By: Terrie Goldstein, Publisher  Orig. Date: 12/20/2007

Do you ever fly off the handle when you get frustrated?

I remember when my kids were younger and I took my first job. I thought I had everything perfectly arranged for my kids after school care. Then the first snow came early and it came with a vengeance. Schools closed early. Buses were late. Nothing worked right. When I got home I stomped up and down the stairs in frustration not sure where to turn.

Luckily I had two older neighbors who lived close, one across the street, the other behind our house. Their grandchildren lived far away so they adopted my kids. I could call them and they would be there when the boys came home, whether it was early or late.

Now that my boys are grown with their own children, I look at the young parents in the supermarket checkout line. They are rushing to pick up their kids from school and then they are off to the supermarket for food for dinner. The kids want candy, cookies and everything that will ruin their appetite. Mom screams, “No. You can’t have that” and her child cries.

I often say to myself, “What should I do?” I usually keep life savers and silly erasers in my pocketbook for when I take care of my grandkids, but I know kids are taught not to take anything from strangers.

Now I try a simple solution. I turn to the mom and say, “Sometimes it’s just a bad day. Is there anything I can do to help?” Most times, it breaks the tension in the air and things calm down.

With our severe slump in the housing market resulting in a credit crisis, Wall Street is trying to determine if we are in a recession, where it costs more to buy less. According to Alan Greenspan, who headed the central bank for 19 years, growth in the current October through December period is expected to have slowed to a feeble pace of just 1.5 percent, or less.

If things get tougher, you will see more frustration on the supermarket checkout line. Just remember a few simple lines: “Sometimes it’s just a bad day. Is there anything I can do to help?”

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