Shopping with Kids

I'd like to know how many mothers shop with their children. There are about 50 people out there today that I wish I didn't. I like to leave at least 2 of them with Jeremy, but that usually means I have to go in the evening and this week we already have 3 evenings filled up so I took them with me this morning. They did great and I have wonderfully behaved children.

Right! OK so they aren't the children on the floor kicking and screaming and crying, but almost. Our first stop was Aldie's. Callie always gets to sit in the actual child's seat. The boys still both like to at least start in the big part of the cart. Isaiah is too big for it, but I always wrongly think it will be better to have them both in one place than chasing them outside of the cart.

Wrong. They hardly both fit so there is often fighting over who should put what where. Today they weren't fighting. They were playing together. They were "shooting" salad dressing and hot dogs all over the store. (nothing came out of the package, just pretend) I was grateful that they weren't crying, but loud, oh my. (I'm not giving all the details...) Then one of them saw my grandma. "Great-Grandma!" I'm sure half the store heard them. It was nice to see a familiar, understanding face. We finally made it to the check out. I love Aldies, but I do not like how they load your groceries into another cart. It works fine if you're by yourself, but with kids is crazy. I accidentally squished Isaiah between the cart and the counter. We almost had a melt down. Then I had to transport kids and purse to the new cart only to see that the cashier put stuff in the child's seat so there was no place for Callie. Thankfully my grandma was right in front of me and was able to hold Callie while I paid and got kids out of the cart.

In the van I almost decided to just go home and give up going to Wal-Mart, but I really didn't want to have to run out again. I had a talk with the boys and told them how disappointed I was in their behaviour at Aldies and I expected better at Wal-Mart. I told Isaiah he was going to walk instead of being in the cart. He told me he didn't have enough energy. I told him if he had energy to act like he just did he had energy to walk. Oh.

The talk didn't do a lot, but we did make it to the check-out. I'll spare the details, but it wasn't pretty. I was embarrassed and not happy at all. So what am I supposed to do? I had my options:

1. Tell them they are going to get it when we get home. However, that means I have to deal with it when we get home. Plus that's what all those "awful" mothers scream at their children in Wal-Mart.

2. Tell them they will be talking to Daddy when he gets home. This always get their attention and really makes life easy for me. Oh the fear of Daddy! However, I do not like to do that to Jeremy. He's always fine with it, but it's just not the way I like to welcome him home from work. Plus, the boy's always look forward to him coming home.

3. This option came to me and I liked it so I did it. I loaded everyone into the van and drove to Wendy's. The boys figured out where we were and started asking for nuggets. Eating out is a big treat that doesn't happen often. I almost stopped my plan because my mother's heart was starting to melt, but it didn't melt enough. I simply explained to the boys that the behaviour I had just dealt with while shopping didn't deserve any nuggets. I then ordered myself a pack of nuggets. It was a silent drive home. The nuggets were bittersweet.

When we got home I unbuckled car seats and started to take Callie inside. I turned around to see Isaiah and Nathan both coming out of the van with grocery bags. I was amazed because I don't usually have them help me and because I hadn't asked them to help this time. Plus, I hadn't bought them nuggets. The helped unload all the groceries.

I was so pleased and told them so. Isaiah said something along the line that this was a lot better than how he acted at the grocery store. For one brief moment I thought I had arrived as the perfect mother. This one simply lesson was going to make them perfect obedient children and responsible adults. I sure was something! Than I told them to pick up their Duplos before lunch and my big bubble popped. Oh well. It was fun for 30 seconds.