I believe that you have to set limits with children, and that whining should not get them every thing they want. And certainly we do not need to buy every thing that catches the eye at the store, especially things that make noise. And the first time I faced the actual situation, I failed (against my nine month old, no less).
We were checking out a new store in town to see its children's section. I notice that there were a lot of velour pants for my budding toddler. We don't need any. (I mentioned to my mom that they were "in." She noted that it was too bad we still didn't have my toddler velour pants... Hmm.) And we looked at toy key rings and cell phones, because Kiddo really liked the one she saw when we were visiting some friends last week. She was so enamored with this set of plastic keys (that made noise when she pushed the buttons!) that even though I wouldn't let her put it in her mouth, she still wouldn't let go of them. She fussed everytime I acted as if they might get removed from her tight little grip. I caved, and bought it for her. She got upset when I took them away so the lady could ring it up. Does it need to be said that we did not get a bag?
Now, there are some extenuating circumstances here. 1) I was actually in the market for such a toy. 2) Kiddo came into some money last month by participating in a health study, so in fact I was spending her money. 3) We had just returned something else I had bought with the money, so it was with us at the time. I want to think that given my life currently, no matter how much she liked them or fussed when I put them back on the shelf, we would not have bought them. But this did not seem to bode well for our shopping future.
