Last week, Taylor Myers was “that person”; the mum in the supermarket with the misbehaving child, who looked like she wasn’t doing anything about it.
The truth is that Myers’ four-year-old daughter Sophie has ADHD. So many times, Myers has left the supermarket when Sophie has begun acting up. This time, she didn’t. She stayed in line with a trolley full of groceries, and Sophie.
“Sophie sat/stood/did heads stands in the cart, whining over a bag of chips I took away… because she called me a butthole in line,” the US mum explained in a Facebook post.
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“She’s relentless. I know this. I live with it.”
Myers ignored her daughter’s whining and refused to give in.
“What’s giving in to bad behaviour going to do but reinforce the bad behaviour?” she asked.
“I’ve walked out of stores hundreds of times because of her. Almost every time, actually, I end up leaving with nothing I came for and a tantrum-having four-year-old attached to my hand and a baby on my hip, but this time I had to stick it out to get the groceries.”
For the tenth time, she asked Sophie to sit down in the trolley so she wouldn’t fall over.
“The next thing I hear is a woman behind me in line saying, ‘Oh, for Christ's sake, give her a cookie so she'll shut up!’
“I could’ve explained to her that my four-year-old has pretty severe ADHD, I raise both my children alone, I’m doing my best, and had no choice but to wait it out for the groceries. Instead, I heard, ‘She's four years old and you need to mind your own f***ing business,’ come out of my mouth.”
Top Comments
The one thing that will make me breakdown in front of my sons doctors and therapists, is explaining the occasional attitudes and looks I receive from members of the public. He has verbal dyspraxia, and the result is a lot of frustration and tantrums. It takes a lot of time and patience to let him he heard. People are often either in too much of a hurry to listen to a struggling boy trying to get his idea across, and give me horrid looks or even make nasty comments. And I've had people just give him sweets to "shut him up", not realizing that they are undoing weeks of progress.
I go out of my way to help out a mum or give her a smile when I see them go through process. I know the statistics and the proportion of kids with conditions like hyperactivity, autism etc, and the importance of community support. Even a smile or a little help can mean the world.