As I got my shopping cart at the grocery store, I heard, “Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama!” A little girl was sitting in the front of a grocery cart, frantically pointing to a shopping cart with a car attached to the front of it.
An employee of the store was pushing the cart with a car from the parking lot to the front of the store, toward the little girl.
“Mama! Mama!”
“No, not today. We don’t have time.”
The mother ignored her daughter and pushed her plain old shopping cart into the grocery store.
I know the shopping carts with the cars are a little harder to push. The carts are longer and take up more space in the aisle. A little tricky to push around corners.
And who am I to tell young mothers what to do? Me, the woman with gray hair on the side of her head and whose kids haven’t fit in a little car for about 8 years.
When I go to the grocery store I can leave my kids at home because they are old enough to stay home alone.
I wanted to run after the mother and say, “Hey Lady, did you see the cart with the car? You really do have time. And why don’t you have time? Did you know your children will grow up. Do you know that one day you will miss having to push the cart with the car. “
When my children were younger and we went shopping for groceries. We drove all over the parking lot looking for a cart with a car. If we saw a mother walking out of the store with one, we would try to park beside her, ready to swoop down like a hawk on a mouse, ready to grab the cart before another mother had a chance to get it.
And there in front of the grocery store was a cart with a car. A gem, a diamond. Not only did I want to talk to the mother who didn’t get the cart. But I wanted to run and get the cart with the car and run through the store looking for the mother, screaming, “I got the cart with the car for you! Where are you? I wanted to grab the kid and throw her in the car, then run away.
But, I didn’t run after the mother. I went into the store and bought my groceries and came home. I didn’t want to get arrested for being a public nuisance.
And three days later as I am washing my dishes and cleaning the seven litter boxes, I keep hearing. “Mama! Mama!” and I see the face of the little girl again pointing at the shopping cart.
So I will tell you instead.
Slow Down Mom, and use the shopping cart with the car.
Life is not a race.
Take those extra five minutes to push the cart with the car. Listen to your little girl say, “Mama, Mama.” Because one day she won’t be living at home anymore.
And you would give anything for five more minutes.
And her world is the world of imagination, and all she thinks about is getting to drive her little car around the aisles.
Will you slow down today Mom?
