I know I only have one kid, and she is honestly a good kid, but when I take her shopping, she becomes a different person...a strange being that defies my every request and thinks it funny to run over my feet with a cart.
When I shop by myself, shopping isn't stress but when I have to take my kiddo, it kind of is. Many times I go to the stores that have those "fun" car carts just to keep her in check. I use quotation marks around the word "fun" because I don't honestly believe they are fun. Oh, my kid loves them alright, and it keeps her from trying to push the cart, which usually would end up with either my feet run over or her riding on it preventing me from pushing it properly. It also prevents her from riding in the basket of the cart where I cannot put enough groceries, and where I have to force her to sit down never mind if she is wearing a skirt and I cannot get her to close her legs so the whole world doesn't see her Disney princess underwear. But me, I don't love them. And what mom does?
The carts stick out like a sore thumb in the cart area of every store that owns them so there is no getting out of them by saying "Oh honey, they don't have one left today." After I pull one out far enough to get my kid into it, I still have to maneuver it out of the tight spot they keep them in while fending off hitting people with it or with my butt while backing up. Finally she squeezes into it (because she is getting a little big for them) and we are off.
I bump into everything with the corner of this darn cart, because it's not like driving a real car where you can see where your front end will hit. The kid just laughs hysterically at that, of course. I also dodge hitting other people while moms give me they sympathetic half grin knowing my pain, elderly women smile while talking to my daughter thinking it is adorable, men smile and smirk thinking I am just a fun mom. I can never figure out how to handle these stupid carts, I just smash into everything trying to quickly get my groceries and get out so I don't knock down anything I might have to pay for.
I then realize that the cart isn't actually big enough to hold all of my groceries as my child giggles and smirks and looks back at me through the "rear view window" of "her car."
As I get to the checkout forgetting half of what I needed to purchase due to the overwhelming stress of trying to maneuver this "car" and keep my kid happy so I can get through this ordeal unscathed, the kid decides she doesn't want to be in the "car" anymore. So, although we are now in the checkout lane, and she is basically blocked in, which is the equivalent of having your vehicle sandwiched in between two other vehicles parked both over the lines in a parking lot; she still wants out and attempts to get out, screaming because she is stuck (even though at six years old she knows better). People start to stare, the cashier looks at me disapprovingly as I try to convince her to stay in there long enough for me to maneuver the cart to the spot where the register next to us is so she has an opening to get out.
After I have paid for my groceries (my incomplete groceries), my kiddo "helps" me push the cart out to the vehicle where she puts her legs up on the bottom of it to ride on it and almost tips the whole thing over because it is so front heavy, especially without her in it.
I just have to wonder who made these carts and why they would possibly think that these things are an amazing creation.
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