About the grocery store...

[jojo2324]

How do you keep their hands to themselves?? I don't shop at a Super market, per se, so the aisles are not that wide. I find that if I don't park him squarely in the middle of the aisle, all bets are off. Unfortunately, the two scenarios that play out are: people can't get by me; or cans/jars of food come crashing down on to the floor. Quite frustrating, as I try to be a very conscientous (sp?) shopper, and always leave room to the side of me, don't park my cart straddling the aisle and then stroll down the next one over, etc.

Forget the checkout line. He loves to shmear his hands all over the belt, though he is distracted by the buttons on the credit card machine.

Do they make strait jackets in 24 months? :P

[KathyO]

>Do they make strait jackets in 24 months? :P

Funny, my husband was just last night speculating on how much money he could make going into business making just that! And yes, my kid is also passionately interested in the buttons on the credit card machine (has succeeded in reprogramming a couple of them) but much prefers the pen-on-a-string provided for people to sign slips and cheques with.

And you can ALWAYS tell when the bagger has kids... he/she puts the filled bags, or at least the ones with fragile stuff in them, where DD can't reach them. The ones who don't have kids will put the nice, soft, squishable bread or the breakable eggs RIGHT NEXT to her and I'd better be fast to beat her grab for the new toy...

I can't offer any solutions, only sympathy - Grabby Girl causes me to navigate my way everywhere with an invisible buffer zone exactly the span of her ever-increasing reach... I'm tall enough that I can hunker over, rest my elbows on the pushbar of the cart, and keep my forearms and hands wrapped around her, which helps when we have to pass too close to temptations like the magazine rack or the corner displays. Of course, it makes my butt stick out half a block behind us, but my dignity left me somewhere back in the delivery room. Would this work for you?

Sympathetically,

KathyO

[twins r fun]

We're usually okay in the aisles, but the checkout is a disaster...candy, magazines,the credit card thing, the pen, all the food I've just put on the belt, etc. The only solution I've found is to keep their hands filled with something (usually food that we've opened and are eating or a ball that I will buy for them).

[brubeck]

Can you say snacks? Snacks always used to distract Amy (and still do now that she walks next to me while her brother is in the c art). I would usually bring a cup of Goldfish and a cup of milk.

Amy also LOVES coupons. You know, the kind that come out of the little dispensers in the aisles. She will pull one out of any dispenser she sees and has quite a collection by the time we leave. At least it keeps her busy!

[brigmaman]

Since Brig had a few bouts with Bronchiolitis last winter, I purchased a shopping cart cover that I drag with me everywhere. Somehow though, Brig always seems to touch every other source of germs in the store. Germs aside, we too have been the cause of the "clean-up in aisle 3" at times.
Hopefully people are just understanding when we have to park in the middle and take other similar measures.
At the food store, I've just become "that mom." The one who is always talking to her ds, but looking at the list/shelves/coupons... The one who's body is perched at the side of the shopping cart ready to dive for the wallet/sippy cup/can of peas that ds has just pitched...and yes, though I hate to admit it, the one who opens the bag of pretzels/goldfish/chex mix before I actually own it... Whatever works.
For now I say park in the middle of the aisle like you own it and shop like you're on Supermarket Sweep!

[jojo2324]

This brings me to another question: Do your kids hate it when you push the cart? I've just realized that Gannon TWEAKS when I'm pushing the cart, and tries his dangdest to rip my hands off the handle. Apparently, he likes when I roll him down aisles and he can be "free." I've compromised by pushing the cart holding the seat, but sometimes that still results in screeching.

And yes, yesterday at BJs I ripped right into the 2 lb bucket of animal crackers. By the time we got home I think there was only a pound left. I will cop to eating 7/8ths of it...:P

[brigmaman]

Gannon seems to be more of a freebird than Brig! Can you imagine if I set him free in the cart down the aisle? That would make HIM tweak since he's afraid of everything! The food store is boring, I guess Gannon just knows how to make it fun! He seems like he might like to drive those "truck" carts. He would be looking forward, not at you. I am not sure if they have straps though... if not he could probably escape.
Too bad we can't food shop online!