admin Grocery shopping with my two kid
s is like trying to comb my hair during a hurricane or like using a blender without a lid.
Sometimes it is not possible to leave them home, and they have to come along. I mentally prepare myself, and consider the trip an educational outing – for my little one to learn new words and my eldest to learn how to add and the cost of items. At the end of it all it is more a lesson for me….NEVER AGAIN.
We arrive at the supermarket and the first thing my son wants is to get into the trolley. That is a good sign you might say…..think again. The trip starts relatively on a good vibe….with the little one in the trolley and the eldest with the calculator…..everyone excited to get some yummy food. Trouble starts only after a few aisles, when the eldest starts moaning because she did a mistake and has to start counting all over again. At this stage, I am still relatively calm. Well by the time, we arrive to the fourth aisle, I am more like to crazy cat lady of the Simpsons cartoon. Why you might ask……my daughter gave up on the calculator and wants to go home…….my son has been trying to grap every items on the shelves, the shopping list I gave him to distract him has been given to 10 different people in the supermarket and I have been given ‘the look’ from other customers.
(‘The look’ is the look of judgement on other people’s faces. For them you are a bad example to your kids.)
As usual, during these shopping trips, we can not miss those mothers who have it all together, those children-less couples and those women who look at you in disdain because you say something which might not sound that appropriate. On rare occasions, I see mothers just like me….trying to cope with their kids….and I smile at them as a sign that I full understand what they are going through.
At the cashier, I always try to find someone in front of me who does not have much items. however inevitably they seem to have the Mary Poppins shopping cart as things continue to pop out or else they have an issue at the cash register. By that time, my son is standing up in the trolley and between me ordering my son to “sit down” and the cashier trying to be nice and my daughter living in her own world (God forbid she helps putting groceries in the shopping bags)…….I am exhausted and say to myself …..NEVER AGAIN.
A trip to the supermarket, which alone would take you 1hr, with the kids it can take 2hrs.
As if that was not enough, back at the car, when everything is nicely stacked, my daughter requests a snack which I have no idea where it is but I have to find because she is so hungry she could die. So there I am am searching for this snack, which is at the bottom of the bag.
So the next time, you see the ‘crazy cat lady’ at the supermarket it might be me.
Love
Strugglingmum
