Day 140 - You can’t tell my kid what to do. Only I can do that.

Six months ago I NEVER would have attempted to take my children to the grocery store.  I know this sounds pathetic, but I would just order my groceries on line and pick them up.  This was the best $4.95 (service fee) spent in my house (second only to the cleaning ladies of course).  The grocery store was destined to be a disaster. The local store we use thinks they are “helping” by providing little child size shopping carts.  This may help with some children (calm little girls), but for the Schneider boys it means either fighting over the one cart that is left or having two carts that turn into weapons endangering each other and every patron of the store.  Anyway, now that most days I only have Lukie during the day, I have become braver and Lukie actually seems to like the grocery.  He helps with selecting key items – “look mommy the sugar cocoa butter cereal is on sale today so we should get two” and at checkout he takes the items out of the cart to be scanned.  

Today, as he was unloading the cart he stood up in the main basket part of the cart (not the place where smaller children sit that would be completely negligent of me).  Instantly this store clerk descended upon us ordering Lukas to sit down.  Hello, parent of child standing right beside him, happy child helping with groceries and not screaming for a cookie (yet), happy mommy in your store because child is not screaming, neither are hurting anyone…leave me and my kid alone. Ok from a safety standpoint he was probably right and Lukas should not have been standing up in the cart, but rather than logically recognize that this man might have just been 1) attempting to protect my kid 2) avoid a major bloody injury in his checkout line 3) avoid the litigation associated with number two because of course if I am stupid enough to let my kid stand up in a cart with wheels and he falls out I’m going to sue the grocery store.  Clearly it was their fault that I was a negligent parent.  

Oh well.  Lukie sat down and didn’t seem to notice.  Inside I was thinking. Wait, even if you are right, you can’t tell my kid what to do.  Only I can do that!  Then on the way out Lukas did get a free cookie (another way the store tries to make itself kid friendly) and loudly announces “Mommy please don’t eat my cookie this time.”  I was knocked off my high horse as the line of checkout clerks giggled as I walked by with the last one announcing “Little man busted you.”  Maybe I’ll go back to online groceries.