If you are a parent of a little one, you know that trips to Target can be really, REALLY dicey. While the megastore may act as a symbolic reprieve from the stressful ins and outs of home life, any hands-on parent will tell you that the place is filled with many “landmines” that are seemingly designed to knock kids off-kilter. Namely? The slushee machine!

Sure, it’s a tempting prospect to feed your boy or girl a nice treat while you shop, but with a couple of minutes of quiet come steep consequences—and we don’t mean brain freeze!

You see, even the smallest slushees are not necessarily pint-sized, making it difficult for kiddos to sustain a good grip. So, when they get distracted by something, they can lose their hold of the icy, sticky beverage, leaving you—and your fellow shoppers—to watch in horror as it explodes on the floor.

With that said, as a parent, it’s so easy to forget that we ALL did this as kids, whether it was a spilled glass of milk in the kitchen or a felled ice cream cone outside of your childhood Dairy Queen. Now, we don’t know how your parents reacted to such situations, but ours were never TOO forgiving when it came to public displays of clumsy behavior!

So, when a Minnesota mother watched this very scenario go down at her local Target, she was pleasantly surprised to see that not every parent reacts with anger.

In a Facebook post that has since gone viral, the mom, Kalynne Marie, writes about the amazing way a dad of a young boy reacted to his son’s mishap.

I just witnessed a boy, maybe about 6 or 7, accidentally spill a slushee everywhere. I’m talking blue and red goop all over the floor, the table, everywhere. The boy looked up at who I assume was his father, and immediately apologized.

Instead of getting angry, his father just said “Hey, it happens. Let’s go get napkins and I can show you how to clean it up.” Then they calmly went to get napkins and then he helped him clean the entire mess.

Then, as they were throwing the napkins away, the father said to his son, “You’re going to be a human being for a long time, and you have such a smart brain that it’s important you learn how to be more aware of what you’re doing.

So next time just be sure to pay more attention to your surroundings so accidents like this don’t happen. Accidents like these can be prevented, but it’s still okay if they happen. As long as you take responsibility for your mistakes, the clean up is a breeze.”

What a wonderful way to deal with a sticky situation. This Facebook user was impressed, and so are we!

Believe it or not, Kalynne actually managed to spot the dad and his son several weeks after her initial post. And although she admits that she was “nervous as hell” to go up and explain to the family that she had penned a post about their good behavior, she did so anyway.

Kalynne says that the father had no idea that his simple parenting technique had gone viral; after all, he readily admitted that he is the “last person to use Facebook.” Amazing stuff!

We’re so happy to hear that this mom shined a spotlight on this A-plus parenting moment. More and more of these positive encounters should be shared with the world!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this story. Have you dealt with an infamous “spilled slushee” situation? If so, how did you react? Do you want to acknowledge a particularly outstanding parent?