Yesterday, my child got posessed by a demon

or so you would think the way he acted. It was the tantrum from hell.
It all started innocently enough though. It was shopping day, and Kods and i were off to get our groceries. we always do the shopping together. I like his company and he likes to help. I give him things to find for me, and we play little games while we shop. At the end we usually have lunch together as a treat... or sometimes we skip the lunch and share a lemon tart and coffee (his being a baby cap , of course). It all good.

Usually.

But not yesterday.

Yesterday we decided to shop at Aldi (which i have heard so many rave on about how cheap it is...i personally was not impressed). We thought since we were heading to Cooly, we'd take the new road (which Kodys been dying to drive on cause it has a tunnel) and check it out, then shop, the sushi for lunch after. Yep, we were ready for some fun.
It started somewhere in Aldi, when Kody wanted me to buy something and i said no. Normally he's OK with the No's, but not today. He went on and on and on.

And on and on.

And i ignored him, and he got angry. Still, it was all no biggie, just a little tanty... all manageable. then we headed to the green grocer. Here he upped it a notch or two with constant wails of "i don't want to go in here, i want to go home!!!" over and over again. I ignored that too, with a few warnings of.. "if you don't stop being naughty we wont have sushi for lunch". At the register he proceeded to sit there (from the trolley) and hit and kick me. Nice.

This is were I'm sure the possession started to take place. I moved him (the trolley) out of my reach while i paid the lady and he continued to scream. he was screaming now, making a nice lovely scene. So when we left i managed to calm him down, because i really didn't want to miss out on my sushi lunch, and we headed over to the sushi cafe. But really, i should have just gone home then and there. but i didn't. I found a table and tried to get kody to sit with me. But he refused to get out of the trolley. So i sat on my own and ordered my lunch.... none for kody, as he was shouting "i don't want Sushi!" It took me all of 5 seconds after ordering to realize that this wasn't going to work. The whole time i figured he would just settle down and enjoy some lunch with me (he loves sushi) and get over his little temper tanty. But this was obviously not what he had in mind. The other patrons were giving me nasty nasty looks. So i told Kody we were going, as soon as they wrapped my food for takeaway. Its just about then that a friend of mine, with her hubby and 2 very quite and well behaved kids decided to have lunch at this same place.
You know, it's bad enough when your child is having some ridiculous tantrum, and everyone is staring at you while you try and placate your child, it's another to have someone you know show up to witness this disaster, while their perfectly behaved kids watch on in humor. Again, Nice.

So eventually we leave and i naively believe we through with the worst of it. I push my trolley with my screaming child in it, trying not to spill my take-away miso as i go. All the while people are gathering around to see what the commotion is.

It's me, just lil ol me with my possessed screaming child. No, i am not beating him to death, as it would be fair to assume from the screams coming from him. I am not even yelling at him. He just screams, and i just push my trolley pretending i don't notice people staring.

Then we get to the car. Surley this will all be over soon, right? Wrong. Kody refuses to get in the car. he has now realized that through having his tanty he has only punished himself, missing out on sushi and ice cream with mummy. So the screams have turned into wails of " I'm sorrrrryyyyyyyyyyy mummy...pleeeeeease can we go baaaaaaaaaack. I'll be good nowwwwwwwwwww. PLeeeeease can we start agaaaaaain??!! I want sushhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiii!"

Getting him in the car is all but impossible. every time i try and lift him in he spreads out like a starfish, using his legs and arms to grab onto the door stopping me from getting him in. And if i do manage to push him through the door and into the car, he will run from my grasp and out another door and back to the trolley. This goes on for 35 minutes. Yes, you think i would be able to overpower a 4 year old right? Wrong. I finally manage to get him into the front seat (the car seat in the back was impossible to get him into, with all the kicking and screaming) and buckle him up, only to have him keep unbuckling himself  and get out of his seat while i am driving home! Eventually i had to call his dad and ask him to talk to kody until i got home, to distract him from jumping out of his seat while i was driving.

Then to top it all off, when we finally got home, he was exhausted from all the screaming. I didn't bother yelling at him or punishing him because he knew what he had done, and had punished himself enough on the ride home ( telling dad how he was naughty to mummy and soooo sorryyyyyyyyy and how he wrecked Kody and Mummy day, sniff sniff, sob, sob).he was all cuddled up in my lap when he saw my sushi. And my now cold miso. And yes, i gave him my lunch. No, not cause I'm a total softie, but because he needed to eat and quite frankly i was too damn tired after out little outing to get up and make him lunch. So i gave him mine. And just like that the demon that had possessed my child disappeared.

Children, you just gotta love them ;)

xo
Z