Thursday, February 25, 2010

Grocery store chaos, and my renewed faith in humanity

I would like to first apologize to all of the shoppers at the Dillons store on 6th and Lawrence Avenue today. That crazy woman with the 2 screaming banshee kids and the full cart of groceries? That was me.

When I was young and stupid and childless, I used to roll my eyes and scowl at people who had carts full and screaming children. "Oh my God, someone control that kid!" I would think. Karma is a real B, Lindsey. A real B.

Fast forward to today, when I was racing down the aisles for groceries, with two upset, teething children (yes, both of them are teething. Fun times.) I don't often shop during the day, but we were out of pretty much all basic necessities, and since I'm fighting a cold and the cold weather, I didn't want to do the 20 minute dress for the frozen tundra just for a gallon of milk. So, I made my list and decided I'd just bang it out really fast. Really fast with 2 kids. HA. HA. HA.

The kids started getting upset, but I was halfway done so I decided to just press my luck. And the longer they lingered in the cart, the louder their whines became. I added the last item to the cart, and scurried towards the checkout area. There was only one checkout lane open, and there were 4 other carts lined up before mine. Great googly moogly.

So, we waited. And the kids whined and screamed. And the shoppers in front of me and behind me gave me those nasty looks. And I sat there, completely helpless, my face getting red due to the immense rage building inside of me. And then, an angel in the form of a cute little elderly woman came to my rescue. She came over, pulled a Kit Kat out of her purse, and said "I've been there. Hang in there mama, they grow up too fast." She cooed at Sloane, and told Sam he was a good big brother, and then she continued on with her shopping. The candy kept the kids quiet long enough to get checked out and to the car. I've never had anyone do something like that before. I'd heard of it happening to some, but I thought it was stuff of legend, like unicorns and good tasting fat free cheese.

Thank you cute little grandma angel. Your random act of kindness not only renewed my belief that there are good people out there, but it also kept my from selling my children to the gypsies.

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