Good parenting
Get low. Stay close. Keep the no.
The cereal stays on the shelf.
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She drops to the linoleum the moment the storm starts. The cereal stays on the shelf. The child is not left alone with the feeling.
A two-take film
Same tantrum.
Two parents.
Aisle seven, cereal shelf, a four-year-old who has decided today is the day. Ten seconds of good parenting. Ten seconds of bad. The difference is not the child — it is what the adult does with the wave.
Watch the filmsThe filmsClaire & Jonah
Bad parenting
Stand over. Snap. Walk away.
A small person, a standing adult.
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The phone, then the pointing, then the cart rolling on without him. The tantrum gets louder because he is now scared and ashamed — not just disappointed.
In the aisle
Five moves that work when everyone is watching.
You do not need a perfect speech. You need a body on the floor, a limit that does not move, and enough quiet to outlast the peak.
- 01
Get low
The floor is the whole conversation. Eye level turns a power struggle into a huddle.
- 02
Name it
“You really wanted that cereal.” A named feeling shrinks. A shouted “stop it” grows.
- 03
Keep the no
The limit is the cereal, not the crying. Buying it to end the noise teaches the aisle that volume works.
- 04
Stay
You do not have to fix the wave. You have to be the shore it hits until it is done.
- 05
Then move
Hug after the peak. Then the cart. Connection first, locomotion second.