Leah huffed, dragging her son by the arm into the store while he tried to throw himself on the ground in a tantrum.
“Hello ma’am, how can I help you?” A shop worker appeared at Leah’s side, as if by magic, and she startled.
“Oh, hello!” She greeted, struggling between looking at the shopkeep and handling her tantruming son. “I was wondering, do you have anything that will help my son act his age?”
She gestured to his tantrum and let go of his arm, and the little boy started pounding his fists into the floor. “All this is because I wouldn’t buy him chocolate at the store. See, I expected these kinds of tantrums when he was little. Three, four, maybe even five years old…” she looked down at him, worried, “but he’s eight now, and he acts pretty much the same as he did when he was a toddler.”
“Except much bigger, I’m guessing,” she shopkeep raised an eyebrow at Jacob. “Do you want to leave him in our playpen at the front while I take you through some options?”
Leah nodded, happy to escape from the tantrum for a while. “I would love that,” she told them, and reached down to pick Jacob up by the arms again.
The shopkeep showed her to a playpen where a few children and toddlers of various ages were playing while their caregivers were wandering the store.
“There you go, Jacob,” the shopkeep told him, “your mother and I are going to be busy for a while. Have fun,”
With a quick turn, the shopkeep took Leah and started towards an aisle with items dedicated for children around Jacob’s age. They decided to show her —