This kid is going to go far in life

I was in Target today, and when I got to the checkout line, I passed by a woman putting her groceries on the belt. Her little boy was standing next to her, and he must have been about 4 years old. The boy was bawling and demanding, "I want a toy! I want a toy! I want a toy!" He was howling it at the top of his lungs and he repeated that same exact phrase the same exact way over and over again without stopping.

I have never in my life seen such a feat of determination from a kid. The mom waited in line, checked through a whole cartload of groceries, stopped on the way out at Starbucks where she had to wait in line again and then wait while they made her drink, then went to her car, loaded all the groceries in the car, got her boy and her baby in, returned her cart to the corral, then got back in her car and drove away. All with the boy still howling, "I want a toy! I want a toy! I want a toy!" I know this because I happened to be near her every step of the way, and I could still hear the boy as she backed out of her parking space and drove past me as I loaded up my car.

I thought Ellie was a stubborn beast, but this kid has it all over her. Of course, Ellie would have tried at least 5 or 6 different ways to get what she wanted while this kid couldn't seem to move off his one chosen strategy. But that kind of single-mindedness is going to serve him well when he gets older, and he'll probably be successful enough to find his mom a very nice facility where she can go and "rest" her "nerves."