Our first public meltdown

Today Brendan had his first meltdown in public. There have been other times where he has been difficult, but this was much different. It was all over a ninja turtle. He screamed, said hurtful things to me, threw himself on the floor, smacked me and carried on the whole way through the store. (If you were at Target around 12:15 today, I apologize) The looks I got were so uncomfortable. You'd think by now, people would understand that's it's not me parenting incorrectly, or Brendan behaving badly. But the looks I got were not looks of sympathy. They we're looks of people that wanted me to control my child. If it were only that easy. It finally stopped when we got to the checkout. I wanted nothing more than to drop whatever I had and just leave. I think it pushed me into an immediate panic attack. And when everything was over, I was just so emotionally drained. I know this will not be the last one, but wow! I just really wish the judgement from others wasn't there. That is the hardest thing to deal with. 

P.S. This is not the toy he was crying about. We had already bought this, and he wanted something else at another store.