The Curmudgeon's....er....Experienced Mom's Guide to Grocery Shopping

I was out grocery shopping today at Trader Joe's and Meijer. In between the two places, I was stuck in traffic and wrote the notes for this post.

The Experienced Mom's Guide to Grocery Shopping: How to Make Your Grocery Shopping Experience (and Mine) More Pleasurable

1) The right to push a kiddie cart must be earned. Racing in front of other shoppers with one should result in the loss of the kiddie cart privilege.

2) Children should use their "inside voice" in the store. Children who shout their sentences (and they seem to be on the rise these days) need a parent to tell them this.....as often as necessary.

3) Eating out of packages = stealing. That goes for you too, Mom. (Today I saw a mom and her two kids eating bananas in the produce dept. One child dropped half of hers on the floor. Mom glanced at it and kept going. Nice.)

4) Tantrums = home and a nap. Mom must be willing to leave the store and come back later to finish her shopping if her screaming child has become unmanageable. I personally will watch over her groceries, if that's what it takes ;)

5) Children of any age who run down aisles should be put in their parent's cart. The older the child, the more embarrassing this will be, hopefully resulting in an end to the running. (This goes double for kids with wheels on their shoes.)

6) I love little kids....I had four of my own. But no matter how adorable a child may be, to the rest of us, his cuteness factor is inversely affected by his bad behavior in the store.