Having a baby makes everything harder. Taking a shower. Cooking dinner. Carrying on a moderately intelligent conversation. And?at least for me?grocery shopping.
When my son was really young, the challenges were largely logistical, like how to plan our trip around nap times and feedings, how to fit groceries in the cart when his car seat was taking up most of the space, and how to safely get all of the groceries into the house along with my infant. (My solution: Baby in one arm, a few bags at a time in the other. It took a while.)
Then it got worse. At 9 months, my son took his first steps and became very anti-shopping cart. He was a lot more interested in wildly pushing the cart into displays or roaming (OK, running) while I tried to shop. Bribery with snacks didn?t work. He wasn?t interested in my phone. So every grocery store trip very quickly devolved into a battle of wills between me and my toddler?and I always lost.
For a while, I just avoided the grocery store altogether. We ate a lot of takeout. But as my son started eating more solid foods?and I gained more pounds than I liked from too much pad Thai?I realized that I couldn?t stay away from the grocery store forever. Or could I"
I decided to try curb-side pickup, which my local grocery store offered for about $5 per visit. It felt a bit frivolous and indulgent, but I quickly fell in love with the convenience of having someone else do the shopping and load it into my car. That I could time it with my son?s after...