Why You Should Never Take Your Kids Shopping

Every time I do it, I swear it is the last time. It always ends in tears. I’m talking about taking my kids with me to the store. I know by now that they have a 1 store limit. Once we have gone to one store, even if we are in and out of the store in a matter of minutes, it’s a guarantee that they are not going to behave at the next store. I tried to make my weekly Walgreens trip with my kids after going on a homeschooling field trip and already having been to one store so I knew I was pushing my luck.

The trip started with my 2 year old pulling my shirt down before I caught him and making me flash whatever poor shoppers were in our way. It didn’t get any better when he pooped and his diaper barely contained the mess. I figured I was already there so why not keep going and quickly get what I needed since I already has my list ready. After finding a few things on my list I realized my 3 year old and 6 year old were gone. It didn’t take me long to find them. I could hear the sound of cheap toy laser guns and happy screams. I yelled for my boys that they were being too loud from two aisles over until I realized that I was being louder than they were so I gave up and went straight to the toy aisle.

My wiggly, stinky 2 year old had had enough of sitting in the shopping cart by that point and asked to get out. I asked him if he would stay right by me if I took him out of the cart and of course he smiled and said yes, right before he ran down the aisle towards the toy section that he hadn’t realized was there before his brothers had started zapping each other’s heads off with the toy guns.

I gave up. I had kids going in 3 directions. A first time mom was giving me strange looks as we zig zagged past each other during our walk through the store (just you wait, she’ll look just as frazzled as I did when her one easy baby turns into 3 active kids). I hit the checkout line, coupons in hand, ready to make a fast break. At that point my 2 year old was slowly dismantling the flashlight display, my 3 year old was trying to make the automatic door shut on his fingers making the cashier extremely nervous, and my 6 year old was whining that he didn’t want to shop any more. I figured if I could get through the next few minutes we could contain everyone in carseats and go home. . .  except when I went to pull out my wallet I realized that my 2 year old had pulled it out of my bag while he was getting out of the car.

I ran out to my car and grabbed my wallet as fast as I could and then rushed back to finish paying as the line behind me grew and left the store. I’m sure there were cheers as I left. When I got to my car I realized that my register rewards hadn’t printed but you could not have paid me enough money to take my kids out of their carseats and drag them back into that store.

The moral of the story is – NEVER go shopping with kids if you want to save money, and your dignity, and never, ever, break the one store limit when shopping with 3 kids.

What is your worst experience shopping with kids?