Grocery Shopping...Our Weekly Adventure

There cannot be another household task that I dread more than grocery shopping. I hate it, every part of it. Trying to figure out our "menu" for the week and which meals I want to make, the actual trip to the grocery store, lugging everything into the house and putting it away in it's proper place. The way I figure it I have three choices. I can go to the grocery store alone, I can go with just the kids, or we can all go together as a family. I've done them all, and in my opinion none of these are good options. I don't know how many times I've heard women say that going to the grocery store alone feels like a vacation. Fuck that. That's ridiculous. Why would the words "grocery shopping" and "vacation" ever even be uttered together in the same sentence? No....just no. In my sick and twisted reality I would rather go with my kids, because it gives me some sort of distraction from the monotonous and mundane task of the grocery shopping itself.

Last night was one of those nights we decided to make it a family outing. And we didn't just settle for the grocery store alone. Our first stop was Party City, our local party store, to put in a balloon order for an upcoming birthday party. Next on the list, Once Upon A Child, a second hand store that sells gently used kid stuff, clothes, toys, just about anything you can think of. I got an email recently saying that they had just put out their stock of Halloween costumes, so I figured we better go before they get picked over. Yes, we bought our Halloween costumes in August. I am a planner people. I've already mentioned that. There was a bite to eat mingled in there somewhere, and last stop was the grocery store. Who can tell me the common denominator problem with all three of these locations? SENSORY OVERLOAD....Hello! Bad idea, really bad idea.

Now, I'm sure every mom can relate, there are some times after bringing your kids grocery shopping you feel like you could conquer the world. There were no meltdowns, no begging, hardly any whining, you even managed to get a compliment from a sweet old lady at the cash register on how well behaved your kids are. Last night was not one of those times. Not by a long shot. The begging started before we'd even made it into the store. They wanted to wear their new Halloween costumes. And why not? We are already facing the mind-numbingly boring job of grocery shopping. Lets make life a little more interesting.

 

 

I'm not sure how we all made it out of the grocery store relatively unharmed last night, but we did it, and that's what counts. I may choose to go by myself the next couple of weeks though. Maybe I'll just get drunk first, that might be fun.