Grocery Shopping in the Rain
Sep 5th, 2007 by Bethany
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
This morning I drove Colin to work because I wanted to go pick up some groceries today. After dropping him off just before the tardy bell rang, Degen really wanted a banana and we headed straight for the grocery store in a little drizzle of rain.
There's a serious lack of competition among grocery stores in the Little Rock area, at least compared to what I'm used to in Utah and Arizona. Pretty much the options near us are Walmart (which is the end-all, be-all of cheap diapers everywhere, but produce is quite limited in its quality and variety), Kroger (which I didn't know was a grocery store before we moved here–it was a generic brand), and a Harvest Foods or something like that which we haven't been to because it's pretty far away. We'll have to check that out for date night or something soon because I'm unimpressed with the alternatives.
Back to my story of the morning. We managed to get into the store fairly dry and Degen insisted that we take one of the "race car" shopping carts that has a plastic front in a bright color (we chose blue) attached to the basket with a seat for the kids to face away from the cart pusher and steering wheels so they think they're driving the cart. That was fine by me because the race car cart holds two kids instead of the usual one. Soon Degen decided he needed access to both steering wheels and the entire seat to properly drive our cart, and I had to pull Maggie out of the way of his feet pushing her out of the cart. That meant I pushed the cart and collected groceries with one hand and held Maggie on my hip with the other hand. You should try it sometime–it's a challenging way to shop, let me tell you.
Eventually Degen decided it would be more fun to walk around the store than to drive, but by then Maggie was ready for her nap (shopping with two little ones takes a long time) and screamed when I tried to sit her in the cart. So, I got to chase Degen around the store, while pushing the cart with one hand and carrying Maggie on my hip. I think this will be a day I look back on with great amusement.
Degen has this belief that he is the only one qualified to push shopping carts, and it's the supreme insult to him if an adult tries to assist him, however subtly. I was not in the mood to cater to this belief today, so when he decided he wanted to push the cart and didn't want me to touch it we repeatedly had a little showdown that involved him standing in front of the cart with his hand out saying "Stop! Okay?" and me saying "No, I'm going to push the cart." I would then say "Ready, set, go!" and he would back up a few steps so I could push the cart slightly forward. Then the scenario looped.
Finally, I got us to the checkout stand by explaining that we had to buy the bananas there before he could have one. I gave Degen the Kroger discount card (attached to my key chain)that allows the grocery moguls to track my every purchase in exchange for small discounts on my food. Degen tried to throw the keys into a display of potato chips, just to see what would happen. Really, he's not malicious. Just very curious. I quickly found the keys and had Degen hand them to the checker and we completed the purchase.
Just then, I looked out the window and what did I see? No apricot tree popcorn (wrong season). The rain was pouring in sheets and was giving no sign of letting up. Determined to get my sweet little monsters and my groceries home immediately, I mentally went through my options for getting to the car as dryly as possible. One: I could leave Degen and the cart on the sidewalk, out of the rain, while I ran Maggie to the car, then run Degen to the car, then get the groceries. Two: I could leave Maggie and the cart on the sidewalk and run Degen to the car, then get the baby, then get the groceries. Three: I could do either of the first two options, but get the second child and the groceries at the same time. Four: I could run all three of us and the groceries to the car and see how fast I could load each. Five: I could leave everyone on the sidewalk, run to the car and see if I could find my (small) umbrella inside, then run back and bring everyone to the car together under the umbrella as much as possible.
I quickly eliminated option One, knowing that Degen might quite possibly run after me into the street if I left him on the sidewalk. Options Two, Three, and Five I vetoed because I was more uncomfortable with leaving my kids unattended with lots of strangers around. Four it was.
I told the kids to get ready to get wet in the rain and how fun it would be, then picked Degen up and put Maggie in the cart seat despite her protest cries. I put my keys in my pocket in an easy-to-access manner, then ran with the cart and the kids to the car. We were soaked through before we got there, but by then there was nothing to lose. First, I opened the nearest door (it happened to be the front passenger door) and put Degen and my diaper bag inside. Then I picked Maggie up and seat belted her into her car seat while Degen climbed into the back seat to get into his own car seat (wasn't that good of him?). Then I ran around to the driver door to pop the trunk (I had a valet key on me), then back to the cart to load the very wet grocery bags in the trunk.
As I loaded the groceries, the old woman (she was probably 70) in the car next to me rolled down her window and said "Bless your heart!" and something else about me and the kids and the rain. I just smiled and said something about it being a fun little adventure and how we were headed straight home to get dry and warm. I couldn't hear her reply over the rain, but she quickly rolled her window up and I felt sympathized with as I finished, put the cart in a cart collection area, and hopped in the car. Then I remembered something my cousin had said in warning as we moved to the South: "Watch out when Southern women say 'bless your heart'–an insult usually follows." I suddenly didn't feel so warm inside, doubting whether the woman's comment I couldn't hear was really so sympathetic after all, as I tried to wipe my wet, foggy glasses on Maggie's blanket.
We quickly drove home in the downpour and I was half scared, half thrilled at the huge arcs of water produced by my car going through the water on the road. As we pulled into the parking spot directly in front of our apartment I breathed a sigh of relief and told the kids I'd be right back as I ran with the diaper bag to the door and unlocked it. Then I ran back for Degen, who was crying and upset about being wet. I dropped him off just inside the door, then ran back for Maggie, who was also crying, and brought her inside.
Degen was just standing on the carpet, dripping and looking upset, and when I suggested a bath he freaked out because he thought I was going to put him to bed (baths are part of our nightly bedtime routine). I got the wet clothes off Maggie and myself before tackling Degen and helping him into dry clothes. He wouldn't even let me get close to him with a towel, so I just changed his diaper and a dry shirt on him, which calmed him considerably since I didn't put him in pajamas. Then Maggie got a bath, which calmed her down, and a few minutes later we were all warm and dry and Maggie was in her bed for her nap.
Now you know what happens when you take two kids shopping in the rain and you don't bring a big umbrella with you. I still haven't been brave enough to go outside and get the groceries from the car. The veteran mothers among you will probably giggle with nostalgic memories of your own adventures as you rea
d this story, and the rest of you will probably think I'm crazy. Motherhood beats even international travel as the best fodder for crazy stories and stuff like this makes me smile.
