I don't mind being judgemental a bit about this, because I experienced it as a child and know how hard it is to listen to....my biggest pet peeve is seeing parents fight at Disney. The last time we went, I saw several different couples yelling and screaming at each other in front of their kids, and everyone else within hearing distance. I thought that was really awful and you could tell by their kids' faces that it was extremely upsetting to hear their parents treat each other that way.
I know how it feels, because I grew up with parents who fought constantly (including on every vacation we ever went on). It's terrible and ruins everybody's vacation. How can you teach your kids to respect other people if both parents can't show any respect for each other?
I don't think it's right that parents argue, and I've been an arguing parent (hubby's blood sugar issues can make him extremely rotten when he needs to eat...in a way the diabetes diagnosis has made our relationship 1000% better because it gives us an explanation for the attitude he can have).
However, I've been a kid in a household where the parents NEVER fought in front of us, and gol, that was really bad, too. We *thought* all was fine. But it wasn't. They were seething inside. I thought we were happy family, but we weren't...I actually had to do quite a bit of counseling, and even moved in with my mom and her last husband (good marriage) for a year, to feel what a happy family felt like from the inside, before I could start seeking out the Nice Boys, instead of the bad boys who made the "relationship" feel as bad as the relationship I lived inside of (from 8ish to 17) felt.
Fighting openly isn't always a bad thing, and NOT fighting isn't always a good thing.
And for us, it's almost always because hubby needs to eat, and all I need to do is keep my head clear and give him something to eat.
But by the middle of our trip, she had a complete meltdown in DHS. It started off with her running away and/or hiding behind trees. Each time I'd go and get her, she'd thrown herself on the floor and kick and scream (this was NOT my child). Then she started hitting and kicking and biting all the while screaming at the top of her lungs.
...but she continued to jump out and run away. Then she would do the whole limp body thing, while I seemingly dragged her along. She was truly evil on two legs that day.....she wouldn't stay in the stroller and would run off when not in the stroller. I thought I was going to pull her arm out of the socket between her trying to pull away and going limp all the time.
A very nice CM tried to give her a sticker and she pushed her! ....He had scratches all over his face, his face was bright red and he had a nice little shoe print on his bicep. Apparently, she beat the heck out of him and he was trying to hold her to get her to calm down.
Needless to say DD took a 3 hour nap and woke up just as angelic as if nothing had ever happened. Do I wish we had gone back to the hotel for a break, absolutely. I also wish I had some sort of warning before the meltdown but one minute she was sweet as could be, and the next minute she was heck on wheels.
I recognize that she's now 10 years older...but you just described my son from the point where we loosened up his diet (we were very concerned about typical food and environmental allergies and introduced things very slowly) until we were at the festival where he had the lollipop.
Inexplicable tantrums that were EXACTLY as you described, including passing out cold at the end of it. We got rid of those once we discovered the corn syrup, HFCS, corn syrup solid issues, and eliminated them from his diet.
I once took a picture of my face after a tantrum like that...he nearly scratched my eyeball during that one. Not fun.
When he was attacking me after the lollipop, it was in the kid's section at a big festival here in town...everyone was watching, no one was helping, no one smiled at me...I was crying he was hurting me so much (emotionally too), so I very well know how people can be while watching a tantrum. And I'd learned very early on, during his biting phase, that one is NOT to do as he's doing to get him to calm down...I once freaked out and bit him back, and I watched his eyes as he thought "OH, I see, that's OK now, to bite, thanks", and I wasn't going to teach him that hitting me was OK by me hitting him.
NO winning in the situation.
OK back to the lighter thread! These things just always bring up memories for me, because my little dude is such a demon when he has those ingredients, and I'm SO glad I figured it out. And b/c food things cause hubby to be really rude too...
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. The only ride that DD and DS have asked to not ride again was Dinosaur...DD tried it once and DS twice.
