Monday, June 16, 2008

A tantrum at the supermarket makes Mommy nutty

Marion and I went to the grocery store this morning. With the grocery cart, umbrella, and list of things we needed. I'm learning.

Marion managed to walk about 95% of the way, very, very slowly. Progress, but Mommy was anxious.

Once at the grocery store, Marion seemed ready to let her energy out. Touching everything, pushing everything, and trying to throw whatever she could into the basket.

Finally, I took our blue grocery granny cart out of the store grocery cart and put her in the seat.

Sidenote: What do people do when they take the granny cart to the store? Do you fill that with your groceries? Because navigating the store with the toddler, the granny cart, and the store cart was not fun.

Anywho, Marion didn't want to go in the store grocery cart seat. She stood up, hoping I would catch her before she tumbled out of the seat.

Then, Mommy remembered she had some sweet crackers in her bag from Ikea. I put her back in the grocery seat and fed her these crackers for the rest of the trip. So while I was navigating the store with the store grocery cart, my blue granny cart, and Marion in the cart seat, Marion sat patiently in the seat eating her "cookies".

Well, she sat patiently unless Mommy did not respond fast enough to "More please." Then she started whining.

I was tired and tense as I made my way to the check out counter. I unloaded our items onto the belt and things seemed to be going fine. I was shoving crackers Marion's way consistently and my timing wasn't off.

Then a woman got in line behind us and put her pastries on the belt.

All hell broke lose.

Marion started screaming "I want popcorn! I want popcorn!" and went into full meltdown mode.

What the hell? Marion, the lady had pastries, not popcorn.

But I tried to soothe her while getting our groceries into my granny cart. And of course she would pick a day where I am getting a significant amount of groceries to break down.

So there she sat, losing it in the cart. And there I was, stuffing things into my granny cart with people looking at us.

Reminded me of one of my all time favorite online videos. Except she wasn't this bad.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brendan and I watched some of the Euro 2008 games this weekend. He actually had no clue what it was and I was able to tell him that I heard about it through you! It was pretty exciting. I don't understand why Americans don't get as fired up about soccer as Europeans (and others). Soccer players are HOT.

Anonymous said...

You leave the granny cart next to the store entrance! Seriously! Nobody would dream of stealing it.

mrsmac said...

caitlin- they are hot!!! :-)

stacy- oh man! i must have looked like the biggest moron! i should just tattoo "newbie" across my forehead and be done with it. i didn't see a designated spot for carts or anything, do you just leave them outside at the door or inside and then grab it after check out to load up?

Lemon Gloria said...

Ohhh, yikes. Sorry to hear about that. As you know, I have no children so haven't been in your position yet, but I have been in stores with kids having meltdowns, and have 1. gotten as far away as possible, and 2. been really glad I wasn't connected to the kid in any way, shape, or form.

Anonymous said...

You can leave just inside the door, near the checkout, or near the cart return - depends on what your store setup is like. There isn't a designated area - but nobody would steal it no matter where you put it. Granny carts I think are sacred...haha

Anonymous said...

Oh, and no worries about being a newbie! We have all been there!

and yeah, I bag my groceries in my little canvas bags, heavy stuff in one and fragile stuff in another, then just stack them on top of each other inside the cart.

To be honest though, I do it differently now that we have a car -- I do one big shop a week with the car, then small pick-ups like fresh bread and such as needed during the week. (I carry a little pouch that turns into a shopping bag in my purse so that I can pick things up if I am out and about.)