I’m not ever taking all three of my boys to the grocery store together again…or, at least for a REALLY long time! I used to pride myself on my ability to haul a 4 year old, 2 year old, and infant to Walmart and shop for an hour with no problems. That era has passed. Yesterday was the breaking point.

I had to go to the store…we were down to a bare bones pantry, and my husband was out of town. So, I packed up the kiddos and headed off. It was downhill from the start…I should have packed up and gone home.

I initially let my two older boys walk beside the cart, instead of ride. This worked for about five minutes, until we got to the housewares aisle and Graham started chunking merchandise into the cart. Granted, for a 2.5 year old, he has really good taste, but I really didn’t need five designer water bottles or fancy food containers. As we made our way to the food aisles, the “No, Mommy!”s began. The the sitting down on the floor and refusing to move. A few feet later in the dairy aisle, the screaming commenced. On and on for the next fifteen minutes, up and down each aisle. I was going as fast as I could, but constantly having to look for where each was boy in relation to me and the cart…under the cart, in front of the path of someone else’s cart, trailing miles behind me….

Finally I had had enough, pulled the baby out of the cart seat and carried him while I strapped Graham into the seat. That made things worse…he screamed at the top of his longs nonstop for the next 10 minutes. At that point, I was in a canned food aisle, and I looked up to see a grandma-aged woman standing before me with a shopping bag. She asked me if I wanted what was inside, and so peering in, I discovered she had bought a box of bakery cookies at the front of the store, and had tracked to the back of the store to give them to me, in hopes of ending the screaming.

I didn’t know whether to laugh out loud or be mortified! My oldest, Xander, asked who she was and I said an angel sent by God to me.

So yes, I proceeded to completely bribe my children into submission….they each had three huge M&M cookies while in the store. But, the submission only lasted for five minutes. And the screaming started again. Finally, I threw up my hands, and made a beeline toward the produce so I could grab a couple of things and leave.

As I was grabbing carrots, Graham saw the snack bar seating area, sat down at a table, and refused to come when I called. I dragged him back to the cart, in time to see what I thought was Xander putting candy in his pocket from the bulk candy aisle. As I knelt down to talk to him (and find out he had not stolen anything), Graham grabbed a Tootsie Roll pop and proceeded to chew the paper off of it.

Still not done. It gets worse.

I eventually made it to the checkout line, which took forever. When it was my turn, I realized why. The checker was seriously taking her blessed time. Now, I know that cashiering is not the most inspiring job in the world, but going slightly faster than a snail’s pace is appreciated by customers.

After the last bag was filled, I told her about the lollipop that I needed to pay for. Of course, since it was from the bulk candy section, it was priced by weight. The checker couldn’t find the candy in the computer, and so called her manager for help. (Meanwhile, I was trying to keep Graham from stealing every plastic bag off the carousel.) I pleaded with the manager to let me just pay a $1 for the sucker so I could get out of there, but she insisted she’d be able to find it in the computer. Five minutes later, she did, but then had to put numerous plastic bags on the lollipop to get the machine to register its weight and charge me. (I was about to have a nervous breakdown!)

Next, as I’m heading off out of the store, a girl runs after me, bringing a bag I had forgotten. (Bless her).

And, just as I’m walking out the door, Xander insists that he has to go potty. (Why did he not tell me even ten minutes sooner?) I told him he’d have to wait until we got home because there was no way I could get back to a bathroom easily now, which nearly sent him to tears. Finally, I told him I’d find something in the car he could pee in. And yes, folks, I gave him a Ziploc bag to pee in. Thank goodness he is a boy.

So, you’d think nothing else could happen, but no….I went to Starbucks to console myself, got into a conversation with the drive through window guy, and drove off without my drink. In the end, I did get my frappuccino.

What have I learned from all of this?
As I was analyzing the whole day with God, I concluded that there are sometimes in child raising where you just have to hold on for dear life. In the past, I always believed that if I just discovered the right parenting technique, I’d be able to handle these blowup incidents. But Graham is a strong willed little guy, much more so than my first born. Lately, we’ve been at our wits end with his defiant attitude, and you can’t reason with a 2 year old. Spanking gets the message across more clearly, but that’s pretty much taboo in public, and if I defer discipline until later, he’s completely cluelsss about what it’s for.

Now I’m just resorting to hanging on, trusting that God is going to bring him through this and we all won’t be any worse for the wear. I’m assuming this probably won’t be the only time with my three boys that we just try to get through certain stages as fast as possible.

How about you? Any horror stories of your own? How do you handle situations like this?

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