I took all 6 kids food shopping last week. It's not as crazy as it sounds, though I wouldn't exactly call it a sane decision, either. First we went to Aldi, and we did fairly well. With one shopping cart for Dan, Ellie and Caleb in his car seat, all the food went into a second cart. There were a couple of hang ups at first, with taking up room and getting in other shoppers' way, and of course the spilling of sour cream on the floor, but we got into a pretty good groove. We were in and out in less than an hour. Not too shabby.
We had another stop to make at Giant, though, and this proved to be just that bit too much for them. No crying, screaming or temper tantrums - that's not our style. No, my kids go the other way - they make everything into a game, and not just a normal, don't-step-on-the-cracks kind of game, but a let's-race-down-the-aisles-and-hurdle-the-displays kind of game. Today, there was hiding in the shopping cart (not a successful game, as it happens), running and sliding down the aisle, and shooting boxes of sandwich bags into the cart (okay, so that was me).
Of course, once these games begin, it's hard to know where they end, so there was also climbing through the van, under and over the bench seats, not to mention a small biting episode (and not the child you'd think, either).
All that said, this crew of mine can really work well together. We got the shopping done, van unloaded and groceries put away with no bloodshed! Plus, fun was had. How often do I get to say that about a shopping trip? I call that a win.
