How to act around a mom who is shopping without her kids

For many moms, having a chance to buy groceries without the kids in tow is darn near impossible. Sometimes, there’s no choice: We gotta take the kids with us to the store. This is especially true when said kid is a baby and there’s no one else available to watch her. By some miracle, though, us moms (and dads, for the stay-at-home crowd) will be blessed with the gift of shopping without the kids. When that happens, there is one rule for everybody else around her: Stay the hell away.

We don’t really like it when a child is constantly tugging on our sleeve asking for every single thing in the store. We don’t really like it when the kids start fighting and it’s a judgment call on whether it’s worth it to try to finish buying food. We don’t really like it when our kids are climbing all over the cart, yanking EVERYTHING off of the top shelves, opening packages we haven’t paid for yet or running around the store.

And that’s just some of the “fun” we get to experience when we are shopping with our kids. Many people who work at grocery stores have many more horror stories of what happens when Mom shows up with children in tow.

For this reason, shopping without the kids is something we moms are starting to enjoy. A lot. It is actually a break away from home for many of us. This is especially true if the kids are on school vacation, if there’s no school or no other way out of the house to get away from the kids and be an adult again. Being able to shop for groceries without the kids is a blessing for us moms. It’s our sacred time.

So if you see a mom shopping without her kids, or if you are in the company of one, keep in mind that this is a Very Special Time that mom is enjoying. It’s the one time that mom can be alone with her thoughts. When she can think in complete sentences without being distracted by a screaming baby and the one time she can actually examine an item she is interested in buying instead of dropping it in mid-inspection to get a child down from a shelf he was climbing.

I know this because I am one of those moms. After many nightmares of shopping with the kids, I have come to value any chance I get to buy groceries by myself or even in the company of another adult. Having another adult around is nice because it allows me to have a grown-up conversation for once instead of talking about Minecraft, but that adult better not try to rush me through the experience or he will get his head bitten off by one Very Angry Mom. (Just ask my husband!)

But when I can shop alone, that’s even better. It’s the one time I can leisurely walk around, instead of running after a child. It’s the one time I can actually THINK about things without a child interrupting me every 5 seconds. It’s the one time I get to just “be me” out there in the world and look at lots of things I don’t normally get to see or try out in the confines of my home.

When shopping alone, I am not interested in conversations with random strangers. I am not interested in babysitting someone else’s child. I just want to be able to enjoy this one chance of solo time as an adult who is not rushed or distracted by children. This is especially true since I’ve been without my own transportation for 2 weeks and can’t exactly go wherever I want to whenever I want to, just to get out of the damn house. (Thank God the kids go back to school tomorrow!!!)

Grocery shopping without my kids is sacred time. It’s my “me time.” And a lot of people would do well to honor our space and let us cherish this small taste of freedom by keeping their distance and leaving us alone.