Shopping with Kids

I took the kids to the mall today. After lunch. Before naptime. Big mistake. I'm so frustrated/flustered/frazzled from the whole experience that I may need to tap into the bottle of wine I'm supposed to take to a friend's house tonight.

When I was growing up we lived next door to a family who had three kids roughly about the same ages as my siblings and I. My mom and Angelica became fast friends. But I always remember my mom talking about how ridiculous it was that Angelica always hired a babysitter to watch her kids so she could go grocery shopping. "Can't she just take her kids with her?" We went EVERYWHERE with my mom and honestly, I don't know how she did it.

Since I've had kids, though, I am completely in Angelica's camp.

I do my grocery shopping after work in the evenings (thank heavens for 24 hour stores!). I can slowly stroll through the aisles and look at ingredients and just enjoy the whole experience. It's cathartic.

Any other errands are taken care of while the girls are in MMO once a week. In those 3 hours I'm more productive than I am all the rest of the week.

When they were babies, Bill and I took the girls everywhere we went. We wanted them to be able to learn how to act in public. Then they started walking. We still take them places, but usually only if we can tag team the whole event. Each of us by ourselves try to stay away from the little monsters who run in opposite directions.

Perhaps one day I'll be able to introduce my children to society again. For now, they're best kept within the four walls of our house.

**Disclaimer: All of this was written before I had my glass of wine. Now I believe that my children are angels and will go with me to the mall all the time. Ahhhhhh.