Shopping with Kids

My 4 year old had been acting better when we had been shopping lately. The “I wants” had not been coming out and she had been reasonably patient and helpful during the last few shopping trips.

So I had forgotten…

Forgotten how difficult it can be to go shopping…

With children.

On Tuesday I needed to go to the dollar store to buy some band-aids and other first aid supplies for our Daisy Girl Scout meeting that night. I took all four of my kids because it was the middle of the day and I had promised my 6-year-old that she could pick out the bandaids for her troop because they have some pretty ones at the dollar store.

I also brought everyone because I wanted to stock up on snacks for while we are moving, both to just be able to shove food at the kids and also so they had food to bring with them when they were hanging out at friends houses. Since I am unable to remember who likes what anymore (because I swear they keep changing their minds!) I brought everyone along.

My first warning sign should have been that she wasn’t initially willing to get in the cart. Also, it was super difficult for her to deal with the fact that her sister was going to be looking for a birthday present that we also needed to put together for a friend of ours.

It pretty much went downhill from there. There was a lot of kicking out of her feet which didn’t make me want to push her in the cart. There was a lot of demands about where she wanted to be pushed next, and lots of holding on of things that she also wanted to buy. And it was the dollar store, I was more than willing to buy her a set of bubble makers the shape of popsicles to share with her sisters at the new house.

Of course, it didn’t help that some of her sisters couldn’t really find snacks that they wanted, or took forever to decide. And even though they had eaten lunch, apparently they had gotten hungry again on the 20-minute car ride, or more accurately all the food marketing and packaging was making them hungry and whiny.

We finally checked out and made it out of the store. But we still needed to go to WalMart to buy the rest of our groceries.

Yes, I said it, WalMart, and don’t you go getting all judgy with me. I do my best to shop all local and USA made as I can, but when it comes down to basics of food, there are times where you really do need to stretch your dollar. Believe it or not, but there are also times that in my neighborhood Walmart has the nicer produce, and they sell organic just like the grocery stores do. Also in my neighborhood there currently are not any locally owned grocery stores, so does it matter if I am going to WalMart, Shaws or Hannaford? They are all big box stores.

Also by shopping where I can stretch my dollar, I am able to do more local shopping as well. Just saying that it can, in fact, work both ways!

Anyway by the time we get to Walmart and have a bathroom stop (in the back in the family bathroom because they have the mini toilets that just make my 4 year old so happy) we hit up the craft kit aisle (not in the toy department in the craft department, I am not that crazy) to pick out the final couple of pieces for the birthday gift we are putting together.

Unfortunately, my 4-year-old sees the Paint Your Own ceramic Elsa From Frozen piggy bank. And she wants one. And I can understand why it’s tall, it looks cool and it’s nice and breakable, what more could a 4-year-old want?

The only problem is that 1), I am not shopping for my daughter at the moment and it is way too far out to get her something for her birthday that she knows about and 2) my husband is the only one with the painting skills to make this bank look recognizably like Elsa and 3) we still need to get a craft kit for the person we came into this aisle for.

But we have deeply triggered the “I wants” which currently come out in the “Please, please, please” said over and over again to my consistent “No’s”. I guess I am lucky that she doesn’t try to bargain yet.

We finally make it out of the aisle with what we need and even while I am pushing the cart down to the grocery section she is still asking about it. Or buying her anything really at this point and I am still standing firm in my no. Reminding myself how I usually try and set my children up for success and not failure while shopping and wondering where I went wrong this time around.

We finally make it to check out and I prepare to pay and the register decides to stop working and completely deletes my transaction and the cashier is new and doesn’t seem to understand urgency when it comes to getting the manager to help.

Finally, we check out again with the manager and she is amazing and keeps my girls engaged while she uses the wand to rescan all our items except for the few that need to be weighed, and we finally make it out to the car.

Where my 4 year old no longer wants to get buckled in her carseat. And no amount of cajoling seems to work. And while I try to take a few minutes to help her identify her feelings, in the end, I just sit patiently in the driver’s seat until she finally gives up and gets hooked.

And vow to myself that I am not taking her shopping again for at least another month. Because this was just too hard and I am too tired and old to put up with this shit and frankly who needs to go shopping anyway?

I need to see if any of the CSA’s will still let me sign up and see how much Amazon can deliver to my door because I am done shopping with my kids for a while!