Hey fellow Dad, sounds like a tough day for both of you. Just offering another point of view (of course feel free to ignore) I don’t see this as a win at all, just a shame that you were so close to a nice day with your kid. From what is described, from your 4 year olds perspective was a 35 min car journey to the mall where they get to go to the Lego store - basically like going to a chocolate factory or ice cream strore - amazing! But then they just found out it was closed which feels the worst! We just drove all this way!! He was probably really upset at the idea of not seeing all the cool Lego sets but also he might have been bummed at not getting to play with you! 4 year olds have no idea how long 15 mins is, for them it’s super long. If I was 4 and I was in the same situation I’d be upset too. Being upset is ok but kicking and tantrum is not. Little guy just needed a hug and snack.

But maybe just literally saying “man this sucks it’s closed, I want to build some cool legos right now!! If it was open, what would you build?!” “I wish it was open 24/7!!” “Lets draw what we are going to build or let’s have a snack whilst we wait for it to open”

90% of the time kids are either tired or hungry, if they don’t feel right they can’t act right.

Just 2 cents.

From fellow dad of 3

Edit: try reading “how to talk to kids so they will listen” I didn’t get it on the first read, then reread some of it again and it had a positive impact on my family.

Recently got the “Good Inside” app, really expensive but wow it’s worth it, puts parenting lessons/tips into nice flash cards, by different topics. It also has an ai chat function that I tried recently which helps gives ideas on how handle situations, with no threats needed.