Arg, the time for the dreaded weekly grocery shop rolls around way to fast in my humble opinion. With 2 toddlers in tow, gone are the days of leisurely strolling up & down the aisles searching for the best or most cost effective products. Reading labels?Not anymore. Nowadays, if it looks vaguely like an ingredient I could throw into a pot & present something edible I consider it a winner & into the trolley it goes.
Why don’t I make a list I hear you ask. Well, firstly, have you ever tried to sit & make a list with toddlers around??Suddenly you become the most interesting person on the face of the planet to them!And a moving pen to grab?BONUS!!!! (And before you say anything, I refuse to waste time writing out a list when the kids are asleep…that’s my time, to myself, alone, with coffee) Secondly, have you tried reading off a list, pushing a trolley with a toddler who is alternating between trying to make a harrowing escape & grabbing at your list/pen all while telling the other toddler to watch where he’s going & to put his arms down “YOU’RE NOT A PLANE!”??
Add to that I shop at Pak ‘n Save which, as anyone who’s been there can tell you, is usually some form of nightmare. Exhibit A: What possesses people to bring the WHOLE family, extended members included, shopping!? I shit kid you not, a whole carload of people from babies to oldies pull up, usually taking up 2 parking spaces with their people carrier/minivan(I’ve even seen them park on the curb right outside the door, leaving 1 member–always weighing in at about 200kg–sitting in the car) They then ALL walk SLOWLY shoulder to shoulder down the aisles. I should say all except the kids, they are in charge of the trolley. MY PET PEEVE!!! Now, thankfully, the trolleys have fixed wheels, unlike those in the UK which slide every which way except the way you want them to go…straight!(Don’t even get me started on THAT one) No, P&S trolleys are rather large, 1 of the reasons I keep punishing myself shopping there(the other is that they are cheaper)So when a child, or 2 in most cases as they have an abundance of double seated trolleys at P&S, is sitting in the front & another kid is pushing there is NO WAY he/she can see where they are going! I feel my blood pressure rising just at the thought! It has always been my belief that kids under 15 should be banned from shops, unless handcuffed contained in a trolley. I realise that this is a little on the extreme side but in some cases totally reasonable, don’t you think? *grin*
That rant over for now, our shopping experience isn’t all bad all of the time. Usually Master 1 is happy enough to sit in the front most of the way around (after the initial protest getting him in the damn thing in the first place though, of course!) And Master 2(I should be calling him Master almost 3 really, to be more accurate) has been allowed to walk around with me for about 6 months or so. He’s pretty good at staying near to me & not touching the groceries, unless he’s getting something for me in which case something usually falls & I have to wait while he picks it up & replaces it…without help of course. I have been known to resort to bribery rewards to get Master 2 to sit in the back of the trolley for a little way around. I can then speed pretty efficiently through some of the more delicate aisles, namely eggs. Now I don’t use lollies or anything, that sugar rush would come back & bite me in the arse right as I reach the tills, so I use Calcium flavoured milk, works a treat every time. Although it has got to the point where they expect a pink milk(strawberry in case you hadn’t guessed)wherever & whenever they see one! hmmmm a catch 22….
I won’t bore you with the details of unpacking correctly so the till ladies can pack it properly into the trolleys again so it’s easier to load the stuff into boxes when you get to your boot. Here we have to bag(or box in this case) ourselves. Yes, for those in South Africa, we do it ourselves….no Pick ‘n Pay packers here! *wink*
July last year. Not Pak ‘n Save but you get the idea
December 2011, Master almost 3(2yrs 5months in the pic)
No recent pics of our shopping adventures as who has time for THAT anymore…..
AfricanKiwi 