Hey, Old Lady, Really? My Aversion to Walmart

I wrote a post a few months back about how an old lady at Walmart felt the need to tell me that I needed to remove my child from the store when my husband was doing exactly that. I don't think that I've been back to Walmart since. Not because of one silly, old woman, but because that store is always so jam packed that it takes me twice as long to get my shopping done and with a restless soon-to-be two year old, that just cannot happen!

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of going yesterday. I wanted to get the dry goods for the party and my dinner stuff for the week, so I thought that I would kill two birds with one stone and go to Walmart rather than to Raley's and Target. Well, I probably should have just stayed home!

Trent was pretty well behaved for the first half of my shopping trip but he decided that he no longer wanted to stay seated in the cart for the grocery shopping portion of the trip. I had to constantly hold him down in the cart because he kept trying to finagle his way out of the strap. He then began to reach into the back of the cart, grab whatever his little fingers could reach, and then throw the item out of the cart. Long story short, he was driving me crazy. The dreaded Terrible Two are exactly that...terrible. He is trying to assert his independence more and more and he just does not like the word "no." He can be a sweet little cuddle monkey half of the time or a screaming monster the other half; his mood changes like the wind! And when a tantrum starts, it is bad. He typically grabs whatever is near him and chucks it as hard as he can. I am trying to stay consistent and not give in so that he knows I mean business. To top it off, he sometimes feels the need to scream at the top of his lungs for no apparent reason; he doesn't seem angry or frustrated--he just likes to see how loud he can be and then he laughs hysterically. Needless to say, I have my hands full like many mothers of two year olds.

Anyhow, my cute little man began to get fussy in the store. We were almost done when he decided to pick up the carton of milk and throw it back into the cart where it landed on the eggs and smushed them to you know what. I had to keep telling myself to breath...that we were on our way out of the store.

I paid for all of the goods, which took forever because my my cart was overflowing with crap...I had cases of water and beer for the party plus bags and bags of food. The cart was so heavy that I was even having a hard time pushing it. We began to make our way to my car which was about half way down the lot...it's not like I had a prime spot next to the entrance, when I noticed a car following slowly behind me. I glanced at the woman behind the wheel and wondered what in the world she was doing. I silently prayed that she wasn't following me to my spot because it was going to take me forever to unload the cart. Well, she was doing just that.

I got to my car, opened the trunk, and the woman stopped her own car and starred at me. I glanced around and noticed that there was a spot open directly across from me. Granted, it was on the other side of the aisle, but it was the exact same distance from the entrance to the store. I smiled at the woman, motioned to my overflowing cart and then to the open slot across from me but she did nothing in response. Confused and slightly annoyed, I began to unload my cart.

Once that was done, I glanced at the woman again and shrugged like "I'm sorry," when she motioned for me to hurry it along. I pointed at Trent and then at the open spot but she shook her head. I shrugged as I began to take Trent out of the cart. As I was loading him in the car, she continued to motion for me to hurry it along. I did my best to go as fast as I could but I couldn't believe this woman was being so rude. I still had to walk my cart over to the cart collection stand and as I did so, she began to hit her steering wheel. I wanted to scream, "Hey, Old Bag, I'm moving as fast as my big belly will allow." Instead, however, I waddled as quickly as I could back to my car and backed out. I glanced in the rear view mirror and saw her tear into my spot like her behind was on fire.

Needless to say, not only does Trent appear to have an aversion to Walmart (he is always especially misbehaved when we are in that store) but I do now as well. I do not anticipate going back to that store no matter how cheap it is! I would rather make two stops instead of one just so that I can avoid the rude people who appear to frequent that place of business. I am beginning to think that those emails that I often am sent with the pictures of the unsavory Walmart patrons, are more and more true! You know the people I am talking about...people like these....





Now, if you'll excuse me. I am off to do an Amazon search for a miracle book that I was just told about on how to tame a two year old going through temper tantrums. I will get this child under control!