Today's Beef: Shopping Carts

I had one goal for today.

Restock this house.  We had no fresh fruit or veggies after 10 days in Florida.  I was too tired to attempt a food shopping trip yesterday, so today was it.

My brother and sister in law are coming to visit and I'm pretty sure goldfish and puffs aren't part of their diet.

Of course, today it is cold and windy.  Perfect weather for loading and unloading my kids not once, but twice.

We hit up Costco first.  Normally, I'm all about Costco shopping carts.  The first two I grabbed had jacked up safety belts.  They were tangled and stuck and pretty much unusable.

COME ON!

I actually yelled this out in the parking lot as the wind whipped my hair into my face.  My fingers were freezing and I all I could think about were the shorts I was wearing two days ago.  Why in the hell did I come back here?

Take two.  We head to Publix for a quick trip to finish off our shopping list.  I intentionally parked by the cart return so I could throw the Yoys in a cart.

At Publix the carts are smaller, so Big E actually sits in the basket and attempts to open food for the duration of our trip.  Little E sits up front and yells at me.  Oh how I love grocery shopping with my kids.

There was only one cart in the cart return when I pulled up.  I ran over and grabbed it.  I took Little E out of his car seat and plopped him down.  I grabbed the straps and again, they were nothing but a mangled mess.

SERIOUSLY?

Again, I'm the crazy lady yelling at herself in the parking lot.

Just then another man returned his cart.  This time I was smart enough to check the safety strap.  It was also stuck.

At this point, I'm about to put Little E back in the car and just go home.  I was defeated.

I sucked it up.  While balancing Little E under my arm like a football, I unhooked Big E with my free hand and managed to get him out of the seat and to the ground without pulling his arm out of the socket.

I threw my 30lb diaper bag over my shoulder.

BOOK!  BOOK!  BOOK!

Of course, Big E wanted his book.  I reached in and grabbed the book.

I took a deep breath and dragged Big E across the parking lot by his hand while I carried Little E under my arm.  My bag was slipping down my shoulder.  My hair was in my eyes.

I was a mad woman.  Of course, no one offered to help me.  I guess by the 27th all Christmas spirit has left the building.

I made it into Publix with both my kids alive.  As a reward for their cooperation, I put them in the car shopping cart.  They seemed to be super jazzed about that.

It got me thinking.  How hard is it to check the carts to make sure the straps are usable?  What if I was unable to strap my baby in and he took a leap?  I would own Publix, that's what would happen.

All stores need a mommy consultant to point out things that make it difficult for us to shop.  And trust me, you want us to shop.  We spend a boatload of money.

Things like making the aisles a little wider so our kids aren't grabbing everything off the shelves.

Or leaving a cart or two behind in the cart returns instead of taking them all back into the store.

Or just make sure the straps aren't all tangled, like today.

Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest.  I feel better now.

I'm trying, I really am!