Grocery Store Nightmares

It's after school and work on a Friday afternoon and I need to make a fast trip to the grocery store so that we can have something for dinner. I decide to pick up my children and let them go with me. Once there, I realize how big of a mistake this turns out to be.

By five o'clock the stimulant medication for ADHD is long gone and my daughter is ready to dart across a busy parking lot and plow a cart through the store. My son often follows his sister's lead, but thankfully pauses and waits for me to give him the signal to cross the parking lot.

I just want to get soup - just the kind that you pop in the microwave and drink directly from the cup. Near the soup is spaghetti-o's and macaroni. My son wants spaghetti-o's, until he sees the Trolls Easy Mac. My daughter has no desire for anything in this aisle. She wants a Lunchable. We go past chips, desserts ("Marshmallows!"), sunglasses from the Claire's display ("I just want to look at the pretty sunglasses"), bath bombs ("Put that back! We're not getting one"), and finally get to the aisle with the Lunchables. She hates bread - but chooses one with a sandwich. I point this out and she chooses nachos instead.

I'm frustrated at this point. As we work our way back to the front of the store, we see the bins filled with treats of special deals and my daughter pipes up and says, "Can I get a gift for Ms. T? She's so nice and I want to show her that she's special." I say no to the ridiculous requests that make no sense (dog food?), but I let her put an extra box of popcorn in the cart for her teacher and her brother's teacher.

We stand in line. There's something to touch everywhere around us. I give my daughter the directive to unload the cart on to the conveyor belt. Finally, it's our turn to check out and the cashier asks, "How are you doing today?"

I respond with, "I'm wishing I would've just left my children at daycare." As I am taking care of the business transaction, my daughter is right there asking for a sticker or a sucker. She knows the drill - and kindly includes her brother.

In my mind, picking the kids up and taking them with me to do the errands was a way to include them in some of the day-to-day activities of life. However, in reality, I think I'll just leave my kids at daycare next time.

Waste Time at Aldi?

When I started out on this whole adulting thing, I refused - vehemently refused - to shop at Aldi. It was not a store that I wanted to waste my time at because I was perfectly willing to pay for convenience. After my son was born and we moved to a larger city, I found my way to Aldi.

What I also found was that it wasn't a waste of time, but a huge time saver. They don't have multiple brands (aside from special buys), so I have no decision fatigue in navigating the right value for the food I am purchasing. They no longer operate on a cash-only basis, which helps with the whole convenience thing too (because who has cash anymore?).

Today, my six year old and I headed to Aldi for some ingredients to make eggplant parmesan. The eggplant already existed on my counter and I needed to do something with the obscene amount of vegetables that we have collected from our CSA over the past two weeks, so tonight's menu - eggplant parmesan. So my son and I journey to Aldi where the requests for cheesy crackers and chocolate syrup can be indulged in because the total of my bill will still be thirty to fifty percent less than if I were shopping at a different supermarket.

So now that I'm well into my thirties and definitely much more seasoned in this adulting world, I find that Aldi may not have all the bells and whistles of a bigger supermarket chain, but I guarantee you that I am not waiting in line wasting my time any longer at this wonderful grocer than any other larger grocery store.