I don’t know much about parenting, but …
I’m pretty sure that an incorrect response to a wailing child in the middle of Broadway Target is:
Will you please stop crying, I’m sick of you. This was supposed to be a nice day out and you’ve ruined it.
This was calmly delivered from a well-dressed Mother to an 5-6 year old boy. I tell ya, it didn’t make the kid feel any better, at all.
I’ll follow up this post in a few years and we’ll see how I coped.