanged out with them for  a short while, then started running off, being chased by the friend. Apparently Scooby had confiscated one of the Toy Story figures the boy had brought with him. The boy snatched it out of Scooby's hands, and Scooby ran off to go find someone to wrestle with him.

Five minutes later, I see the two boys. The one who had chased Connor down and snatched Woody from him had nothing in his hand, and the other boy we knew had the others. The friend says to me "He broke my Woody."...

Ok, here's the confession:
It drives me nuts when parents allow their children to bring their beloved toys to a public place, then get upset when something happens to them.

Now granted, the boy's mom didn't get upset, but she also made no attempt to get her son to share his toys with anyone other than his playdate. There were 3 boys and 3 toys. Why couldn't they play together?

I try to be a good parent. I try to teach my children to be profitable members of society. I had my son apologize to the other boy for breaking his Woody (though I am pretty sure Woody got broken when he was snatched out of my son's hand). His mother smiled, Scooby's Chick-Fil-A friend's mom smiled, and Scooby got a goodbye hug from his little friend.

Did I really think Scooby needed to apologize? Of course not, but that wasn't my point. I wanted him to learn that even if he didn't do it, if someone thinks he's wronged them, the best thing to do first is apologize. The rest can be sorted out later.

Have you taken advantage of an opportunity that drove you a little nuts to teach your child a lesson, whether good or bad? Do you have something you need to get off your chest?