Tales From the Grocery Store

The grocery store seems to be the testing grounds of my parenting skills. It's where my kids put all of their bad behaviors out on display and it has become a place of dread for me.

I think the big chains have recognized this and so they have tried to make their stores mom friendly offering free cookies, donuts, t.v. carts, car carts, bench carts, and even penny pony rides. And yet, there are days when even a live pony pulling my cart couldn't save me and my kids from disaster.

Today it was my fault. The clock clearly read nap time and still I had to squeeze a trip into Meijer (our mega grocery store). What was I thinking? It's the Friday of Memorial Day weekend! So there I was in a packed out parking lot with no make-up, "humid" hair, and 2 crabby kids...and this is before we entered the store. Somehow we survived the trip. I bribed the kids with an ice cream cone and there were only a few instances of me calling out numbers while strangers looked at me like I was nuts. "That's 1"...."That's 2"...."That's 3!!!!!!!!"

Just when I thought I was the only overwhelmed mother in the store, I spy another mom. She's got the bench cart with 2 kids on the bench and a baby in the front of the cart. Her cart is 1/2 full and you can tell that she's trying to make it before the kids hit melt down. Now, if you've driven one of those carts you know it's like driving an 18 wheeler and you need plenty of room and speed to swing it around to the next aisle. She rounds the corner at full speed hoping to make the turn to the next aisle. What she can't see, I can, and that is another bench cart fully loaded with 3 kids powered by another mom hitting top speed and ready for the turn. My mouth dropped into a "oh, no!" just as they collided. Both moms were visibly shaken by the crash but all 6 kids were unharmed. Both moms were also clearly embarrassed by their cart skills or rather lack of... I had a good chuckle and before you think I'm mean, it wasn't at them. I offered the 2 moms a smile saying, "Slow it down ladies. We all need to get out of here before nap time." In that single moment we clicked. I love that about fellow moms. we are all in the trenches and we're all in this together.