I hesitate to write this post because I know it will annoy some people, but I have a serious pet peeve. You know those race car carts at Whole Foods? The only ones in the store that have seating for 2 children? When I see you put your 1 child in the double cart, it enrages me and makes me think that you are selfish. I have three children who range in age from 5 to 7 months. I have many days where I have to take them all of them to Whole Foods for groceries alone. Most times, there is a double cart available, which makes my shopping trip just a tad bit easier. There are days, though, when there is 1 double cart left, and as I am hustling all 3 kids to grab it, a person with a single child casually walks over and takes it despite seeing me struggle towards it. Situations like that make me see red.
When there are no double carts, it means that I have to put two kids in the basket of a regular cart and somehow find room to put the groceries in as well without the bananas getting squished. It also means I have to constantly police the kids from opening up all the food and eating it since it’s literally in their laps. And because the kids are in close quarters in a regular cart, it means the likelihood of a fight increases 435%.
I understand the argument that you don’t want to “deprive” your precious child of the “fun” double race car cart. Here is what I say, though: “This is not a ride at Disney World.” The race car grocery cart has a function, and that function is to hold TWO children while the parent shops. Furthermore, have you ever pushed that gigantic cart through Whole Foods? If I only had one child with me, there is no way we would be using that beast of a cart for logistics and bulkiness alone.
Shopping with three kids is hard; I basically look like a traveling circus, and I’m okay with that. But the double cart is one of the things that makes my shopping trip just a little more manageable. I wish the double carts at Whole Foods were like the ones at Costco – no frills with a focus on functionality – but they are not.
This article should be titled “I have more kids than I can control and it’s everyone else in the world’s job to help me.” Sounds to me like this is more poor planning and poor parenting than other people’s behavior. I have ONE kid that rides in the cart, and he knows better than to open stuff we haven’t paid for.