Temper Tantrum, the sequel

This was too funny not to post.

On Tuesday evenings, there is a Pajamarama story time at our local library. We discovered it about a year ago – almost exactly a year ago! – though our good friend C., when she became the teen librarian at our local library. Since then, we’ve gotten to know the children’s librarian quite well, as Ane has become one of her “regulars” on Tuesdays.

Ane really enjoys going for the story time – they get to sing a few songs, hear some fun stories, and the librarian usually has a flannel board story to tell along with a puppet or two. After storytime is over, she gets to pick out a couple of books and play on the kids’ computers, which have some really great learning games on them. It is also something she does completely without Tad – aside from the few times I’ve taken him because the Webmaster wasn’t home that particular night.

So, I took her yesterday. She was in her favorite pajamas – her magenta pink flannel Princess ones – and was reasonably good while she was there. She had a book on hold that she had wanted last week, and she picked out a couple more while I got Not A Box and Not A Stick for Tad (Friend and Doc discovered these and they are adorable). I also found a couple books for me.

At the checkout desk, Ane wanted to stand on a stool. She didn’t need a stool – we were at the handicapped (and also quite child-accessible) self-checkout station. Well, she didn’t want to use that computer – she wanted to stand on the stool.

These stools are round, wobbly, and have very squeaky wheels. I find them quite annoying.

“Get down, Ane,” I told her.

She came down, pouting. “But I WAAANT to stand on the stool!” she whined, jumping up and down.

Here we go again, I thought. So I jumped up and down and whined myself. “But I wanna stand on the stool!”

She stopped mid-jump and glared at me. I glared back. “You’re having a temper tantrum. Stop it now,” I ordered.

She kept up her glare as we finished up and walked out. By then she was beginning to repent of her attitude. “Mommy, I want to be a nice girl. I don’t wanna have a temper tantrum,” she said, tearing up a little.

I stopped on the sidewalk and stared at her. “You were just standing there in the library, whining -” I started jumping up and down again – ” ‘But I wanna stand on a stool!’ ”

My daughter eyed me, tears gone. “I am not going to have an argument with you in the parking lot,” she informed me coolly, and stalked off toward the car.

I almost fell over and died laughing. She sounded just like… me.

As my mother said when I called her to tell her, “Hmm… do you think she’s heard that before?”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 1:18 am and is filed under Children.
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