The Ice Cream Cone

Part of my happy childhood involves a warm Saturday night when my uncle would pile the four kids into the bed of his blue pickup truck and take us to the ice cream stand.  It was a special treat, and we sang campfire songs at the top of our lungs the whole way there.  

Those same three ice cream stands still stand as beacons of our small town, and they haven't changed much at all.  We take our own children there for a special treat (in seatbelts and car seats, of course, not in the the bed of a truck), because it's nostalgic for us.  One summer day, Hubby took the kids to the expensive one.  We rarely visit that stand; it's a little bit further away and the cones are twice the price.  Baby Girl was maybe three, I'm not sure.  She ordered a plain vanilla cone, and it was huge.  When the fourteen-year-old sales girl handed the cones to Hubby, someone's chocolate cone touched the vanilla cone.  Baby Girl took her cone, immediately walked over to the trash can, and threw it away.  She looked at her father and demanded, "I want another one.  That one had chocolate on it."

There are two kinds of parents in this world.  I'll choose my words carefully and won't tell you what I truly think of the second parent.  Hubby responded exactly as I hoped he would.  With eyebrows raised high, he informed her that she would absolutely not be getting another cone since she chose to throw hers away.  She proceeded to throw a fit.  A woman approached my husband and told him what a terrible parent he was because he would not buy her another ice cream cone.  My daughter was being a brat, and this woman wanted her unacceptable behavior to be rewarded by giving her exactly what she wanted.  Absolutely not.  I'm so proud of my husband that day for putting a crying child in the car and not giving in to her.  He came home grouchy, but he made the right decision.  To this day, my daughter remembers the lesson she learned.  

In America, we have a lot of grown-up brats who "threw away their ice cream cones" and are now demanding new ones.  Some of our government has told them no- they are not getting a bailout for the communities they purposefully destroyed.  For that, I commend them.  At first, the brats may throw a fit, and things might get worse.  But if "Daddy" gives in to their tirades, will they ever learn their lesson?  No, they will turn into bigger brats, throw greater fits, and consistently demand more.  It's time for our government to start treating these fit-throwing adults like babies and punishing them for their misbehavior.