Do you want some cheese with that whine?

I just have to share this story. I was at Kohl's last night, on the register. I first saw this little boy walking with his dad. He was obviously not happy about shopping with his family, because I'm pretty sure he was pointing to everything, saying, "I hate that shirt, hate it, hate it, hate it." When they were done, they came to the register and the mom laid down a pile of clothes for the little sister. The boy went over and found the stuffed animals we sell for Kohl's Cares for Kids. He picked up the cheetah (calling it a jaguar, like everyone does) and asked his mom repeatedly if he could have it. One of his arguments: "Megan got something last night and you said I could have something next time. Please, mom, please, can I have the jaguar?" Let me just interject that I would have been getting close to the edge at this point. But this mom, nope, she just carried on like there was not a whiny little boy begging like crazy for a stuffed animal. She hardly spoke to him while she was paying for her items. When they were done, they stood by the door and talked about his allowance for getting checks and doing chores (or something). I really thought she was going to give in, and I just couldn't believe that he was going to win after acting like that! But they were quite rational with him, telling him that this was his allowance money (I assumed she had pulled out a $5 bill), that he needed to think long and hard about whether that jaguar (cheetah) was what he really wanted or if he wanted to save up his money for a gamestop game. He was still whining this whole time, but they were perfectly calm, trying to be clear with him. He eventually gave up, deciding that the game was more important than a stuffed animal. He and his dad walked out, and mom was getting little sister's flip flops out for her. I had to say something, so I told her that I really admired the way she handled that, mostly because I would have been pulling my hair out. Good parenting deserves reinforcement, too, right?