A Tale From Target

Years ago, as a young Mother, Target was my paradise. We happened to have a Super Target where I lived, so I could get diapers, groceries, clothes, shoes, office supplies, lightbulbs...everything all in one place!

It was a land of plenty! They even had the shopping carts where the front end looked like a car and your kids could sit and pretend to drive the thing. Genius! My preschool age son loved it and could happily sit in that cart, pretending to beep at fellow shoppers forever.

However, my baby daughter was not as enamored with Super Target as her brother and I. She was too little to get to "drive" the cart. She had to sit in the child seat in the cart and couldnt move around. I think the bright lighting in the store and the endless aisles full of merchandise were overstimulating. So I knew I had to time my Super Target trips well, to match up with her "happy hours," not too close to nap time.

Well, one day I pushed it. My long grocery list combined with a few sales racks I just couldn't pass up culminated in a tired, cranky baby. And my daughter was never one to hold in any emotion. When she cried or hollered, she cried and hollered loud! In the hospital delivery room, the nurses first words to me were, "You have a girl! My my, she is very loud."

That day it all fell apart in the fresh fruits and veggies section.

She had started crying as I tried to stuff the last items on my list into plastic bags and high tail it to check out.

My phone starts ringing. Normally I would have just ignored it considering the circumstances, but it was my friend and I knew she would understand when I said it was a bad time to talk at the moment. So I answer the phone and my friend immediately says, "Are you in Super Target right now? I think I hear your daughter."

I close my eyes and answer, "Yes, we are in Super Target. Really? You can hear her? Sheesh...you can hear her so well, you know it's her! I'm in the vegetable section. Where are you?"

She answers, "I'm in the shoe section."

The shoe section...which is across the store! Super Target is massive.

My son pretended he was an ambulance driver and his screaming sister was the blaring siren as we rushed to check out. Carts made way, people stepped aside as we rushed through.

Of course, there was a long line. Some days, you just don't catch a break. People rolled their eyes at us. Or stared blankly at the baby, like they had never seen a crying baby before. She wanted no part of the snacks I pulled from my purse. She wasn't hungry after all... She was just #DONE with Target.

At home, once the kids were happily napping, I too, laid down for a rest. The car trunk full of groceries would have to be unloaded later. I, too, was #DONE with Super Target for the moment.

That was about 11 years ago. Now when I see a young Mom struggling in a store with unhappy kids, I will kindly smile at her and say something to the effect of, "I've been there. They will get bigger and stuff like this will get easier. Y'all will be alright." I wish someone would have been there to say something like that to me that day.

My daughter is now a wonderfully happy preteen and she and I really enjoy shopping together...where else...at Target!!!

(Olive tree outside of our Target in Pasadena, California).

Thank you to @dswigle for #MarketFriday fun!