A father, who was recently scorned in public after he carried his son kicking and screaming out of a Costco store, went to Reddit to ask for opinions on his experience. The Redditor, known as “Susurrus,” explained that his 7-year-old son was “throwing a hell of a tantrum,” which had apparently gone on for some time.

The dad says that he couldn’t calm his child down and his attempts to do so only made the situation worse. Instead of yelling, snatching, or even hitting the child, the father chose to calmly pick the boy up and walk unceremoniously out of the door, as the Reddit post shows.

He explained in his Reddit post that he took the boy to his car for a “time out/calm down time/get out of public.” He went on to share, “I didn’t hit him or anything, just lifted him up and carried him out of the store (and of course, he was fighting/crying in the process.)”

The father admitted that he was not really paying attention to the reactions of the strangers around him, since his focus was on getting the child to the car so that he could calm him. He had to carry the boy into an elevator, and across the street before reaching their vehicle.

After the fact, the child’s mother shared with the dad that people around them had recorded the entire incident. One person even approached her to say that the father “should not have done that.” Mom did not want to confront this stranger, since English is not her first language, so that conversation did not get very far.

Once he realized what an “awkward spot” the entire situation had put his wife in, the Redditor went to the site to ask for opinions. “Was I in the wrong?” he asked.

Dad explained, “I’m not sure how else I could have approached the situation, and it isn’t the first time where I’ve had to haul him outside/to the car (if possible) for his tantrums and have always figured this was the best course of action.”

He said that this method “pretty much works,” and stated that once the child calms down, they usually go back inside the store or restaurant, which is what they did this time as well.

Redditors were quick to commiserate with the father and share their own experiences in dealing with a child’s public tantrums. “Who hasn’t carried their crying child out of a store,” asked sweetD8763, “Isn’t that a rite of passage in parenthood?”

Another parent shared that she and her husband call it “the surfboard,” while still another calls it the “sack of potatoes,” and even goes so far as to calmly threaten her child with this reference when he throws a fit in public. She said that her son would respond with, “No, no sack of tatos…” and generally calmed himself.

As MrDarcysDead stated, people who judge a parent for similar circumstances probably don’t even have kids, “but think they are experts because they’ve seen children on TikTok,” or “have a unicorn child who happily listens and obeys while biodegradable glitter descends from the sky and small, cheerful animals approach singing and dancing.” (LOVE the sarcasm!)

It is hard for us REAL parents to imagine why anyone would be offended at the sight of a parent calmly carrying a child away from a stressful situation and allowing that child to calm down. Unlike the days of old when parents were encouraged to hit the kid or worse, parents now understand that children cannot control their emotions like little robots, and they shouldn’t.

It isn’t clear what the onlookers felt that this father should have done. Was he supposed to just ignore the tantrum and allow his child to be upset, overwhelmed, and desperately crying for help? No good parent would ignore their child’s plea for respite from being overstimulated. We all need a break sometimes.

Or perhaps they thought the father should have offered the child a new toy or a snack to calm him. While children should not be punished for being overwhelmed and needing a time-out, we have to question the wisdom of rewarding a tantrum.

As MrDarcysDead went on to say, “For the rest of us, we know that a parent fireman carrying their screaming, frothing, flailing, honey badger of a child to the car for a time-out is a good parent who has earned themselves a pat on the back and a well-deserved pint of beer. Standing ovation, my friend. Well done.”

What would you have done as a parent? What if you were an onlooker? Would you have stopped and stared? Videoed the incident as these onlookers did? Tell us in the comments.

‍