Another bad trip (to Walmart)

You may remember that I've had some rough times at Walmart in the past. Despite the fact that I hate everything about the store - it's dirty, the people who shop there are dirty, it's way too big so you feel like you've run a marathon by the time you finish shopping - I continue to do my grocery shopping there because of the savings. I know, I've written about this subject before. So I was doing my grocery shopping on Wednesday, already having had a pretty tough morning, thanks to both the kids and the dog. I was doing my best to be patient and take my time. The kids were going nuts, running around and being wild, knocking things off of the shelves and driving me crazy in the process. I pulled each child aside several times and calmly but firmly explained what behavior I was unhappy with and what expectations I had, but nothing was getting through to them. We had made it to the checkout and were almost homeward bound when everything spiraled out of control. Katelyn pushed Carter down so that he hit his face on the floor. She was being wild and playing, not intentionally hurting him, but it was the last straw for me. I put her in the shopping cart and told her to stay there, and she lost it. At this point she was in full-on tantrum mode, kicking and screaming and flailing her body. Several employees were trying to help me load the groceries into the cart, and a nice old lady thought she was helping by trying to talk to Katelyn. Unfortunately, none of these things helped. I ended up pushing the shopping cart to the car with Carter holding on to one side of it and Katelyn under my arm, kicking and spitting and screaming. She continued this as I strapped her into her carseat, loaded Carter and the groceries into the van, and drove home. I was determined to maintain my composure, although I wanted to break down in tears or scream my head off at her. Both kids fell asleep about 10 seconds before we pulled into the garage, so I carried them to their beds. My lucky hubby called at that precise moment and got an earful of the tears I had been trying to hold back.

Katelyn awoke just a few minutes later. I had been trying to figure out how to get through to her. I gave her some paper and asked her to draw a picture of what she had done wrong at the store, and another picture of what she would do next time. I wasn't quite prepared for what I would get. When she brought me the pictures, I had to choke back the laughter. She was so dead-on with what she had done wrong, and the pictures were pretty good representations for a 4-year-old. Take a look:

This is Katelyn pushing Carter. I'm holding her hand.

This is Katelyn screaming in the shopping cart. I'm pushing.

This is Katelyn screaming in her carseat.

This says, "Mom, I love you."

This is Mom, Katelyn & Carter, happy.

In hindsight, I can think of some things I could have done to make our shopping trip more successful. So I'm learning. And I think Katelyn is, too. I was surprised at how clearly she saw her behavior and her knowledge of right and wrong. And I'll treasure these drawings forever. Hopefully she'll forgive me for sharing them with the world.