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asplendidtime
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| Posted: Dec 29 2007 at 11:45am | IP Logged
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Yesterday we took our children for a drive 2 hours one way, in increment weather to a Catholic Bookstore. Anyway, the store is lovely but TINY, in fact you just almost can't move in there. And here the dc had been good and sat in the van for two hours (we brought a picnic lunch), and we wanted to let them look in the store too, but the store couldn't fit a stroller or anything.
So we had 7 dc  under the age of 10, the bigger dc were fine, they obeyed and didn't touch, but the smaller three, ugh. And then there's the "Mom look at this..." a chorus of delighted voices. We try to discourage this, as Mom doesn't get to look for anything when looking at what the dc have discovered. Dh ended up taking them out to the van, not that we were cross but that it was overwhelming.
Anyway, please share with me good tips for taking dc shopping? Or are you smarter than me and don't take them shopping? My mother always took we four children shopping by herself. My dc are usually well-behaved shopping, it is the constant refrain of "Look at this!" that is exhausting. And we so far have not found a way of getting them to stop, they seem so excited to see things, KWIM?
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Rebecca~Mama to
Noah 17,
Katie 16,
Mary 14,
Tim 13,
Jonah 12,
Josh 10,
Zoe 9,
Will 7,
Peter 6,
Laura-Mae 4,
Emily-Joy 2,
Genevieve & Gabriella 1
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Dec 29 2007 at 12:17pm | IP Logged
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when I must take them into a little store with breakables.. I have them all put their hands in their pockets.. no pockets? I tell them to pretend they have pockets 
Oh and it's almost impossible to "browse" with children as far as I'm concerned. Just the normal maintaining discipline stuff is distracting.. let alone their conversation. So if I'm going with a list.. it works.. if I'm going to "look around" it doesn't. Though after being used to shopping with all the kids.. I have no problems taking any 2-3 of them NOT in the 2-5 age range.. that range seems to be the training ground.. and so I can't browse with them along. Smaller can go in the sling and bigger than that are fairly well trained.. and aren't too disruptive especially if I let them know what I'm looking for.. like I would with a friend 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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Lisbet
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| Posted: Dec 29 2007 at 12:27pm | IP Logged
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Rebecca
................lower your expectations
I'm only kind of kidding here! I agree with Jodie here, browsing with the 2-5 year old crowd is impossible, and really almost too much to ask of them. I do necessary shopping with all of the children all of the time. We have a few stores that we have our system and rules of behaviour down pat and they all 9 do quite well. But if it's a small store full of breakables, forget it, I wouldn't even attempt it.
I guess if I were to do the kind of trip you just explained with my crew, this is how it would go: We'd make the drive, I'd pack sippys and snacks for the littles and read a book to them or a book on tape for the drive. My husband and I would take turns browsing the shop, probably each taking a bigger kid or two along with each of us while the other would sit in the van with the littles. After the shopping/browsing was done, we'd visit a park and let them all blow of some stink before making the trip back home. HTH
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
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Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
Mary, 10
Sam, 9
Henry, 7
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Mark, 5
Greta, 3
Cecilia born 10.29.10
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asplendidtime
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| Posted: Dec 31 2007 at 5:55pm | IP Logged
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Thank you ladies!!! Those are great ideas. And yep, sometimes they do so well for us, we can forget that they have some limitations! We get great compliments at church, they are so well behaved, and our recent Christmas party with sit down dinner and they do so well...
I think I almost forgot, that they just can't go everywhere.
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Rebecca~Mama to
Noah 17,
Katie 16,
Mary 14,
Tim 13,
Jonah 12,
Josh 10,
Zoe 9,
Will 7,
Peter 6,
Laura-Mae 4,
Emily-Joy 2,
Genevieve & Gabriella 1
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Taking the little dc shopping...
