I'll admit that I'm a creature of habit. Every week, almost every day is just about the same. We have Bible Class at church on Tuesdays. Wednesdays we meet friends at the park. Friday nights are our Movie Nights.
You get the picture, right??
Well, every.single.Thursday., we grocery shop. I make my list of sale prices and menu plans and special snacks and I pile the four of us into the van after school on Thursday mornings to buy the food and 9 boxes of baby wipes that we will need for the upcoming weekend/week ahead.
It's not easy. Thankfully, I've finally (mostly) mastered the gigantic blue buggies at WalMart. It wasn't a pretty process, though. Many an end cap were accidentally mowed down during my learning process. The two bigs can ride facing the metal buggy and the baby can sit in the forward facing buggy seat and that still gives me room for all.the.things in the basket section of the buggy.
But hitting up WalMart once a week with three kids in tow is a pretty daunting task. There have been occasions (like the trip we just took yesterday) when we've become that family with the upset kids and all the tears and sobs and boohooing. Because, when Mom tells you to stay in the buggy, she means stay in the buggy. Standing on the plastic seat of the buggy to reach an item on the top shelf is never a good idea. Just sayin'. We obviously had some natural consequences yesterday in the check out line. It was mortifying. For all of us.
Despite the near fatalities that befall us sometimes, a few years ago I stumbled upon a grocery shopping game changer: FREE COOKIES. I never realized that the bakery handed them out to kids until we spied a little boy and his Mom scoring on the loot while we were buying bananas one day. I sauntered up to the counter and inquired about the deal the previous family had brokered to be told the most angelic news I'd ever heard: They give free cookies to ALL THE KIDS who ask.
That's the day the skies parted and trumpets sounded and I'm pretty sure I saw an angel sitting on a rafter next to a random bird and a dusty, deflated birthday balloon. Before I knew about the free cookie situation, there would be much cajoling and pleading and begging for decent store behavior. There were promises of gummis to be purchased or stickers to be picked out or bubbles that could be blown. And all that was a good idea, but it wasn't immediate gratification for my kids, so it wasn't that motivating for them to earn. Once I upped my arsenal to include the free cookie option: THE GAME WAS FOREVER ALTERED.
Because here is the deal: There is never a downside to getting a free cookie. You would think that glorious, semi-stale, day old confection they pass across the counter to my kids in those magical wax paper squares is the most delicious pastry they've ever eaten. For them, there is something intoxicating about sitting in a buggy seat eating a treat that's wrapped in food storage paper. Getting a free cookie when you walk into a store is great, but what really makes the situation stupendous is when they work so hard to earn it.
The very thought, the very idea of that mystical free cookie is enough to encourage good buggy/sibling behavior for over an hour for my kids. When the going gets tough, and I've been camped out in the "cold" section too long finding apples without bruises or digging through the frozen food case for the last bag of broccoli florets, the mere mention of earning The Cookie is usually enough to get my kids to refocus their attention and attitudes.
It hasn't always been easy. There have been tear filled bakery counter lessons when one (or two) of the kids hasn't earned The Cookie and has had to watch as the blessed baked confection was handed to a fellow sibling and not to themselves. It was hard to watch, and the tears freely flowed, but once they learned the hard way that The Cookie was meant to be earned and not just handed out, it's reinforcing qualities were only strengthened.
Now, when we walk into a store to shop, The Cookie is automatically forefront in their minds. They know what waits for them at the end of the list when Mom's buggy is full and her wallet is empty. Working hard to earn a reward is a lesson I'm glad I get the opportunity to teach my kids while we grocery shop. And we've developed a relationship with our cookie lady. We love her! The kids even made Miss Florida a Christmas ornament this year, true story. Because that's how important earning The Cookie is to them.
I think there's an extra verse about all this that's in my Bible's translation of Deuteronomy 6:6-7:
You get the picture, right??
Well, every.single.Thursday., we grocery shop. I make my list of sale prices and menu plans and special snacks and I pile the four of us into the van after school on Thursday mornings to buy the food and 9 boxes of baby wipes that we will need for the upcoming weekend/week ahead.
It's not easy. Thankfully, I've finally (mostly) mastered the gigantic blue buggies at WalMart. It wasn't a pretty process, though. Many an end cap were accidentally mowed down during my learning process. The two bigs can ride facing the metal buggy and the baby can sit in the forward facing buggy seat and that still gives me room for all.the.things in the basket section of the buggy.
But hitting up WalMart once a week with three kids in tow is a pretty daunting task. There have been occasions (like the trip we just took yesterday) when we've become that family with the upset kids and all the tears and sobs and boohooing. Because, when Mom tells you to stay in the buggy, she means stay in the buggy. Standing on the plastic seat of the buggy to reach an item on the top shelf is never a good idea. Just sayin'. We obviously had some natural consequences yesterday in the check out line. It was mortifying. For all of us.
Despite the near fatalities that befall us sometimes, a few years ago I stumbled upon a grocery shopping game changer: FREE COOKIES. I never realized that the bakery handed them out to kids until we spied a little boy and his Mom scoring on the loot while we were buying bananas one day. I sauntered up to the counter and inquired about the deal the previous family had brokered to be told the most angelic news I'd ever heard: They give free cookies to ALL THE KIDS who ask.
That's the day the skies parted and trumpets sounded and I'm pretty sure I saw an angel sitting on a rafter next to a random bird and a dusty, deflated birthday balloon. Before I knew about the free cookie situation, there would be much cajoling and pleading and begging for decent store behavior. There were promises of gummis to be purchased or stickers to be picked out or bubbles that could be blown. And all that was a good idea, but it wasn't immediate gratification for my kids, so it wasn't that motivating for them to earn. Once I upped my arsenal to include the free cookie option: THE GAME WAS FOREVER ALTERED.
Because here is the deal: There is never a downside to getting a free cookie. You would think that glorious, semi-stale, day old confection they pass across the counter to my kids in those magical wax paper squares is the most delicious pastry they've ever eaten. For them, there is something intoxicating about sitting in a buggy seat eating a treat that's wrapped in food storage paper. Getting a free cookie when you walk into a store is great, but what really makes the situation stupendous is when they work so hard to earn it.
The very thought, the very idea of that mystical free cookie is enough to encourage good buggy/sibling behavior for over an hour for my kids. When the going gets tough, and I've been camped out in the "cold" section too long finding apples without bruises or digging through the frozen food case for the last bag of broccoli florets, the mere mention of earning The Cookie is usually enough to get my kids to refocus their attention and attitudes.
It hasn't always been easy. There have been tear filled bakery counter lessons when one (or two) of the kids hasn't earned The Cookie and has had to watch as the blessed baked confection was handed to a fellow sibling and not to themselves. It was hard to watch, and the tears freely flowed, but once they learned the hard way that The Cookie was meant to be earned and not just handed out, it's reinforcing qualities were only strengthened.
Now, when we walk into a store to shop, The Cookie is automatically forefront in their minds. They know what waits for them at the end of the list when Mom's buggy is full and her wallet is empty. Working hard to earn a reward is a lesson I'm glad I get the opportunity to teach my kids while we grocery shop. And we've developed a relationship with our cookie lady. We love her! The kids even made Miss Florida a Christmas ornament this year, true story. Because that's how important earning The Cookie is to them.
I think there's an extra verse about all this that's in my Bible's translation of Deuteronomy 6:6-7:
"These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up AND WHEN YOU BUY YOUR BOX OF 5 DOZEN EGGS AND APPLE JUICE BY THE BARREL FULL."Here's to free bakery cookies: May they always bake them so we can earn them.
Thanks for stopping by, y'all!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving a comment! I moderate all posts, so yours will be reviewed and posted in a jiffy! Thanks again, y'all!