I can finally post this without

my blood pressure surging. It's been a few weeks since this incident. We drove to Watertown (almost an hour away) for a big Walmart shopping trip. We're one of those families who uses two carts for our little pilgrimage. Anyway, my Jonah fell asleep on the way. He is a terror to wake up. Usually he throws a huge tantrum - which I dutifully ignore. When I saw him asleep, I knew our trip wasn't going to be easy or fun. So....here it is. We parked and I went in the back of the van to wake him up. Well, he had slightly wet his shorts while he was sleeping. Not an ideal situation, but I figured he could live through it. I woke him up and told him it was time to get into the store. He stood in the van throwing a HUGE screaming, crying fit. I couldn't understand a thing he was saying, and honestly, he's getting a little big for me to manhandle his body out of the back of the van. What do you do when your 5yo is unreasonable in the middle of a parking lot an hour from home in 80+ degree heat with three other kids waiting? Spanking would be an easy option, but I haven't found it to be effective and it certainly wouldn't help Jonah get control of himself. What to do? I told him that he could come or not but that we were going into the store. Then we started leaving. Since Watertown is a decent sized city, I couldn't really leave him in the van. I was hoping that he would come out of the van by himself. He didn't. I went back to the van to physically remove him, and do you know what he did? In the midst of his tantrum he unloaded his bladder IN THE VAN. What do you do with that? I was over-the-top-furious. This kid has absolutely no problem urinating in nature. Why in the world did he not get out of the van or TELL me that he needed to use the bathroom? Grrrr. The best punishment I could come up with at the time was to make him complete our shopping soaking wet. He was completely embarrassed. I'm kinda glad I didn't have a change of clothes for him. I would have been tempted to change him. I can only hope that this experience was enough to (1) stop his sleeping tantrum issue and/or (2) convince him that talking is effective communication. Some day I will remember this day fondly, right?