Death to the car cart

I know you think they're cute. You probably say, how clever, give the kids something to play in while you shop. I think the design was created to entertain the children so you can shop in peace. Well, peace is the last thing the "car cart" creates on our shopping adventures. Now as I'm sure you previously read, I'm no big shopper myself, but as much as I hate shopping for clothes, that's how much I love grocery shopping. There's just something about all that food in one place that makes me happy. I love wondering up and down the isles for hours picking just the right things to make my meals. I love scanning the shelves for new products and finding recipes to use them in. I just love grocery shopping. Peanut is probably like most other children his age and does not love to shop. It does not matter if it's in the mall or grocery store, the whole experience is not enjoyable to him. So you can imagine the conflict we have between the two of us when we hit the stores. I'm sure the grocery "car cart" was designed to help in these situations. After all what better way to entertain a child than give him a steering wheel and send him rolling down the isles? And I have to say when I first saw these rolling contraptions I thought the same...how naive I was. When we go grocery shopping now I come prepared. First, I drive around the parking lot, counting all the "car carts" outside, so I know what to expect inside. I then park as far away from the sight of them as possible. We then enter the store from the wrong doors, why you ask? So Peanut does not see any available "car cart" that might be lurking near the entrance. If we're lucky there are no car carts available and we jump into a regular cart and we're on our way. I ignore the whining due to the lack of a car cart and spend the next half hour dodging the isles where other mom's were not as lucky as me. There they are, pushing that darn cart, that's a good 2 feet longer than the regular carts. Have you ever tried to turn one of those things around in the isle? Can anyone say, "clean up in isle 3?” Those things are huge and filthy! When was the last time you saw a bag boy scrubbing the inside of one of those darn things? Never. If I take a wrong turn, all hell breaks loose as Peanut spots an occupied car cart I forgot to account for. You may think I'm cruel, as peanut has a tantrum right there in my perfect little cart. You may think that can't be as bad as just letting him have the car cart. Oh really? Did you know besides being impossible to turn without taking out that neatly stacked end cap of peas, those car carts put Peanut at an ideal level for knocking things off shelves. The first time it happened I thought it was an accident (you actually have to walk around to the front of the cart to see your child) a bottle of juice came tumbling off the shelf and rolled down the isle behind us. I picked it up and continued along my merry way. Next isle, a whole section of tomato sauce cans crashed down and went flying everywhere. Again, I picked them up and warily watched my two year old as we continued. As soon as we got rolling again, I noticed him, arms stretched wide, one out each little car window, grabbing, knocking and throwing anything his little fingers had the misfortune to come in contact with. Needless to say the novelty of the "car cart" was wearing thin for me at that point. We tried it a few more times, always with the same result, bottles, cans, packages all over the isles, either from me crashing into them in a vain attempt to turn the cart or peanut's arms flailing wildly out the windows. Whatever, the whole experience has made me long for the days of grocery shopping without children. So next time you see me strolling down the isle with my normal, little, grocery cart full of a screaming, wailing two year old, with a smile on my face. Just know it's because I know, it could be so much worse if we were in a car cart!