I remember grocery shopping when the kids were little, and there are few things more stressful than that. It is grocery shopping hell. I went from single and grocery shopping with one of those little carry baskets, swinging it carefree down the aisles, filling it with gourmet cheeses and wines, to 6 1/2 years later having a newborn in a carry seat attached to the top of the large family sized shopping buggy, a one year old sitting in the kid seat and a 6 1/2 year old walking besides.
Cheese Whiz is my gourmet cheese now and I really could use a couple bottles of wine!
Fast forward a couple of years and the kids are more mobile, they are about 4, 5 and 10 1/2. Before we enter the vortex of "Can I have . . . ", "Can I get . . . ", and "I want this", I am reading the Riot Act, yet again, about how we are going to behave in the store. I have a red pepper in the buggy when one kid pushes the buggy (accidentally) into another kid. We've been here two minutes, and I just can't put myself through this, I swear we will eat bread and water for dinner forever, I say we are leaving, we abandon the buggy and go home.
These days, I will take the youngest, but not so young anymore, kid to the store with me. Sometimes our conversations are like this:
"Can . . ."
"No."
"But . . ."
"No."
"Mom . . ."
"No."
Lately, I've been quicker on the draw, and now it goes like this:
"C . . . "
"No."
"B . . ."
"No."
"M . . ."
"No."
Now it's getting funner to grocery shop, try it yourself, see how fast you can say "no" when they start to ask for something. (I'm serious, it's really funny, you've got to try it!)
