Every parent knows what it’s like when their kid misbehaves, throws a tantrum, or is otherwise hard to control in a public setting. It’s no fun, obviously. But after reading this story, you just might be thankful that your kids aren’t this badly behaved.
Kids: they’re bundles of joy.
I mean, when they’re down with the current activity you’re doing, it’s awesome — cherished memories and family togetherness and all that. But kids wear their emotions on their sleeves, and sometimes things go the other way.
The mall’s a prime spot for a meltdown.
Maybe it’s the big crowd, maybe it’s the enticing smells from the food court, and maybe it’s just not wanting to be dragged along. But there’s something about kids, malls, and tantrums that makes them coalesce so often.
Today’s tale takes us to the Land Down Under.
The Helensvale Shopping Centre, located in the suburbs of Gold Coast, Queensland, is an excellent venue for department stores, fashion…and, apparently, a child-sized rampage so epic that it’s made international news.
It took place in late March.
Two nine-year-old girls at the mall put on a display for the ages. This wasn’t a standard tantrum — in fact, it was so intense that I’m a little bit afraid of these girls now.
They started with a spirited game of jumpy-car.
Wanting to jump, and with no trampolines in sight, these girls decided to jump around on a parked car. Onlookers took video and asked if anybody had called the authorities yet. But things were just getting started.
They weren’t taking any guff.
Some kids are shy around strangers. These girls are not, as evidenced by their response to the onlookers. I’m choosing to believe they just said, “Get [into the mall], you [shoppers]!”
Things got a little wild.
The girls weren’t just jumping on the car. They’re also accused of abusing a woman in the parking lot and punching and kicking a security guard. Eventually, the police were called.
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There was also some scootin’ around.
Onlookers and security guards were trying to get the girls to stop, but thanks to this scooter, they were able to nimbly evade everyone. The scooter saga didn’t end there, though.
They warned a security guard.
Yeah, no big deal, just a nine-year-old girl casually threatening to straight-up murder a security guard if he took her scooter. After the earlier events, I’m not so sure she isn’t serious.
Yeah, he took the scooter.
It shouldn’t take much courage to stand up to a nine-year-old, but these nine-year-olds are clearly made of tougher stock than most. Kudos to this security guard for stepping in.
It was a super chaotic scene.
It’s tough to make sense of all the eyewitness reports and develop a possible timeline of events. But this Twitter thread is full of interesting tidbits mixed with wild speculation.
Eventually, their wild day at the mall came to an end.
Either the girls had simply had enough, or maybe they just needed their afternoon nap, but things wound down once they were thoroughly surrounded by a crowd of shoppers, security personnel and police.
Police took the girls home.
We don’t know anything much about the identity of the girls or their parents, which is a good thing. I mean, if you’d done this when you were nine, would you want people bringing it up now?
It should make parents feel a bit better.
As difficult as kids can be in public places, it’s probably safe to say that most parents never have to deal with a meltdown that’s quite on this scale.
What’s the worst kid meltdown you’ve ever seen?
I don’t know if anything is going to beat this, but I’d still love to hear your stories of kids behaving badly. Make sure to share your best in the comments!
h/t: @9NewsGoldCoast
