Avoiding Battles At The Grocery Store….

I will admit, having three children, I’ve broken several of my own rules.

For example, Hanna was six years old before she had tasted anything made with even a dusting of refined sugar. I think the posters of the sugar cane enclosed in a red circle with a line through it supported our attempt at keeping our adorable, first baby healthy (and unsweetened) for as long as possible.

Skip ahead to baby number three and I’ll throw a cookie through her crib bars if it means she’ll hurry up and remove her diaper so I can get the garbage out on time.

Somewhere else I’ve completely changed my tune is at the grocery store.

I used to tell the two older girls “No” a lot. Of course they would grab, smell and sometimes suck the chocolate through the wrapper at the check-out but hearing “No” consistently enough times and they simply stopped begging for treats.

With Chloe, my approach to grocery shopping is a race against the clock. I have exactly one hour each week while her sister is in art class to zip through the aisles with my crumpled, illegible list, questioning why I would have written in yellow highlighter (again) which under the fluorescent lighting is essentially just a migraine waiting to happen.

Rather than saying “No” when Chloe asks for something, I say “YES!” to everything!

I’m not suggesting this is by any means the sign of a good parent, it’s simply what I do and it happens to work.

When the deli counter girl asks, “Would your baby like to try the bologna?” Hell no—shudder, but I do allow her to sample a piece of meat made with smaller doses of piggy bottom.

I promise to take her to the free cookie bin, a bin I didn’t know existed until the older girls started going grocery shopping with a babysitter and from that moment on they cheered when they heard it was grocery time. But I draw the line at buying plush toys or foods only a baby could love the box for.

There is no begging because my strategy is sound. I simply allow her to pick up whatever she wants, carry it around and when she runs out of limbs, inevitably, she sets down her least favourite, the item she has the least attachment to and moves onto the next.

Sometimes I can ask her, “Chloe, why don’t you put the stuffed birdie (that I have NO intention of buying but you’ve been chewing on for three aisles) on this nice shelf next to the bbq sauce?” and she does. Yes if you notice a bag of pink marshmallows next to the canned tomatoes, that was me and I’m sorry but did I mention I only have an hour and my kid is savouring the delicious bologna/cookie smoothie I’ve been force-feeding her?

I was shopping with my Mom this week and she couldn’t believe my crazy approach but it works and there’s no whining because I just say yes to everything. When I start depositing things around the store, Chloe has no idea and at two, no memory of the many things she had previously picked up.

Last night, I searched my pantry cupboard for the bag of trail mix with cranberries, pumpkin seeds, roasted sunflower seeds I was sure I had purchased. I even checked the receipt but I couldn’t find it anywhere listed.

Then I remembered, that was one of Chloe’s picks and it is likely sitting on a container of imitation crab meat.

Sometimes the plan backfires—I could really go for some trail mix.

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