Here are my recent trivial shopping cart tribulations.

Two separate shopping trips.

Two separate shopping cart troubles.

It all stems from the fact that Vivi’s grown out of her  “car seat baby bucket.” That baby bucket  - the reason for many visits to the masseuse. Those awkward seats can really throw you off kilter.  But I have to say, that thing clicked into just about any shopping cart like a charm. Now I’m finding that not all stores can accomodate a sitting baby and a toddler for strolling in a cart.

#1) I went to Kowalski’s recently to pick up some things for a BBQ. It’s a smaller store so they don’t have those awesome “car” carts to stroll around in.  What to do?  They did have mini shopping carts - so I attempted a maiden voyage. Ben - pushing a cart by himself in a well-appointed grocery store. Let’s just say- not. a. good. idea. This fan of Thomas the Train thought it would be a good idea to shunt everything and every display in his way.  (”Shunting” is one of the new train terms I’ve learned from the Thomas series. File it under words that sound dirty on the Island of Sodor that aren’t…)  He started by shunting the cart right into my Achilles tendon.  Ow. Then he shunted the personal size watermelon display. Luckily none came toppling down. Oh, this was going to be a difficult grocery trip. We made it out alive, especially after the nice baker came up to Ben and offered him a cookie. This distracted him enough to make it through the checkout line. Thanks nice baker lady!

#2) My next shopping cart tale came from a trip to Super Target for much needed diapers.  I had gotten used to grabbing those monsterous extended shopping carts  that accomodate Ben sitting down in the toddler seat and clicking Vivian into the handlebar area.  So my first trip to Target sans baby bucket was surprising.  I found the enormous shopping cart as usual but was shocked to find the area where she was supposed to sit and dangle her legs was screwed shut with a piece of red plastic. All of the big carts were like that. (I don’t know why. I’ve asked many a Target customer service rep and they shrugged their shoulders. I’m assuming it’s a safety issue). Which is fine but -  there I was holding a baby with no place to put her.  I wasn’t about to turn around and leave. I needed those size 3 Pampers Cruisers, and I needed them now!

Yes, I did consider putting Vivian in the front and having Ben tumble around freely in the cart. But there was a little sign with an “X” through a  picture of that very scenario on the front of the cart. I didn’t want to break the rules.

So being a mother of invention - I found a solution and managed to look like a complete idiot while doing so. I put Vivian in one cart feet dangling and Ben in another - got between the carts and pushed one while I pulled the other behind me. I think I took up an entire length of a shopping aisle as I plodded through the store.  Being a SuperTarget, I had to walk nearly a quarter of a mile to the furthest corner of the store to aquire my box ‘o diapers. Cardio requirement for the day. Check.

So lessons learned - no individual pint size carts for Ben, bring the double stroller, call in back up support, or best case scenario - shop alone whenever possible!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Family Life, Rants, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.