The author lets her kids check out at the supermarket.
Courtesy of the author
I have always loved grocery shopping with my kids. From the time they were babies and toddlers, I loved putting them in the cart and chatting about what I was buying. It always feels a bit chaotic, but it's always been one of my favorite things to do with them.Now that they're older and have graduated from riding in the cart to walking beside it, I've looked for ways to get them more involved in the process. They would help choose produce or grab things off the shelf and put them in the cart.But then the day came when they wanted to start scanning groceries at the self-checkout. There are three of them, and the thought of them all grabbing items out of the cart and scrambling to scan things seemed like a lot.But one day I thought, "What the heck, let's see what happens."Things got wildThe first time we did this, it was understandably chaotic. My son (the oldest) insisted on scanning, and the younger girls wanted to scan as well, so there was a lot of grabbing for items and running from the cart to the scanner. Groceries were tossed haphazardly in bags. I was trying to keep track and make sure everything was actually scanned, and one kid started looking at the candy shelf near the checkout.When we left, I was sweating. But the kids were so happy. You'd think they had just gotten to drive a spaceship. But no, they literally did a basic grown-up task that many actually dread.
