Shopping With A Toddler
Shopping with a toddler can drive the most placid mother over the edge. After eleven years of shopping with a toddler by my side, I’ve learned that there are certain things you can do to so that both mother and child would be able to go through the process unscathed. Here are my top five strategies:
- Select your shopping time carefully. If you shop during your toddler’s nap, then expect her to be cranky. If you shop when she is hungry, you can’t blame her for wanting every treat in sight. As much as possible, shop when she is well-rested and full.
- At the store, keep her in a stroller or on a trolley with an infant seat. You cannot reasonably expect to get any type of shopping done if she is on the loose. Being strapped in inside a store is non-negotiable in our household until our children are three years old.
- Take a drink with you or buy one as soon as you arrive in the store. A toddler holding on to something is less likely to grab onto whatever comes into view.
- Make a systematic list. My sister used to laugh at me for making my shopping lists correspond to the way I walk through the aisles in a specific shop until she had her own toddlers. She makes her list just as systematic as I make mine now!
- Involve her. Talk to her about what you are buying and give her the chance to make some choices. Let her choose between pink serviettes or yellow ones or let her decide on the flavor of yogurt.
In general, make sure that you satisfy her needs first in a store, even you find it inconvenient. If you don’t, then brace for her first store-induced tantrum – a vice that all mothers have witnessed in other people’s toddlers and dread in their own. It’s better to accept the fact that it will happen sooner or later and start formulating a way to prevent it or deal with it, because if it hasn’t happened yet, it will soon. It’s an unwritten rule of toddlerhood!
