judge not that ye be not judged

Naomi's 200 decibel scream
Heidi and Yaya at the splash park
Leah and Yaya in the background
This morning I had a chiropractic appointment in Salem and totally last minute I remembered there was a splash park just down the street. So I grabbed four swimming suits and decided to surprise the girls with a fun outing. When I pulled into the splash park parking lot, the girls got so excited. I started handing out swimming suits when Naomi pointed out that I had brought her suit from last year. Now, with any other child and this probably wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but Naomi immediately melted down. I was compassionate and validated her feelings that it was disappointing that Mom brought the wrong suit and tried to tell her she still had other options. As I listed them off her "NO!" became louder with each suggestion.

I figured it was a risk to bring Naomi out in public like this, but I hoped she would calm down at some point. After all, I didn't want to disappoint everyone else because Naomi was pitching a fit. So I loaded Yaya and Heidi up in the stroller and we started walking towards the water. Let me rephrase that. Four of us started walking and Naomi stomped behind screaming. Somehow I still hoped she would calm down.

The closer we got to the water, the louder Naomi got. I stopped under a tree to put sun screen on the girls and Naomi turned into "that" kid. The kind of kid you see in public and immediately come to the conclusion that those parents must not discipline their child because MY kid would never do something like that! Naomi came up to me and hit me as hard as she could, then she ran to the stroller and tried to push it over and then smacked Leah on her bare back. I made her sit and calm down and told her when we got home she would be spending the rest of the day in her room. Still, my desire to not punish the other girls for Naomi's actions won out over reason and I continued on to the water.

The three girls started playing in the water and I told Naomi to sit under the tree with the stroller. Of course she didn't and came running over screaming. I tried to pick her up and bring her back but it's a bit difficult to carry a 60 pound flailing child. I put her down and tried to hold her hand but she jerked away and fell on the ground, all the while screaming as if I was beating her. When all of a sudden, a little boy who was riding past on his bike burst into tears and started yelling, "Don't drag her! You're hurting her! STOP!!!"

At that point I burst into tears of my own. Here I am trying to provide my kids with a nice, fun experience and I know everyone around me is secretly wishing I would take my obnoxious kid home and learn some parenting skills. They don't know that I offered Naomi three hundred different options so she could still play in the water and have fun but instead she's acting like a crazed lunatic and now some kid is screaming at me to stop abusing my kid! It was just more than I could handle. Thankfully, his mom came over and apologized and said he's just super sensitive and offered to help. After I explained the whole situation (which I'm sure she REALLY didn't care to hear) she offered me best wishes and good luck. After that I decided to call it a day. I was just waiting for everyone to start applauding as we left.

Naomi continued to scream the entire way back to the car and ram into the stroller and hit her sisters and throw grass at me. Then once we got loaded into the car she refused to get in a seat belt and kept opening the automatic side door. I just started driving HOPING that a cop would pull me over and yell at Naomi to get her seat belt on. No such luck. Instead, she just kicked the back of my seat for the 20 minute ride home. The second we got home, Naomi stopped her fit, skipped up to the door and was acting like nothing had happened. Is my child bi-polar? What is wrong with this picture? What would you have done in this situation? I'm having PTSD every time I think about this afternoon! It was a nightmare!