Until the girls were about three, I mostly did my grocery
store trips with them in their stroller.
The biggest trick to a smooth trip was to go at a time when they were
content…not hungry or tired...and to try to make it as entertaining /
educational as possible. I narrated our
entire trip…sometimes to the chagrin of bystanders trying to concentrate on
their grocery lists.
When the girls turned three, I decided they were growing too
big for our out-and-about tandem stroller.
I cautiously let them out…at first for very small trips…and it became a
huge novelty to the girls. It was such a
treat to them to push the cart. I
continued to narrate…in a more interactive fashion…well, at least amid 1,012
reminders to “Help Mommy push!” and “Hands on the cart, please!”
Over the past couple of months, the girls have gotten less
content with cart-pushing, and I’ve had to come up with some new tricks. It sometimes feels like a circus show (but I’ve
decided that’s just part of life these days!), but we’ve been getting through
the store pretty well most trips.
The girls have been shopping with me for a long time now,
and they know the layout of the store we shop most often. I’ve been asking them, “B, the next item on the
list is orange juice. Do you know where
to find it?” The girls often surprise me…earlier
in the week, B found our exact brand of juice (even though that’s not something
the girls drink), and she accurately exclaimed, “This one has ‘some pulp’!”.
If the item isn’t too heavy, the girls are [more or less]
tall enough to put it in the cart. I am
even indoctrinating them into my system of putting cool things in one area of
the cart, shelf-stable separate from that.
That, of course, helps unloading the cart “in order”, which the girls
are also learning to do. [A little OCD
training never hurt anyone!]
The girls are pretty helpful through the store, and then
they love the produce section. They enjoy
getting the bags from the dispenser, and they help me pick our fruits and
vegetables. If they do a good job, their
big reward is getting to weigh something.
The most challenging part of grocery shopping is the
check-out line. I’ve heard parents
grumble all my life about the huge candy displays…and now I know why! It’s not that my girls ask to buy things…but
it seems near IMPOSSIBLE for them to keep their hands to themselves…especially
if there’s a longer wait.
I’ve started playing “I Spy” with them…”Can you find a
picture of a cow?” As carefully as
possible not to call attention to the inappropriate celebrity pictures, we’ll
point out things on magazine covers. I’ve
discovered the page number callouts are great for reinforcing number
recognition. And we look at the price
stickers, again for number recognition, and then we talk about what is more
expensive and what is less expensive.
When the time comes, I give the girls one or two items to
help unload to the belt, and then I ask them to come watch the cashier as she
checks out our groceries. I sometimes
give them each a coupon to hand over at the end of the transaction.
Grocery shopping with two four-year olds is definitely a
full-contact sport. By the time we’re
home, the last thing I want to do is unload the car and put things away...but
at least we can make it home in one piece.
I feel like the girls are learning something, and having two “helpers”
at least is physically less-demanding than pushing a double stroller and
pulling the grocery cart. I admit,
though…sometimes I long for the days of stroller confinement, particularly in
the check-out line!
1 comment:
This post reminded me of when my twins were little and I had my older two as well...grocery shopping was not fun, let me tell ya!
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