A Day Out Shopping with the Terrible Twos

I'm sure you have all done it. Traipsed out with gleeful ideas of the errands you were going to run and the angel your toddler was going to be while you doled out your coupons and debated between brands. Then, reality sets in and you find yourself struggling with one arm around your wriggling kids waist, the other full of boxes or bags and someone giving you "the look" for making a disturbance. Ya, well, here's the latest in Toddler Mommy diaries...

As many of you probably know, last week Oprah gifted us with a code to get half off a purchase at Payless shoes. If you are a bargain girl like me, this was like an invitation to a wonderful party. I received my text code coupon and gathered my little son set out for a shopping day feeling like a VIP. I arrived at the store to find it bustling. This was to be expected,I mean, half off people! Shortly after arriving, whilst standing before the myriad of choices in my size another mom came hurrying through, three kids in tow and asked to the general public, "So, how many pairs can we get?" I looked at her unknowingly and said, "Uh, I don't know, One?" "One?!" was her reply. We soon came to find out from another shopper that it was off your entire purchase. Oh dear, this was going to get me in trouble with the hubs, yet again. 

So, with an entire world of shoes now open to me the haggling begins. No, not with the store associates, with my nearly two year old son. Do I bribe him? Yes. Do I beg him? Yes. Do I do anything possible to keep myself sane? Yes, yes, yes. At this point mommy has a pair of snow boots, little guy has two pairs of shoes to grow in to and I, asking for it, decide to go on the search for Daddy. We have already been through making him share the mirrored bench with another bored little boy, two fruit snack bribes and many pleas to stop running away from mommy because he will "get stolen."

I set him down with cup of juice and find a great pair for daddy just in time for him to jump up run to the next aisle and throw his juice down in the middle of a mother daughter conversation going on from one side of the aisle to another. The tween girl was so very kind and picked up the cup for me. I snatched the little one as he tried to take off again, took the cup from the sweet girl and opened my mouth to say "Thank you," when the mother gave me a dirty look and started in to her monologue. "Thank you so much Amber. That was so nice of you! It really was going above and beyond..."

I cut her off there with an "I was getting to that." I was totally rude and probably uncalled for, but I could not believe that she could not wait five seconds for me to literally pick myself and my son up off the floor and say thank you. Did she not realize that I was struggling with one of those mommy moments? Did she not realize that I had opened my mouth to say thank you and how much more those two words would have meant to her daughter from a stranger than the paragraph from her? I was so angry with her and with my reaction that probably just made me seem even more out of control. 

This was not the end to my struggling in the store that day. There was trying to balance a boy, a diaper bag and a pile of five boxes. There was waiting in line next to sunglasses and hearing "poo poo potty" when there was no where to go and many more little stresses that made my eyes widen and my cheeks turn red, but I learned something. Who cares?

Ya, I may be the one chasing the kid through the store or making little old ladies nervous when he crawls halfway out of the cart or gets looked at in line because my kid is having a fit that I won't let him dump the cards out of my wallet, but everyone's been there. And if they have not, they also have not shared in the joy of watching them sleep or having them say "wuv woo" or been able to heal every owie with a kiss. I am so thankful for the people out there who play a game of peek a boo or store clerks who hand them a price sticker. It is the little things that matter and the little things that calm a frantic mother. I have learned a valuable lesson, next time I see a mother at the end of her rope, I won't give her the look. I'll give her a break. 

Besides, I saved $85.97!

Original Rocky Mountain Moms Blog post. When not clinging to her sanity in the midst of a sale, Michelle B. can be found at A Little Tipsy where she shares creative tips on mommyhood and how to get through the day with a toddler.