Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Shopping With My Children

Today I went to Fry's with my kids. Yes, all of them. Which I didn't think that three was that many, but apparently three warrants a "My! You have your hands full!" from just about every senior citizen there.

And today was not the first time. I have experienced the "My!" a bunch of times. I have finally developed my response. I smile and say, "Yes. I wouldn't have it any other way!" And move on.

What I want to say is, "Come on. When you were raising children, three was on the small end of progeny. How many kids did you have at 30? I bet there were times that you had to shop with all them, huh? Have you really forgotten what it's like to lug your children around during the heat of the day to get something for dinner? Do you really need to comment on mine?"

And my kids are at least kind-of behaved. So, there.

5 comments:

"Intentionally Katie" said...

My grandma thinks I'm nuts for ever leaving the house with the kids. Any or all of them. Apparently, she did all of her errands and shopping after they went to bed. (?) Whatever. When my kids go to bed, I'm off duty.

I like when older people ask me if Jason is my only one when I'm out with him on Kaylin's school days. "No - I have two more in school," gets the wide eyes every time. Three kids is NOT that big of a deal! I wonder what these people are thinking.

chandy said...

Ha! Next time, tell them "This is nothing! I left half of the kids in the car!"

I like running errands with the kids...it's usually like a mini-adventure!

Heather@Cultivated Lives said...

hahahaha... I get the same comments too! :) Of course they only tell me that when they are behaving. When they are not, I notice people turning the other direction and making wide sweeps around me. ;)

I usually just smile and say "yup" or I tell them that I hate being bored...

You should try going for a walk with your own and someone else too. I did that recently and had six kids 7 and under. You should have seen the looks of horror!

In a way that is a stupid question. Of course I'm busy.

~Heather

The Maid said...

I'm sure you know my thoughts on this...

and three WAS nothing! :)

When we had our fourth...we had total strangers tell us we needed to stop now (in Mervyns), tell us that we had too many kids (on the way out of Target), and about 90 percent of the people we know assume that we either:
1) have no TV in our bedroom and we should get one (Apparently, nobody conceives with a TV in their room.) LOL

or
2) are completely uneducated. In fact, the more kids we had...the more it was assumed that we had no college education or had no interests other than sex and reproduction.

Sigh.

I think in this day and age, it is truly an act of courage, faith, and by the grace of God that women are still choosing home and family.

kferr said...

LOL- that is too funny, because I get the same thing EVERY time I go out! I pretty much always have them all with me- none of them are in school yet. (they have all just had birthdays and are now 5, 3, and 1) Even my MIL will say how busy I must be. At this time, I really don't know any different. Some days are obviously busy, but that doesn't mean it is bad.

I know people who only have 1 kid (self sufficient too, like 4 years and up) who won't take them grocery shopping. I think THEY are the crazy ones! My kids know how to behave in a store or a restaurant, they don't beg for me to buy them things (because they know I won't).

I did actually get to the grocery store (walmart-ugh!) by myself last week, and I heard something even worse than the "oh MY" comments. As I was checking out there was a baby/child crying in the background. My cashier told me that she didn't know why people would come shopping with their kids and the worst part of her job was listening to them cry! She went on and on about it. I didn't say much, but you would have thought the diapers and gerber graduates on the belt would have tipped her off! :-)