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Basket Wars
Tackling the Grocery Store with Little Ones
By Donna Smith
Jen Singer is the author of 14 Hours 'Til Bedtime: A Stay-at-Home Mom's Life in 27 Funny Little Stories (Wyatt-MacKenzie, 2004). In her booklet, Surviving the 14 Hours 'Til Bedtime: 86 Tips, Tricks, Tactics and Games for Stay-at-home Moms, Singer offers the following tips for surviving the supermarket:
- Make "fun stops." Visit the lobster tank, name the cartoon characters on the cereal boxes and stop at the deli counter for a free slice of cheese. If you make shopping an adventure, your child will be less likely to stage an escape from your cart.
- Sing and dance. The line at the pharmacy window won't seem as boring if Mommy is dancing the Twist to the store sound system.
- Be a good sport. When no one is looking, play basketball by tossing soft goods, such as toilet paper and diapers, into the basket. (Just make sure the eggs – and your kids – aren't in the line of fire.)
- Narrate your adventure. Use a funny voice to tell your kids what you're buying.
- Make a treasure hunt. Have your kids help you shop by giving them items to find. Smaller children can find the red apples or the lemon on the antacid bottle. Bigger kids can find the "x" in Extra-Strength Aspirin or the "5" on the 5-pound bag of potatoes.
- Give a door prize. If your kids make it to the exit without a big fuss, reward them with a sticker or some other small token. Bigger kids can put the sticker on a chart and work toward bigger prizes.
Stacy DeBroff, author of The Mom Book
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