Kid-ing with Kayla: If given the choice of paying for a babysitter and taking my young child to a phone store, I’d pay! These kinds of places are temptation grounds for children under 5 years old. As a single mom, sometimes I can’t find a sitter so I am forced to bring my son along on errands.

In this particular situation, my phone stopped working so I couldn’t contact a babysitter even if I wanted to! I needed to talk to the service provider but Allan had different plans. When you are four, you see a phone store as a playground with a ton of buttons to press including your mother’s. Allan accidentally set off a security alarm, he ran around, he was flipping highlighters off the table, he was drawing on his arm with a pen, he was fake answering phone calls and pretty much had the time of his life while I was feeling pretty helpless.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I wish I would have seen this coming and prepared to entertain him during this appointment. I should have brought an iPad with games on it, snacks, a drink, an activity book or any other way to keep him occupied without destroying the store.

Being a great parent takes a lot of prep work, flexibility and creativity in the moment.

Honestly, the only way I got him to sit down and stop playing with the phones was by asking the worker if he could draw on a piece of paper while we talked. While this wasn’t fool proof since he started flipping the highlighters in the air and drawing on himself, it did buy us some time to finish the appointment.

Moral of the story, get a babysitter if you can and if not, come prepared.

Parents are encouraged to chime in on the conversation with tips and or their own personal stories on Facebook.

For more Kid-ing with Kayla, click here.