Shopping Cart Kids

I have come to the realization that there are different types of "shopping cart kids".

1. Shopping cart baby- This age is to ease the parent into taking your baby with you as you shop. The baby lays snuggly in his/her carrier, usually asleep from motion of moving or of just finishing nursing or having a bottle. Once in a while your baby will start to cry but it's very rare and if your baby takes a pacifier, your in luck, plug it in and continue on your way.

2. Shopping cart toddler- Hello!! At this age you have your toddler (who is now sitting in the front part of the shopping cart) talking toddler language, wanting you to sing his/her favorite show song. Warning: beware of the toddlers quick change in mood. One minute your gliding your way through the store happily talking with your toddler and BAM!! the next your toddler decides to throw a tantrum to the point where everyone is looking at you as you try to calm them down before you lose it. Toddlers are very unstable, shop with caution!!

3. Shopping cart toddler 2- Yes, there is a 2nd stage to the Shopping cart toddler. This is when your toddler now tells you what they want from the store you are at. If you deny them their request the tears along with wailing shall occur. At this point you are probably over the glances you receive from other people. You now have a choice, deal with the temper or depending on how long you have left in that particular store and if you have anywhere else to go you might just try and come to a compromise with your toddler (such as "Okay, if I get you some fishy crackers or milk, whatever the request, you have to promise to be good and let Mommy finish her shopping"). Also at this stage you have to really watch how close you put your shopping cart with your toddler in it next to items in shelves. Yes, I know it's only the courteous thing to do to move to one side as you look for what you want but, at the same time your toddler is eyeing things on the shelves in arms reach for them to grab and conveniently drop in your cart. It's happened, you go to the 10 item only register and turn around to notice you are over the limit and now you have people behind you in line giving you dirty looks because they think your just being rude!!

4. Shopping Cart Child 1- This child is the one who wants to run around the store and get in the way of other customers shopping carts. Maybe you as a parent aren't too concerned of the looks the customers are giving because since they are running around the customers don't actually know who they belong to.

5. Shopping Cart Child 2- This child is the one who knows better to even think about running off from you. At the same time this child likes to hold on to the shopping cart. Every move you make you have to tell them ahead of time so that they will move with you and the cart instead of getting run over or pulled in another direction. The positive side to this is you know your child isn't bothering anyone else. The negative side is it's completely driving you insane!!

6. Shopping Cart Child 3- This child stays close to you constantly. When you're looking for something they are jumping on the sides or front of the cart to try and get a ride. At first you let them but then when they jump off spontaneously and scare you half to death because you think you're going to run them over with the cart, you immediately stop that. This child then decides to just stay right next to the shopping cart whether in front of it in line of right next to you as you shop. You find yourself saying "Move away from the shopping cart","Your feet are going to get smashed from the wheels", "Your too close back away just a little".

Okay, so that's as far as I can go seeing as I have experienced every one of those situations (well except for #5, I've experienced that one in being the customer).
Right now I am dealing with #3 and #6. Recently Mom Jr., J and I went to the grocery store. As Mom Jr. and I were looking for a certain granola bar, I moved the shopping cart over to the side so I would not be in the way of fellow shoppers. Mom Jr. and I found what we were looking for and me being a Mom veteran of #3's I looked just in the nick of time to see J dropping sugar cereals that had cute cartoon pictures on them in our shopping cart. I took them out and told him "Sorry, we don't eat that cereal" J said his famous phrase "Awwww, mannn". As we continued to shop he started asking for milk (he likes to get a small carton of milk when I am shopping in the grocery store). I told him no, because I was buying milk and we had chocolate at home. Okay here came decision time for me.....J began to cry loudly in the store and what made it worse was Mom Jr. started to laugh at him!! That did it! I told him "Okay, I will get you your milk but you have to stop crying and not touch anything else throughout the store". Then I looked at Mom Jr. and told her "You can't have one because you made the situation worse by laughing at him which only made him louder". She tried to play it off "I wasn't laughing at him". Yeah, okay, what could possibly make you laugh right then in a grocery store? Whatever, you can't have one!"
After the deal was made all was well on the shopping front, we finished our stuff and made our way home happily!!!
Now, I also have #6 going on, especially this summer since when I have to shop I have to take them all with me. The three older ones fight to be on either side of me. As they hang on to the cart, I am constantly saying "move away from the cart", "back up".
Well, at the end of last week we went to Costco. You know how they have those overgrown shopping carts....again I was saying my normal phrases to them. I eventually got busy looking at some items, I started to move the shopping cart back as I was moving backwards, all of a sudden the shopping cart stopped (now I was moving slowly back but still getting touched by one of those wheels would hurt). Jr. was hanging on to the cart and did not notice me moving back, and yes he was wearing flip flops to top it off. I could see in his face it hurt (of course it hurt, it's happened to me before because I wasn't paying attention. Hmmm, um, maybe that's where they get it from...Anyways). Jr. is one to get extremely upset at the littlest things, to the point where he'll start crying uncontrollably (and of course I'm praying inside he doesn't lose it in this huge warehouse). He just looked up and kept blinking so that tears wouldn't run down his face. I am feeling really bad because I know how much that had to hurt. Being a Mom, I throw out "How many times have I said to move away from the shopping cart". He still isn't saying anything but he's keep a straight face and I know he's doing all he can not to lose it. I happen to have some of his favorite gum with me. I give him a piece and the two other older ones don't even ask as they can see in Jr.'s face how much it hurt. J has no problem in asking as he is sitting in the top part of the cart. "Momma I want piece". I tell him "no, is your toe flat like a pancake like Jr.'s?" He looks down at his toes "No, Mama, lemme see Jr.'s" By this time he's okay and wiggling his toes.......
Fast forward to shopping with Mom Jr. and J at the grocery store this past weekend. We're at the register and I'm paying, I start to move the shopping cart through so that we can leave and Mom Jr. has her foot right in front of it. Here we go again (at least it wasn't one of those heavy duty overgrown shopping carts). It wasn't so bad for her but as we were leaving she made a comment "Just run over my foot". I told her "how many times have I said to move away from the shopping cart (now I' m even using my hands to demonstrate to move away). She giggles and says "mmm, I don't know". I stopped the shopping cart on our way out of the store, I told her "okay, let's just get it over with, put your foot in front of the wheel". She said "No way!!" I told her "why not? I've warned all of you so many times and you still don't get it, maybe if you really have it go over your foot you will". The smartie that she is, she just laughed and said "I don't remember you saying that?" I told her "yeah, you know why because it goes through one ear and just keeps going right out the other". Smartie girl said "what? what'd you say?" as she giggles and gets in the car.......

Right then and there I knew I had to blog about this....
For all the new Mom's out there, this is for you, for you veteran Moms- yes, let's all shake our heads up and down at the same time...

The question is...Do you think they learned their lesson???

Nah, maybe not, although I sure do hope so!!!

Just a Mom trying to get through to her kids.......