A Day in The Life: Grocery Shopping

A Day in The Life is a series on life with twins. Just a 

few glimpses of what its like to function as a family of

five when two of us are two. :)

these are not my twins. although, they do bear a striking resemblance!

I am often asked what its like to grocery shop with twins. For anyone who has 3 littles close in age, grocery shopping with all three can be a challenge. Just like swimming the English Channel could be a challenge for someone who only dog paddles. It takes forever and each and every time you emerge from that proverbial chamber of tortures you wipe the sweat off your brow and swear to yourself never.ever.again.

For all you historians out there, grocery shopping has always been something I have done without Tim. I've never worked full time since we've been married and so I always had the time to get it done while he was at work. That was still very true when I only had 1 little guy to take with me. Easy-peasy. We would run errands, hit garage sales, go thrifting, you name it, Jackson and I were heavy hitters when it came to a productive work day! 

Then came the twins. The first year with twins, I couldn't go to any "normal" stores like Cub or Rainbow unless we all went - no double carts. I mainly shopped at Costco b/c they were literally the only store that had a cart large enough for 2 baby seats, 1 toddler (who was still learning how NOT to run away) and oh, yeah, all my food diapers. 

A few times, I did find the nerve to venture out to a store without a suitable cart and then I would strap on one twin, put the other baby seat in the large part of the cart, and have the big one sit in the child part. Then I could only buy a few things and they had to fit in packed carefully around the sleeping twin. Gallon of milk? No way, not gonna fit.

Another coping mechanism I used a lot was the 1 mom, 2 carts, 3 kid parade. Only this parade don't give out no candy. We just move very slowly and get in everyone's way every chance we get. Awesome.

Oh and don't forget that now you have 2 (or maybe 3) pairs of tiny hands that are grabbing for things you don't plan to buy. Like that bag of marshmellows that tiny 2 is chewing on through the bag. You wrestle that away from him while breaking up the hair pulling fight in the other cart and put "gently used" marshmellows back on shelf...or maybe you just buy them b/c you are going to need them after this trip. You turn around only to discover that tiny 1 is also chewing on a bag of marshmellows. Needless to say, you buy both bags and start pushing/pulling your carts down center of aisle, which other customers love. Obviously.

At this point, you begin to ask yourself questions like who needs to eat? or are we sure we're out of milk? do you really think the kids have scurvy?

Being out of coffee always motivated me to bundle all three up, brush my teeth, load into the car...etc, etc.

A girl needs what a girl needs. Especially when that girl has twins and is exhausted all the time.

Eventually, #1 stopped running away and I also found more stores with bigger carts. Glory, glory! 

 

I have definitely my fair share of "war story" trips to the grocery store, it's just part of being a mom.  I've still never gone to the thrift store with all 3 by myself, I can't even bring myself to think about that. (Shutter.)

Giving up thrifting and the in-and-out quick grocery runs of my youth are a small price to pay for the double blessing of baby twins  :)  Cuteness always wins in the end. At least with this mama!