As they get older, they are having more fun. I’m sure when they are old enough to stay home on their own, they’ll choose to do so, but for now, I guess I consider going to the grocery store on my own a luxury and as crazy as that sounds, I don’t want it to be like that all the time. I enjoy having the kids with me to talk to and laugh with and they have fun matching the pictures on the coupons to the items on the shelves. I also like them to see how I shop with a list and coupons. It’s such a great learning experience for them.

We always try to go to the store on the first Wednesday of every month, even if just for a little bit. That’s the day that the local seniors all get 10% off their grocery purchases. We just wander around the store with our list and help people get their items from the top or bottom shelves and the seniors love to see the kids and say hi to them. It’s a lot of fun for everyone.

Yes, I’m well aware of the fact that I’m a crazy weirdo.

And when I do have the rare opportunity to shop alone – I take a VERY VERY long time doing it. *snicker*

Would I have preferred to go by myself? Absolutely! For the most part, however, the kids were pretty well behaved and didn’t cause me too much grief.

Now that the kids are older and I can do a lot of these errands on my own I sometimes miss their company. I can honestly say that this realization surprised me a little. Looking back we had a lot of fun looking at all the stuff, checking out the weird veggies and fruit and making a game of trying to find certain things on the shelves.

Occasionally I will still ask them to come with me on the shorter trips. While I enjoy spending time with both of them it’s kind of special when only one comes as we have a lot of fun and it gives us an opportunity to talk.

Jen, being that your Mom was on her own and probably working a lot this may have been an opportunity for her to spend some time with you, especially once you were of school age and gone all day. Maybe it was a way of her trying to connect or strengthen your relationship. It was probably the one time she knew she would have you to herself, before you went out with your friends or did your own thing.

Just a thought.

My dad only allowed the “big” grocery shopping for a family of 6 every 6 weeks. Milk and bread and other incidentals could happen in between, but the major shopping got held for an entire Saturday every 6 weeks. This shopping did not include meat very often, as we raised our own animals and our meat came out of the freezer.

The shopping trips required significant planning and a full day of military-style execution. As soon as I was old enough, my mom would split the list into parts for me and her by section of the store. We filled carts with groceries and stashed them with customer service until we were all done (usually 3 – 4 hours of marathon shopping). Before I was old enough to take half the list and cover my own section of the store, she would assign one or two items to me and I would go “fetch” them while she continued down each aisle in order.

As I think back on it, I’m amazed she could run a house with 3 growing boys who ate like machines with only major shopping every six weeks! I don’t know how she could have done all of the shopping on her own, she needed my assistance to get it done in a single day.