It's Thursday, which means it's another opportunity to join with Zoe at Uncharted and share a Six Sentence Story. This week's prompt: pitch.
The slight-of-stature woman behind me in the grocery store line seemed to shrink as she caught my eye.
"I can't seem to control him," she murmured apologetically.
It was at that point that I noticed she had a small child with her. He was whining--just loud enough to be picked up on mom-radar, but not loud enough to attract the attention of strangers--for a tempting candy that was strategically placed at his eye-level in a shrewd marketing ploy.
I was miraculously shopping solo that day; all five of my children had other activities to attend at the time. The frazzled mother had no idea I could relate to her predicament, and she had no idea that her son had a long way to go to perfect pitching a fit!
The slight-of-stature woman behind me in the grocery store line seemed to shrink as she caught my eye.
"I can't seem to control him," she murmured apologetically.
It was at that point that I noticed she had a small child with her. He was whining--just loud enough to be picked up on mom-radar, but not loud enough to attract the attention of strangers--for a tempting candy that was strategically placed at his eye-level in a shrewd marketing ploy.
I was miraculously shopping solo that day; all five of my children had other activities to attend at the time. The frazzled mother had no idea I could relate to her predicament, and she had no idea that her son had a long way to go to perfect pitching a fit!
(I agree with your comment back at my place) this particular prompt is encouraging a remarkable variety of interpretations. And...and! some of the forms of the word reflect on different times and even parts of the country. very cool
ReplyDeletesmall children do seem to have a developed awareness of their audience. Recently I had a client in a house and the 4 year old was running around (empty house) and fell. Not hurt but I noticed she (the child) immediately looked around for a reaction.
As new parents, John and I noticed that our son would look to us when he would fall. We decided that if it was a little (non-serious) fall, we would respond with "Boom!" and a smile. That probably saved us a lot of bandaids for imaginary boo-boos. :-)
DeleteI remember well one particular fit my two year old pitched in a grocery store. Ugh. Murmuring and whining are not the half of it.
ReplyDeleteOh, believe me, I know a tantrum when I see one, and the one from the story didn't even come close! :-)
DeleteWell do i remember the days. That's why i began shopping at the 24-hour store at 4am on Saturdays.
ReplyDeleteI once read somewhere that if you want to have children, you should try taking goats into a grocery store--one goat kid for every human kid you want. :-)
DeleteMother would tolerate NO fit pitching! There was always switching to follow! I usually had to cut my own.
ReplyDeleteGood six.
Parenting techniques have sure changed over the years, haven't they?
DeleteNo truer words were thought.
ReplyDeleteShe really didn't know how mild of a personality she had in that child! :-)
DeleteIf you haven't left a cart full of groceries while you removed your screaming child from the store, then has your child ever really pitched a fit? :)
ReplyDeleteA much more realistic question than "If a tree falls in the forest..."
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