When you're out in public and your child misbehaves, correct him right away no matter who is around. Ignore all the people who are watching because if you fail to correct your child's bad behavior right away, then the second time the same behavior happens it's much harder to correct. Pretend only the two of you exist and try to block out your physical surroundings for just a few minutes. It will be a very significant few minutes in your relationship with your child.

My inspiration to write A Lesson Lost came to me after a bad trip...to the market with my usually well behaved twenty-eight month old baby boy. I always do the marketing when he has a full tummy and it's always the first errand that gets done. Normally, this alone ensures a successful marketing foray. However, on this particular day my two year old was running around like a wild Indian and he did not have his listening ears on either. He just wasn't doing anything that I asked of him. As if my hands weren't already full, someone had spilled orange juice on the floor and of course, even though I warned him, or maybe because I did, he walked right square through the middle of that orange juice and tracked it all down the aisle. Next, he proceeded to run into the shopping cart and he got a bloody nose. Oh I could see the looks of disapproval all right. I could feel them.

I decided it was high time for him to get into the cart. He began to scream and cry and put up a terrible fuss. He stood solid in the middle of a thoroughfare with folks trying to navigate around him and would not budge. So, I went and picked his little self up and put him into the cart quite against his will. This was not an easy task as I am small and he's already more than half my height. Finally, I got his feet in there, got him to sit, and in my most authoritative voice I said, "We must get our shopping done. We will finish our food shopping before we go home." It wasn't any fun what with an audience looking on and I was sure wishing were could be someplace else. Anyplace but where we were. I did consider leaving the store and just going home. But I couldn't. It would have set a precedent.

When we reached the bread aisle Julian had stopped crying so loudly. As we passed the dairy section the tears disappeared. By the time we reached the frozen food section he was all recovered from the ordeal and asked to get down from the cart. I took him down and he was quite the gentleman for the rest of our time in the market though I didn't push my luck. I rushed to get the rest of the marketing done!

All children and families are different and I don't expect what I did will work for everyone, but my point is, you are not alone when your child decides to misbehave in public. It happens to all parents, everywhere, eventually. Resolve yourself to the fact that if it hasn't happened yet, it's coming and be ready for it. If you're not ready, then you will be facing A Lesson Lost. Good luck. This is one of the fun parts of parenting. Not!