One (Fun) Way to Survive Grocery Shopping With Kids

Girl laughing in supermarket with her momGoing grocery shopping with my kids always ends up being a nightmare.

Historically, I’ll have two kids running up and down the isles playing tag and screaming while the third one is walking next to me nagging about all the different things she wants.

Due to me struggling to keep them close and avoiding them destroying the aisles, I end up getting frustrated because it’s taking much longer than it should.

But, one day, I had to pick up my 3 kids (Ages: 8, 6 & 4) from school and head straight to a supermarket. I knew that taking them grocery shopping right after school when they’re potentially tired or hungry might be a terrible idea but unfortunately, I had no choice that day.

One Way to Survive Grocery Shopping With Kids

Image with girl getting groceries in supermarketSo on this day, to get them to unwind a bit from all the different feelings they might have had at school that day, I told them as soon as they all got into the car that I would blast the music and that we could each dance in the silliest way possible!

We stayed in the car outside of the school for 5 minutes, each of us dancing and waving our arms and doing all sorts of moves to get our grooves on!

I then wanted to make things a bit more mysterious and so I went on to tell them that we would now go to a supermarket with “normal” people. None of the people in there knew how “crazy” we all are, I said, so let's all try as much as we can to act “normal” and no-one would know our little secret.

We went into the supermarket and it was the sweetest thing ever!

Each of them at different times would give me a cute little look while they were trying to be “serious” yet they all had this mischievous smile on their faces. I really felt connected to each of them separately. It was like we were all one team in there with our own little secret.

My Secret Trick for Making Grocery Shopping More Fun

At different times we would look around and when no one was there we’d all start to dance again in the empty aisle until someone would appear. Then one of the kids would quickly tell us that we were no longer alone. Then we would all go back to acting all serious again, like we were just regular shoppers.

It was really a whole new experience of grocery shopping for all of us and it made me realize a little silliness and play can really go a long way with them.

What I also really loved about this experience (and what made it extra special for me) was that it made us one team as opposed to them being all over the place and me feeling like was alone in this.

For more on using play to handle parenting challenges, read 10 Games for Kids That Won't Brush Their Teeth and Dealing with Children's Behavior: 15 Great Games to Play When Your Kids Say No.

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