Shop Till You Drop - With Your Kids!

November 8, 2008 | Written by: Lisa Cutler

Recently I took some of my kids grocery shopping. I had a wonderful idea as we entered the store. I could turn this boring chore into a fabulous learning experience! I thought that I could teach my three daughters about the value of spending wisely. Sometimes my smart ideas aren’t so smart.

I started by asking my three year old daughter to count the apples as we put them in the bag, well not all the apples made it into the bag. It was like Niagara Falls in the produce department. After that fiasco, we decided to let Mommy hold the bag as she continued to count the apples. Even so, she was having fun.

In order to get my eight year old daughter involved, I asked her to weigh the produce in the scale and read the number to me. Those scales can be quite fascinating for the kids because its something that is so archaic to them in this computer dominated world where all the answers are given with the push of a button. The simple act of figuring out the answer in your head or even fingers is old fashioned.

Then I really made my twelve year old daughter use her brain (which of course caused tremendous pain) when she had to figure out how much the item cost by multiplying the cost per pound by how many pounds we had. Not only that, I had her comparison shop and decide which choice was most cost effective. Then I thought to myself, I can have her figure all the math problems herself - so I don’t have to!

Of course while I’m trying to teach my older girls these lessons, the three year old was very busy getting into all kinds of trouble. It was a bit distracting as she was climbing in and out of the cart, trying to hang from the produce scale and almost letting loose an avalanche of stacked items.

I felt like I was part octopus as I was helping all three kids at the same time. It was like I had multiple personalities as I was talking to all three at the same with different voices. My nice voice was for my oldest as she was (slowly) computing the prices (I had to be nice, she was doing the work for me). My curt voice was for my middle daughter who was asking for something to eat. My angry voice was reserved for my little one who was wrecking the store.

Multitasking is my middle name, I’m even multitasking while I write this article with a child on my lap! But, trying to shop with my girls is not something I would like to do every day.

In the end we all survived and learned a few lessons along the way. My girls all gained confidence in their math skills, and I gained confidence in my parenting skills. I realized that I could handle juggling shopping and kids and come out all in one piece.

We all learned that we are capable of succeeding even if life throws us a few curve apples, I mean balls.

Clean up in aisle 2!

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