great moments in parenting observed — so i’m down the beach this morning, & there are two men & a woman with five young boys between mebbe three & six years old, & one of the kids is just totally howling while the other four are just standing around quietly watching the adults trying unsuccessfully to calm the little howler down, & one of the men says, “if you stop crying we can go & have some ice cream,” at which point the howling kid starts up with a full-throated screaming yowl about not wanting ice cream & the other four all throw their hands in the air & start running around in circles yelling, “ice cream! ice cream! ice cream!”
honestly, if looks could kill, the guy who suggested ice cream would be face down in the sand… when last seen, the ice cream man was trudging off with an armful of still screaming three year old while the other two adults were trying to restrain the rest of the kids from stampeding off towards the closest ice cream vendor…
