How to Go Grocery Shopping

Confession: Until today, I had never been on a "weekly" grocery shopping trip with all three children by myself. Quick trips to grab eggs, yes, but actual, cart-full of food trips, no. What can I say? Derek has a flexible schedule.

We're heading out of town on Thursday, so Derek is swamped with work. This means that he had no time to come with me for the shopping. Normally, we use two carts, one full of boys, and the other full of groceries. Not today! It was just me, three children and one cart.

We get inside, and it occurs to my big boys (ages 4 and 2, remember), that they will be required to WALK during our excursion.

Oh, the horror. Spencer, in his special 2-year-old way, thrust himself upon the floor in front of all the carts and cried, "I CAN'T WALK! IT'S TOO HARD!" And Henry began wailing about how his feet hurt. Oliver was happy because as the 14 month old, he earned the right to a ride.

I started walking, determined not to give up before we'd even started. Each side of the cart was flocked by a small boy, hanging on for dear life and dragging his feet, literally being pulled along, begrudgingly.

I did my best to include them in the fascination that is getting food. They got excited about the yogurt and the string cheese. But then they decided it was more fun to RUN as far ahead as they could without actually leaving my line of sight.

This lasted for five minutes. Then they decided to cry and hang on the cart some more. All that running wore them clean out.

I was now in the cereal aisle trying to balance MY overwhelming desire for sugary cereal and my duty as a mother to feed the small people asking for cartoon-character cereal, healthy, whole grain options.

It is SO hard being me.

We moved on to bread.

And suddenly I had three loaves of varying types thrown into my cart by Spencer. In order to more effectively carry them, he'd crushed them pretty good. Now I was faced with an impossible quandry. Buy the bread I do NOT want simply because it is squished. Or, stick it back on the shelf and pretend like it never happened.

I am pleading the 5th on this one.

Then the deli. I have this NEED for deli meats these days (let's blame the fetus, shall we?). So, we're waiting for our meats when Henry and Spencer decide to RUN up and down the length of the counter. Over and over.

And it is situations like these that leave me confused. Do I, as their mother, chase them? Do I yell? Do I ignore it? Or do I do what I did which is to say, "HENRY! SPENCER! Please come stand by the cart! PLEASE! NO DONUTS! NO NO NO!"

See? I am at a loss.

The deli is also where Oliver decided he was tired of shopping. He started to cry, and yank things out of the cart and throw them on the floor. Then he tried to eat my sandwich rolls through the plastic.

Check out was okay, except that the boys caught sight of Subway. And heck, remember I have that deli meat need?

So, we trucked it over there, and Spencer took it upon himself to climb the chip self.

Sigh.

We survived, but barely.

So, here is where I am at... I can't avoid taking them shopping, obviously. I can't leave them in the car, so how do I get them to WALK WITH THE FREAKING CART? I am new at this. Or was today simply a fluke because of their new-found freedom/torture? My boys are children, and boys at that, but they are not usually naughty. At least not as a practice. They have had their moments, like today...

See?

Tips?

Oh, and I do know that SOME stores in town have these, but not all, so that's always an option, but thenthey drag their hands on the ground,, climb out (the seat belts are ALWAYS broken!) etc. I can't win.

Maybe I should buy one of these. Might be worth it.