My toddler threw an epic tantrum in public. The advice I got from another mom stuck with me for years.

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• My daughter skipped the terrible twos, and I thought I was safe from tantrums.
• Then, when she was 3, at a fair, she threw her shoe at another kid because she was angry at me.
• Another mom saw my frustration and gave me parenting advice that has stuck with me for years.

"She's perfect," my pediatrician said the day she met my daughter.

And she was. She was an easygoing baby who'd leapfrogged the dreaded terrible twos. I thought we were past tantrums and meltdowns.