Tag: shopping with kids

How to have a tantrum-free shopping trip for the price of a cup of coffee.

Published on by Darlene Dee6 Comments

Sometimes I need a five dollar coffee drink to get through the day.

Sometimes I need a fifty dollar pedicure to get through the week.

And sometimes I need a ten thousand dollar Mediterranean Cruise if I am going to resist the urge to flee alone to the mountains and live off the land. Alone. By myself.

(I never do get that last one.)

Toddlers are people, too.

You know how summer days seemed so loooong when you were a kid but now they zoom by before you can get everything done? Even if ‘everything’ is just pack a bag and go to the park and come home and make a relatively healthy dinner?

Time is funny like that.

I imagine that a forty-five minute trip to Target must feel to a toddler like waiting at the DMV for an entire afternoon feels to me. Like hellacious hell.

Enter the Patient Prize.

I have mentioned the Patient Prize before. I didn’t invent the concept but I have WHOLLY embraced it. I have been looking to rebrand Bribery for quite some time now.

Whenever I bring Babystar into a potential meltdown situation — usually a trip to Target but not always — she is allowed one Patient Prize. (Babystar named it her Patient Prize, which is more accurate than Patient Present tbh because really we are all winners.)

 

How to Patient Prize:

  1. Let the Toddlermonster pick the Patient Prize first. At Target, I suggest you stop in the Dollar Aisles conveniently located near the entrance. This will save you money by avoiding the toy aisles while still preserving the illusion of choice.*
  2. Let the Toddlermonster HOLD the toy/hat/apple/whatever in the shopping cart. It then becomes a tangible reminder of the toddlermonster’s choice EVERY SINGLE SECOND whether he or she wants to keep the Patient Prize or act a fool.
  3. When the Toddlermonster inevitably wants to get out of the cart to run away, or screams because he or she is bored and wants to leave RIGHT NOW, you look them in the eyes and say, ‘Ok. But first we have to go put back the Patient Prize.’
  4. Usually, the Toddlermonster will chill. Not always, but most of the time. If the Toddlermonster does not chill, you have to put the Patient Prize back and deal with the outcome. You may decide to leave the establishment. You may decide to rush through the checkout line with what you already have. And you may decide to finish shopping while holding a loud floppy Toddlermonster (peace be with you). You do you.

 

AND YOU GUYS THERE IS AN UNINTENTIONAL BENEFIT! Since Babystar knows she gets to choose ONE thing, she doesn’t ask for EVERY thing. I hope it works out that way for you, too!

 

 

 

  • Stickers .30, $1, $1
  • Bouncy ball $2.99, $2.88, $2.99
  • Troll bandaids $1, $1
  • Light up bunny thingy $1
  • Trolls $4.99, $4.99, $4.99, $0.89, $0.89, $2.99, $2.99, $14.99, $4.99, $2.99, $2.99
  • Plastic dinosaur with googly pop-out eyes $1
  • Felt ice cream cones $3
  • Weird juice box lady $2.99
  • Bubbles $1, $1
  • Gardening toys $3
  • Wooden birdhouse to paint $3 (plus one for Princess Buttercup too $3)
  • Coloring books $1, $1, $1

 

RAISING BABYSTAR: $28,868.20

*Unfortunately, Babystar knows that the Trolls are in the toy aisles, so she often insists we go there. Fine. Whatever. I have since made a new rule that she cannot get duplicate Trolls and she has them all so we always ‘just go check’ if there are new ones. Her dad doesn’t have the same deal so she still brings home Trolls quite often.

Cat & Jack & Back & Back.

Published on by Darlene Dee2 Comments

I love Target’s new Cat & Jack line of kid’s clothes.

First of all, Target does not pay me to talk about them. But they totally should. I shop at  Target like its my job.

Shhhh, don’t talk about it. (Unless you are Target in which case please send me money. Or gift cards. Or some cute shoes, size seven.)

I first bought these Five Dollar Sweatshirts because it suddenly got cold a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t really have anything warm for Babystar AND calling them Five Dollar Sweatshirts reminded me of Five Dollar Shakes and I miss the 90s when Tarantino was on top of his game. Are you still with me?

The jacket was $9.99 but it was all 20% off so the total was just $25.67. (There is one missing because we put it on her immediately.)

The cute kitty one is a 2T but the others were size 18 months. So of course they shrunk in the wash. Note: buy a size up (like I KNEW you should but I didn’t do it because I am eternally tired which makes me dumb). The smaller ones still fit but I know they won’t make it through the winter, so I picked up two more 2Ts and a bunch of hats and mittens. $28.59. The hats and mittens were 30% off. YAY.

Why did I buy so many hats and mittens? Because decisions are difficult when you are simultaneously trying to keep a determined toddler from being abducted in the store so I just grabbed a few and threw them in the cart. It is upsetting me that my pronouns don’t agree in this paragraph but I’m kind of (always) tired and so, quite likely, is my target audience.

Oh, and of course it warmed up the next day. I’m sure she will wear them someday.

Then, when on my eternal quest for acceptable Halloween garb (WASTED ON THE SICKNESS), I bought this cute freaking outfit. She’s feeling a little better today. And look at that tongue. $10.60 total for leggings and t-shirt. I’ll take it.

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But that’s enough. I’ve got to stay away from Target. The Cat & Jack line is too cute. Tired mamas cannot resist. (Except if Target wants to send me a bunch of options, size 2T. We like both boy’s and girl’s styles. Target, why don’t you read my blog???)

RAISING BABYSTAR: $13,235.18

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