to shop or not to shop

The other day whilst shopping I thought about how much I hate shopping with the kids, actually I hate it with a passion and will avoid it at all cost and try to be accompanied by another adult if possible or do it alone - the supermarkets set parents up for bad shopping experiences with their fluro lights and to easy to reach candy and matchbox cars. After being in the supermarket for 5 or 30minutes (time doesn't seem to matter) me giving in and giving the boys an entire box of crackers to devour, racing through the aisles not even looking at the specials grabbing anything off the shelves and not getting anything on the list that is either at the bottom of my bag never to be found again or left on the kitchen bench - I reach the checkout, red faced, flustered, heart palpitating and looking anxiously around for a sympathetic face but only seeing those older ladies giving me that look that clearly says "all that child needs is a good smack" I reach for the lollipops- feeling like the worst mother in the world- there is preservative number 128, 103 and 1111 getting licked up in a happy, yet quiet 5 minutes - just long enough to get to the car. The one consolation at our local supermarket which seems to make the shopping experience all worth it at the end is the huge super duper ramp you have to go down to get to the car park - it is perfect for trolley cart riding at extreme speeds, perfect just after a sugar high. The 6 year old comes out in me, I tell the kids to hold on tight, put all body parts in the trolley, pull my feet up and hold on tight whilst we take off down the ramp, manoeuvring the trolley past the shoppers coming up the ramp and making sure I brake in time before we hit the glass doors at the bottom. Giggles, laughter and screams of excitement block out the last 30 minutes and all that is remembered of the shopping experience is the trolley ride down the ramp.