Yet another reason I hate grocery shopping...

On Wednesday evening after work I attempted to get my grocery shopping done. As many of you know and have read I really don't like grocery shopping. Mike was golfing and I really needed to pick up food and other supplies for MOPS (the mom's church group I attend on Fridays). So, it was the toddler girl and me.


We entered into Cub armed with my list, my coupons and a baggie full of animal crackers. I grabbed a cart and proceeded to put the little gal into the child shopper seat. She whined and held our her arms as I was buckling her in signaling she didn't want to ride in the cart. I got her in tight and thought maybe she will calm down once we get moving. Thinking back, I should have taken that as a sign to not grocery shop and get out of the store right then and there.

We made it through the produce aisle with few altercations. An occasional whine for more crackers, but nothing major. Then we entered the center aisles of canned goods, boxed foods and other packaged edibles. The toddler then decided she did not want to be in the cart and screamed bloody murder while kicking and screaming. I asked her if she wanted to walk (really dumb mistake) and she said yes. So, I let her out and told her she needed to walk alongside the cart. Well, that certainly wasn't going to happen. We proceeded down the aisle only to encounter a small bin of rubber, bouncy balls. "Great" I thought, she is going to get so distracted...and distracted she did. She immediately saw the balls and said "ball?" "ball?" "ball?" "ball?". I confirmed her discovery and said we have to move on down the aisle. Of course, Julia was not moving without a ball (exactly what the store wants kids to think; obviously they don't have kids to shop with!). I picked her up and put her back in the child seat. She did not like this. Even tempting her with crackers didn't work.

We entered into the cracker and cookie aisle and she reached for every box saying "cracker?" "cookie?". Evidently, the animal crackers I had brought were not good enough anymore. Looking at my list and all the stuff I still needed to get, I grabbed a snack cup of Teddy Graham's and popped it open (yes, I know you are not supposed to do that, but it did get scanned and paid for later). This subdued her for about 2.678 minutes and then it was over. By then I had raced through a few aisles and got 1/4 way through the meat department when she decided to dump the remaining Teddy Graham's (about 90% of them) onto the floor and scream in frustration.

I tried to calm her down, but nothing worked. I then realized I was one of those parents with the misbehaving, cranky, crying and screaming child. You know, the ones you always hated (before you had kids of your own) in any store and wished they would control their child and/or children's screaming fit or leave the store. Well, I decided to put all the other patrons out of their miseries and allow them to shop in peace by heading to the checkout and leaving. Of course, Julia was still complaining all the way through the checkout until she discovered my cell phone in my purse. That entertained her through the rest of checking out, paying and bagging. I glanced at my half bought list and tried to figure out when I could realistically get back to the store another time.

As we walked out of the exit doors, Julia looked up at me and smiled a smile that seemed to say "yup, that was a bad idea mom and I won"

Never again will I grocery shop with my little angel of a toddler.

Yet another reason I now despise grocery shopping even more.