Don’t worry, I’ve got the Carpe Diem thing covered

A while back there was a post circulating titled Don’t Carpe Diem.  Did you read it?  It was pretty good and like most things I read I agreed and disagreed at the same time.  Yesterday, however, I had my own Carpe Diem experience that reminded me of this post.

I was at the grocery store with all three kids.  The only cart that accommodates my brood at the store is a giant car cart that takes up a whole isle.  The girls sit close to me in a big plastic car with steering wheels while Isaiah starts in the basket and gets out and walks as it fills up with food. We are quite the sight, me struggling to push the 80lb cart without groceries, two girls in the car “beeping” the horns and giggling like crazy, 4 year old in the basket asking questions about everything, me doing my best to answer. 

I pick up a pint of blackberries.  “Why are we getting those?” asks Isaiah.

“Because they are on sale for $.99 a pint.”

“Can we get blueberries?”

“Not this week.”

“Why not?”

“Because their $3.99 a pint and that’s not a good price.  Don’t worry, they will be in season soon so we can buy them then.”

“What does “in season” mean?”

“In season is when fruit or veggies are ripe and they get picked.  It’s the best time to buy that fruit because they taste the best.”

This is the point where our conversation stopped.  Not because he stopped asking questions or I stopped answering them but because a nice old lady interrupted me to tell me what a great job I was doing teaching my son about food and shopping.  She talk to me from the celery all the way to the oranges, so any conversations  I could have had about picking apples or why we eat salad were lost. 

After stopping to weigh our produce, one of Isaiah’s favorite things to do in a grocery store, we emerged from the produce and went to the deli.  It was at this point where Cadee and Ky started playing their favorite game “Con-old-ladies-into-saying-I’m-cute”.  The object is to get as many people as possible to stop me in my tracks and tell me how adorable my kids are.  They pull out all the stops for this one and are masters of getting the attention of even the most preoccupied shopper.  Cadee prefers the direct approach of waving and saying “Hi” to every passing shoppers.  Ky is a little more subtle, she make eye contact and when they see her she starts to giggle.  The poor unsuspecting strangers can’t help themselves but get sucked into a game of waving and smiling.  Who can resist cute twins who say “Hi” first?

While I prefer this game to the alternative of throwing a fit and screaming bloody murder throughout the store, it does make my shopping trip much longer.  Some customers can wave hi and keep walking, but at least one per isle stops me to tell me how cute my kids are, what a lucky mom I am, how their daughter’s sister’s friend has twins, and how much they miss the days when their kids were little.  They tell me to “Carpe Diem” and treasure this time and really enjoy my kids.  It’s not their fault they can’t resist the charms of my adorable children.  Believe me, I know how cute they can be and I can’t blame them for getting sucked in.  However, every minute I spend talking to 8 different strangers yesterday was a minute less I have to enjoy my kids.

The thing is, I KNOW how lucky I am.  I AM enjoying as much of this age and stage as I can.  I don’t mind taking the kids to the store with me.  It’s fun to talk about produce with my son and watch the girls entertain the little old ladies.  Personally, I think I’m pretty good at the whole “Carpe Diem” thing.  And I would think it was obvious to the passing customers that I AM good at this.  After all, I stopped to let my son weigh every bag of produce in our cart because he wanted to.  We took five minutes out of our trip to figure out which was the heaviest and which was lightest.  A mom who is too busy to “Carpe Diem” wouldn’t have done that.   Trust me, I’ve got the “Carpe Diem” thing covered.

Any given errand wouldn’t be complete without someone noticing us and saying something.  I would feel weird if we went a whole day without a single “Carpe Diem” style comment or at the minimum acknowledgment of how cute my kids are or the fact that they are twins.  But they aren’t really adding anything to my life by telling me to seize the day or how lucky I am or how I should enjoy every minute my kids are small.  I know time passes quickly, and the time they take to tell me all of this is more or less wasted.  I mean, if no one stopped me in the grocery store yesterday I would have had an extra 30 minutes with my kids.  Instead the trip took me almost two hours, which put me behind and made me have to work faster and NOT spend as much time enjoying my kids. While I appreciate the sentiment of all 8 ladies I talked to yesterday, I think I’ve got this Carpe Diem thing down.  I don’t need any help in that department. 

So, to anyone who happens to shop at the grocery store where I live, LISTEN UP!

Thank you for noticing how cute my kids are.  I know time flies, I’m doing my best to enjoy it.  However, I would enjoy it more if I spent a little less time talking to strangers and more time talking to my kids.  While I’m sure everything you have to say is super important for me to hear, I’ve got the “Carpe Diem” thing under control, I don’t need help in that department. From now on my conversations with strangers limit is 3 people.  I hope you understand I’m not trying to be rude by brushing you off, but I can only take so much time away from my kids for random people.  If you happen to be stranger number 4, you might get cut off.  I’m sorry.  But 8 is too many and I’m not doing that again.  I hope you understand.

-dollimama