Our a First Trip to Sainsbury’s … Alone! 

So after lots of mental toing and froing, a forgotten method of payment, two trips back and forth, a mini meltdown, £126 down, a few calories burnt, two hours and two Ella’s kitchen pouches (which hadn’t been paid for yet!) later, a new toy, we are finally home with our gazillion bags of shopping and a fridge and house bursting with an abundance of food (most of which will probably never get eaten but it seemed like a great idea at the time). We did it. My first proper trip to a supermarket with Arjun alone!! It was an eventful one to say the least but I’m so glad we did it even after our initial set back! 

After lots of to’ing and fro’ing and convincing myself to go (thank you to all of those that commented with tips on my Facebook status encouraging me to!), we set off once Arjun woke from his two hour nap. I was feeling ok about it. My list consisted of just bread and cheese and as long as I could get those, anything else would be a bonus. 

We got to Sainsbury’s, Arjun was in a pretty good mood. I took him out of the car after bagging a parent and child space. I almost forgot about those as I haven’t been to a supermarket alone with Arjun since he was born. 

   
 
Once out of the car I had a rummage in my pockets and quickly realised I’d lost my bank card. I panicked but quickly calmed myself down in the hope that it would be somewhere in the car. It wasn’t. ARGH!!! I put Arjun back in his car seat and he was so upset. He cried and cried – it was a proper cry with tears. It made me more peed off with myself. Luckily Sainsbury’s is just five minutes up the road. I rushed back home and ran in to the house to get another card. 

  

We headed back and started our trip. It was such a lovely feeling walking up and down the aisles. I felt like I had so much freedom as opposed to being trapped behind a phone as I usually am when I do my online shop. Although I had a toddler who wanted to touch EVERYTHING, it felt nice. I walked him through all the bits I was placing in the shopping trolley. He felt the textures and cooed in response. 

   
    
   

I picked up an abacus for him. I barely buy him toys as he has so many but I thought it would be good for learning his alphabet and for counting. Plus the colours would keep him entertained while I shopped!

   
 

We got to the baby aisle and I decided to (stupidly) stock up on some Ella’s Kitchen pouches as he loves them as a snack sometimes and they’re great for when on the go. Big mistake. As soon as he spotted them, he let the whole of frickin Sainsbury’s know he wasn’t going to stop till he got one. He won. I hadn’t packed a pouch so I let him have one from the stack I’d picked up. That kept him quiet for a few minutes. Once he was done, he demanded another. You can guess how the rest of the trip went. I put my foot down after two and let him whinge every so often. 
   
 

I managed to actually enjoy my trip – yes he whinged at times, yes he screamed the shop down but so what. Show me a kid that hasn’t done it at least once?! Unless I take him how will he learn? 

  

To most it’ll sound crazy that a trip to Sainsburys is such a huge deal. I do feel like a bit of a loon for making it such a huge deal in my head. But the truth is I can’t help it. My make up is such that I have the tendency of building things up in my own head and slightly freaking out resulting in me not wanting to face public places alone with a baby. 

I feel like I’ve accomplished something so major even though it’s something that other mothers probably wouldn’t even think twice about. We’re all different, we all have our own challenges and hurdles and we’re all on our own little journey and we’ll all get there one day! xx