Taking the kids, what was I thinking?

One of my favourite things to do with the kids during the holidays is to take them for a treat from one of the charity shops in our town. When they were little it was a nice way to get them something to play with and to keep them busy for a morning and I come away looking like a generous mum.

I always set out with a rather rosy plan of how the day will pan out. The kids will scoot all the way to town without incident, they will be angels in the shops and wait patiently while I pop to the post office and then ask politely if its time to go to get them a treat, we then have a happy hour pottering around the 6 charity shops and they buy such lovely gems that then will be happy all day. Well, how many times do you think this has actually happened……..

The reality is that they scoot into town at high speed while I shout down the street like a banshee, they career around corners and take out at least one pensioner, they arrive in town saying they are hungry or thirsty or both. They ask repeatedly whether its their turn to go shopping starting every sentence with “can I have” and can they quickly pop into Argos and get a heavy cumbersome catalogue. As my patience wears thin and my voice gets higher they then head into the shops and pick up over priced bits missing plastic whilst bypassing the lovely books, perfect top trumps and DVD’s of Glee.

The kids have bought some great bits and bobs over the years, Amber got a wheelie bag which she loves, Billy has added to his extensive collection of cars and even the odd bit of lego. Sometimes their choices have been a little suspect and I have to persuade them that we can’t have a video because we don’t own a video recorder (the meltdown there was comedy!). As the kids have got older, their ideas on what they want have evolved and they have raised their game, Billy has asked to buy numerous Xbox games which is a great idea if we had an XBox. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, no you can’t have another teddy or no you can’t have that its not worth the money.

So, in holidays to come, when you see me heading into town with the little loves zooming towards you wild eyed with the promise of whats to come. Just remind me of what I have written and that there is no promise of a calm, collected hour in charity shops with two of the Von Trapp children and to take the stupid pink glasses off.

Till next time xxx