Crime And Punishment

So I am a mother to a two year old, and I fully sympathize with other mothers who have children who have their moments of insanity in public places, so naturally I expect other parents to give me the same sympathy, and if not, empathy. There is only so much you can do to contain a young child when they have seemingly lost their mind. It just pisses me the hell off when that is not the case and people get snotty and judgemental about it. For example: Obviously, I am a military wife. I live clear across the country from my family, so when we visit, we fly. I know everybody, (myself included, before children), has had that moment when you cringe at the thought of a kid on a plane. I was terrified the first time I flew with Brody, my son. He was only three months old on that trip. It was nothing like I expected. He slept the entire flight and every person I passed getting off the plane told me that he was just so good. I was pumped. Then we flew again when Brody was older. It wasn't as easy, but still, not as bad as I expected. Now he's two, and I have the mentality that basically if you have a problem with the way my kid is acting on this plane, blow it out of your ass. He's two, he doesn't want to sit still, and neither would you at that age. Well I just took another cross-country plane ride with Brody. This was the first time he was flying in his own seat instead of my lap. I was very excited because he would be in his car-seat all strapped in and I would be able to read a book instead of leaving the plane with sore arms from trying to contain him for six hours. This particular flight flew from California to Dallas, then from Dallas to Orlando. The trip to Dallas was horrifying. I have never seen my kid show his ass so bad. I was embarassed, tired, but grateful because the man's seat he chose to kick the entire time was so sympathic with me and didn't complain one little bit. The trip from Dallas to Orlando was a different story entirely. I sat in the middle behind a Soldier, and Brody sat behind the world's douchiest dirt bag. The guy gets on the plane and Brody kicked his seat ONE time (by accident, it wasn't even a full on kick, just stretching his legs) and this dumbass starts huffing and puffing like he's some guido version of the Big Bad Wolf. He turns around and glares at me and I apologetically say, "I apologize in advance, I'll do what I can to keep him from kicking your seat." The jerk off turns back around and starts mumbling to himself and I caught "fuck this" before he finally shut up. The soldier next to him looks at him with disguist and tells him, "Man the fuck up dude, he's a baby." I don't hear another peep out of the self-tanning bandit. Meanwhile, in the few minutes this has all taken place, Brody has fallen fast asleep and stays that way the entire flight. I was sad, really, I had hoped he would kick the shit out of that man's seat, because I sure as hell wouldn't have done anything to stop it. So we land, and we're waiting to get off the plane and the guy stands up and goes, "Well at least it wasn't as bad as I thought." I wanted to murder him, but instead I said, "It's just a damn shame he couldn't have beat the shit out of your seat the whole flight like I was hoping for." He didn't respond, but proceeded to hurry off the plane as fast as his juiced up orange legs would take him. I thanked the soldier and he thanked me for doing a good job with my son. I wish more people were like him. Back to my original point, what is it that people really want us to do with our children when they act like that in public? Beat the hell out of them? Ignore it? Use psychic super mom powers to get them to shut up, because mine have not come in the mail yet. We are in a predicament as parents because we are under constant scruitny about how we discipline our children. Heaven forbid you smack your kid on the ass, no matter how light, because sure enough the first time you do that in public someone yells child abuse. So I beg of you judgemental ass holes, before you decide to give me the stink eye for my screaming child, how about you give me a healthy alternative for ending the madness. If not, then take that shit somewhere else because I don't have time for it, I have a screaming kid here, dontcha see? ;)