Grocery Shopping

I’d managed to avoid grocery shopping with three pre-schoolers but, one day without even a slice of bread in the house, I had no choice.

Strangely, despite the amount of twins in my suburb, the local supermarket doesn’t have a double toddler trolley so I settled for placing Jayla in one trolley, which I pushed, Jai in another, which I pulled while Cadeyn trundled along somewhere behind “helping” the motion process.

We looked like a choo-choo train.

Despite the challenge of maneuvering the checkout with two trolleys and getting them safely to the car (I had a little help here), we survived that day unscathed.

Still a novelty, my little ones were far too excited to be sitting on their thrones to consider playing up. I consider myself lucky as I’ve heard of shopping experiences resulting in parents abandoning their trolleys mid-aisle.

These days I place Jai in the toddler seat and, in the trolley, Jayla who, by the time we’ve swung into the fourth aisle, is completely submerged with groceries and can be located only by the tuft of orange hair sticking out. Once unearthed at the check-out it is not uncommon for her to emerge eating an apple and grinning from ear to ear.

Recently however, we popped into the local supermarket one Saturday morning and decided to forego the trolley altogether.

Big mistake.

We managed to turn the place into a complete circus as our tribe took over the supermarket with noise and bustle. I was torn between chasing them and disowning the lot. Having decided on the latter I was picking through the oranges in produce when I noticed someone trying to catch my eye. After feigning ignorance I eventually had to look up. It was none other than local MP Phil Heatley grinning at me. Obviously my charade hadn’t worked.

“Wait till they get to the lolly aisle,” he said with a twinkle.

I shuddered in response.

Not stopping there he addressed my children: “Kids, come and check out the lollies,” he teased, before flashing me another grin and setting off.

Humbled that even he could see the funny side, I decided to take responsibility for my children again so rounded them up before herding them out of the store.

And as the doors closed behind us I’m certain I heard a collective sigh of relief.