You Win Some, You Lose Some

I took some advise on grocery shopping from one of my Pilate's instructors today, she home schools her 3 kids. When her kids were preschoolers she made going to the grocery store a learning experience. Now, I am not going to start home schooling, but I just saw a special on the 'summer brain drain' and decided to take action. I made a list of all of the things that we needed using clip art pictures. Jack had his picture list and a marker and we headed to Walmart. We went up and down the aisles, Jack told me what we needed, I would get him in the general area, then he would find the item, count out the number I told him we needed, then check the item off his list. You wouldn't believe how entertained Jack was. He really felt like he was being helpful. The shopping trip took a little longer than usual, but the look on Jack's face was worth it! Not to mention all of the approving looks I got from the other shoppers. Young and old alike looked at Jack's list in awe. I even had someone stop and tell me what a great idea it was! I was feeling like mother of the year until we got to the check out. Ben was beating the hell out of Lauren as she screamed bloody murder. I did my best to ignore her pleas as I loaded my bags into the cart and paid for my groceries. When I went to retrieve my cart I came upon a woman telling Ben to stop hitting Lauren. Then she looked up at me and actually tattled, "He is beating the tar out of her". Yes, I knew he was hitting her. She probably deserved it; she must not have seen the five-day-old bite mark on Ben's check. Instead of explaining my parenting philosophy I simply admitted that I knew he was hitting her, handed over my mother of the year award and walked out of the store with my tail between my legs.