Let’s be real. The title of this post about says it all and leaves little to the imagination. Running errands with kids is sheer chaos. You can absolutely forget a leisurely stroll through the mall and what the hell is “window shopping” anymore? Get your shit and get out! My capabilities for decent grocery store trips and every other kind of errand you can run is on a downward spiral. Running errands with one had its challenges but was doable. Running errands with a mobile toddler while pregnant presented even more obstacles and absolutely wore me down. Now I have a 30 pound two and a half year old, an almost 20 pound eight month old (along with a 10ish pounds of infant seat said baby still rides around in). That is 60 pounds of awesome but 60 pounds of crazy as well. Today my toddler insisted on being carried, the day with no stroller of course, and reverted to throwing herself on the pavement in a fit of rage if I asked her to walk while holding my hand. So baby in baby seat in one arm and toddler in the other. (Curse all the places that do not have handicap accessible door openers that I can access with my foot.) Today I was without a stroller which I knew leaving the house. Currently our pickup is full of yard trimmings so stroller and the vehicle I had today weren’t compatible. I said whatever and went about my way. Even with the stroller it is still one more thing to unload. It does make it easier BUT it is another step and another thing to maneuver. Anyways, back to doing the things with the tiny people….
First stop: doctors office. Always an enjoyable time. The doctors office I usually (heavy emphasis on the usually….because kids) don’t have problems with especially once you leave the waiting room since there is no where for the mobile ones to go but there is plenty of things for them to get into. We made it out unscathed.
Second stop: Jewelry store. Trips like these always have me wondering is it worth it. Its been months (like 8 maybe?) since I had my wedding ring cleaned and yesterday I was planting flowers so you get it. Anyhow, is a less than 5 minute trip into the store to get the dirt out of my ring worth it. Today it was apparently. It went fine but you can never lessen the amount of work loading and unloading kids.
Next stop: Lunch. We swung by my mother in laws office for a quick lunch in the cafeteria. Another set of hands made this much easier. I’ve done lunch on the go by myself before and it went this well: an entire jug of kids size milk covering an entire booth. A little goes a long way in the case of milk apparently.
Last stop: Eye clinic. Many details surround my need to spend an hour at the eye clinic today but you don’t need them, I promise. Thank you lovely lady who offered my daughter a piece of cheese from the break room. Seriously, thank you. I’m sure you’re reading that thinking “Honestly? You let some random person feed your daughter food??” Um, ya. I did. Why? My toddler was currently in meltdown mode because I stopped her from ripping every pair of glasses they have on display off of the shelves. I told her if she stopped I would get her a treat. Funny story, I had no treats. Dumb. Cheese was the answer though. We left there and I had about 30 seconds of thinking I could get 20 more minutes of out them and could handle loading and unloading them one more time to go through the car wash. I quickly forgot those insane thoughts and hit the road home. Both kids fell asleep on the 40 minute drive home which was purely enjoyable for me.
Really todays trip I can’t complain about all that much because overall nothing really went wrong and there have most certainly been shopping trips I swear to never take again with children. Normally I try to limit our stops to two because thats just whats doable for me. I often feel like ‘that’ mom with ‘those’ kids in the store but the reality is I’m probably not. I see so many other moms doing the same thing as me and don’t think anything about it. Usually when I see a freak out happening I feel much worse for the parent than the child.
My only advice is this: Drink the coffee then do the things. The order is important. 🙂
High Five Moms and Dads! You’re doing great.
