holy tantrum, batman

Hadley has never been a tantrum thrower. She'll get upset and cry about something, but rarely it lasts long. And by rarely, I mean never. Until today...

Today I took the girls to a local shopping center to pick a few things up for our vacation next week. In this shopping center is a train for the kids to ride and they only take cash (who carries cash anymore?). So I told the girls that we would go get some cash, do my shopping and if they were good, we could ride the train.

I figured we'd be riding the train because it is rare that Hadley acts up so bad I have to pass on a promise. Hayden, maybe, but Hayden is far to young to really understand that.

We hit two stores in my shopping run and I decided to go into H&M to look at the kiddo clothes (have you seen them? they are so cute!). They had a whole rack of dress-up princess and fairy outfits, which of course is the way to Hadley's heart. She asked me to buy her a pair of fairy wings (which is another thing she never does) and I told her no and maybe Santa would bring them to her for Christmas. Well, she decided it was Christmas NOW and we needed to take them home. I told her no and put them back on the rack and that's when it began...

Shrill screaming. Throwing herself on the floor. Screaming. Me apologizing to the other customers while I walked away from her (knowing that she would follow me). The screaming and throwing herself on the floor continued through the mall and through Macy's and out to the parking lot. I kept walking.

We got outside and she refused to hold my hand. In my fluster, I led us out the wrong door, so we had to do a little walking to get to the car (honestly, I was just glad to be outside). And she decided to park herself on the curb and not move. Now, if we were inside, I would've continued to walk (of course, keeping her in my side), but I was uncomfortable letting my three year old sit on the curb in the parking lot with me walking away.

A man came up to me and asked if he could go talk to her... I told him I was trying to teach her a lesson and not to worry about it. But he said her name, which I knew wouldn't go over well with her as she tends to be shy around men, and she came running to me. I got her in the car, where her hysterical sobs continued and drove home. I didn't say a word. She cried most of the way, fell asleep for about five minutes or so, and resumed her tantrum at home. In her room.

I've never seen anything like it. I hope my response was appropriate... I didn't feel feeding into it with frustrated words or actions was the right thing to do.

Ahhh... whoever said two was terrible was wrong. Three is proving to be rough.

What would you have done? Or what have you done in similar situations?