Grocery shopping with kids...

After ten years, you'd think I'd have this mama thing down.  But let's be honest, none of us really have it all together. We all as mothers have our days where we're over it. Where we just want to curl under the covers and forget that we have 10 piles of laundry, an empty fridge and a sink full of dishes. All of which needs to get done between school drop offs and play dates and dr appts and trips to the grocery store to fill the empty fridge. Oh yeah and the four kids that need 110% of our attention.

Today has been one of those days for me. Times 10,000.
It started with a meltdown at the coffee stand because I wouldn't let my four year old have a lollipop (it was 9am.) I should have known a trip to Trader Joe's wasn't going to go in my favor. Said fit continued into the store when there was no little shopping carts available. Sorry babe, you want me to go steal a cart from another kid just so you can have one? Not gonna happen.
I finally got her to calm down about the major loss of "her" shopping cart by bribing her with a fruit leather (not my greatest moment, but mamas gotta grocery shop.)
Just then my adorable and crazy 18 month old decides to get out of the belt in the shopping cart and stand up while my back is turned. Some very kind lady informed me that maybe I should keep a better eye on my child because she could fall out of the cart. Thanks lady, I get it. (I know, I know, she was just being helpful. It's just not my day.)

So I put crazy and adorable child in the back of the cart and now she starts to throw the apples on the ground. Great, now I get to buy bruised apples. Another very kind lady walks by at just this point and gives me the not so nicest look, more like a death stare. Oh and said crazy adorable child is now trying to climb out of the cart. And my four year old see's an empty kid cart and books towards the front of the store to get it.

I grab crazy child with one hand and run to front of the store to inform my other child that we don't need the kids cart because we are leaving. I'm cutting my losses and heading home with 1/2 the groceries I need. Bring on fit number three for the day.

At this point I've lost it, tears are filling up in my eyes. I feel like everyone in the store is staring at me and I feel like turning around and telling them to F off. I think I'll just leave. Except I can't because I let my kids open a bag of pretzels and if I leave now it's kinda like stealing, right?  I let my kid grab the kids cart and walk back and grab the other one. Place the bruised apples in the kids cart and go to the check out. We buy our groceries and walk to the car.

The second we get out of the store I feel the tears rolling down my face. Just then a lady walks by and all I can think about is what she must be thinking.  Look at that poor mom, what a mess, those kids are out of control. I let my thoughts get the worst of me. But this lady doesn't give me a glare or a sympathetic look. She just smiled and said my girls were beautiful and I was was lucky. I wanted to hug her and tell her how much I needed that, but I just smiled and said thank you. I got the kids in the car and we drove home in silence. I cried the whole way. Sometimes us mama's need that.

We're home now. Cuddling and watching a movie. I'm ignoring the 10 piles of laundry and dirty dishes. They can wait. This morning sucked and I'm sure I'm going to have many more just like it. And I won't be showing my face at that Trader Joe's anytime soon. But that lady was right, I am lucky. Crazy, fit throwing kids and all.

Xo, D