Monday, March 16, 2009

Adventures in Shopping Carts


I asked my step-mother-in-law (or, as I call her, "MOM #3"), how she got her daughter to behave at the grocery store. (This is becoming a big issue for me now that my baby is a toddler and he would like to walk the aisle as far away from mommy as possible...am I already uncool?) Mom #3 insisted that discipline and training should be the priority over errands.

At the time, it sounded logical and doable until my toddler had a meltdown at the grocery store yesterday. I turned red and started throwing things in my cart, not stopping to compare price and nutrition value. All I knew was that everyone in the tiny health food store were stopping to look at the bad mommy that couldn't control her child. (Not really, they actually smiled and looked sympathetic, but that's what it felt like.) I tried this:

-"SHHHHHH!!!! SHHHHHHH!"
-"Look at this! Hold this! Shake this!"
-"Mommy is shopping, stop that!"

*In case you had any doubt, none of these efforts made any change in his screaming.*

Then, I had these thoughts:

-I can't leave him at home every time I need to run an errand.
-He is not suffering when I make him sit in the cart while I grocery shop.
-Fit throwing and whining shouldn't give him power.

Then, I remembered Mom #1's mommy motto: Make it worse on them than it is on you. So, for the next 2 hours, I went to every loud store I could think of and put his unhappy hiney in the cart so he could "practice" sitting while I shopped. He threw a fit the entire time we were at Sam's while pulling my t-shirt up. Thanks, son. At Lowe's, he only whined half the time. At the end of the day, he sat quietly until it was time to go home.

I went home and made Hamburger Helper for dinner. Sheesh, I had nothing left to give.

3 comments:

Casey said...

That is GRREAT idea. My first sat in the cart for hours just as precious and quiet as could be. My second has a screaming hissy fit everytime we get in the cart. At Christmastime this past year, everyone in the entire store heard my Chloe the ENTIRE time we were shopping in every store. I just ignored her and kept thinking "I WILL WIN!" It was still ear piercing as I won. She still initially throws a fit, but gives in after about 1 minute. (And cheerios always help too) :)

Minters - The Other Side of the Story said...

You mean God doesn't make perfect children? What the heck???? :-)

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Don't let him push you around!!! LOL Good blog!