Grocery Shopping

When I was a kid and went shopping for groceries it would take Mom hours looking at each aisle looking for the best prices. As a kid I never thought that she was trying to save a few bucks by looking at the less expensive item to take.  I would whine "let’s go “since the moment we enter the store until we left. My sister would be so happy shopping with our Mom.  Since I remember she had a big smile while shopping with Mom. Mom would give a few coupons to the lady at the counter and we would go home walking! It wasn't far it was just 4 blocks.

When I was in high school, I was a pain in the butt when taken to buy groceries at the store. I would whine while pushing the cart and I would be the one slouching at the cart. Mom stopped using coupons which is my fault. I guess having a whiner with you during your shopping just wants you to want to leave faster.  My sister would help out while shopping and I would just stay slouching on the shopping cart.  Solution, I said "NO" when I was asked to go grocery shopping with them.

About a few years ago, My Dad does the shopping with no coupons and he goes in-an-out of the store. He is faster than my Mom but still, my bad habits are still there, I slouch at the cart while shopping.  I don’t even help at all like when I go with my Mom.  I do go and get cleaners to clean the house without being asked and I do go and get things that they ask me to like 'go pick a cereal".

There are some stores that I HATE GOING MORE and those are the ones that have vegetables/fruits as they spend their sweet time picking tomatoes, potatoes, onions, etc... I should help but I don’t know what they are going to buy it’s not like they have a grocery list... oh yeah they sometimes do! But they always take vegetables/fruits and other items that are not in the list.

When I am not with them and I am out of town with my fiancée, he likes going to the grocery store to get what we need. However, with my hate of going to the grocery store, it’s hard to get me to go so we don’t go. I have learned that when I go to buy what I want, it’s different and can get what we need and that’s it.  We go with a plan (list in our heads)... for example, hamburgers, we need to buy meat, bread carrots and toppings which are tomatoes, onions, guacamole, etc... That makes it easy to go get the things we need and its fast.

What have learned to make going to the grocery store a lot better for our kids?
1. When going with a little child sit them on the grocery cart and talk to them.
2. Give them a task to do:
If they are in the cart just tell them what you are looking for and ask them to point at it when they 'see it'. If they can walk just tell them what you are looking for and ask them to pick one. 
3. Don’t get mad when they pick the wrong item, remember that they can’t read or they are learning to read... when they understand then say 'pick the 12 oz package of cereal' until then...
Hint to them that you want the small one or the big size of the cereal.
4. When they are older give them a task to do and tell them that you will be going around the aisles. 
5. If you are going to go shopping with coupons let the kids be in charge of them. This means that you have to be prepared with what you want to buy. If they want something they can look at the coupon bag to see if it’s there, if it’s not then they can wait until its on sale and have a coupon.
Here is what a friend does: she gives her 10 year old twins six coupons to go get the item. They pick two items and they walk back to the cart, they show the coupon so she can see if they picked the right thing.  If the item is wrong from the coupon, she tells them if they want to go re-pick it for her.  They go together to get it.  This makes the shopping interesting for them as they have something to do.
When they are older you can divide the shopping list into how many people went with you and they go and get their part of the shopping list. Remind them that it’s not how fast they do it; it’s how accurate they do it.  If they do it wrong, then they have to go get it again and again until they do it right!