Today Alethea and I went to Target to buy a birthday present for her cousin Roman.  Despite the rain, we were having a good time as we found our way back to the toy section.  Alethea was enjoying going up and down the aisles and was especially fond of the baby doll section.

Then the fateful moment…  As we approached the display for walking/talking Big Foot, it lit up and Big Foot started moving.  Alethea was interested, so we went closer.  There was a button.  A big orange button.  My gut instinct said “Don’t push the button, this is not a friendly looking toy.”  But Alethea was clearly intrigued, so I did it anyway, I pushed the button.

Big Foot roared… Alethea’s eyes narrowed, but she was still interested…  Big Foot did a flip… still interested…  Big Foot started yelling and banging his fists on his Plexiglas cage…

With a shriek of terror, Alethea burst into tears.

As I hurried away with the cart, mom guilt washing over me, I looked around for a distraction and there was the bin of giant swirly colored balls.  I got Alethea a purple one.  A two dollar and forty-eight cent distraction from the terrible monster Mommy had activated against her better judgment.  And then I felt more guilty, for bribing my child with a toy.  I tried telling myself that we sort of owed her one anyway since her last giant ball died when Peter threw it up on the roof and it came down in a pine tree.  POP!  But really, I wasn’t planning on buying it when I walked into the store and it’s not like she really needs another toy.

Poor parenting though it was, it did work; she was distracted and I learned my lesson.  I did NOT press the button on the giant Lego Darth Vader display and I deftly navigated around the motion activated skeleton in the Halloween decorations.  But I still feel guilty… two bad mom moments in one trip to Target… not good for the parenting self-esteem.  I just hope Alethea doesn’t have nightmares tonight.  (Oh, and in case you were wondering, Roman won’t be getting a walking/talking Big Foot toy for his birthday, or at least, not from Alethea.)