Bad Example

I was in Super Wal-Mart the other day, walking through the baby section, which happens to be right next to the frozen foods section when I overheard an interesting conversation, of sorts.

It happened about four aisles over, so as you can imagine, it wasn't the quietest of conversations. I heard a young child crying. What he was crying over, I'm not sure, but his dad was having a hard time soothing him. Apparently it was getting kind of frustrating, because the next thing I heard was this daddy losing control and shouting, "DAVID! JUST CALM DOWN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" (Remember, I'm hearing this from four aisles away.)

I'm thinking that this was a bad example of parenting. I'm thinking to myself, "Hmmm. If I'm David, and my dad starts shouting at me, I'm not thinking I'm going to be calmer for the experience."

Then I'm thinking: "Hmmmm. Do you think David is going to follow Daddy's example and get more roused up? Probably."

Poor David. It was a no-win situation. There is no way David is going to get calmer the more that Dad loses his cool.

I hope I'll be a daddy who can can keep his cool. I'm sure it seems easier from this side of the fence.