The Art of Knowing the Right Cart

Pre-children, grocery shopping is easy. You get a cart, you shop, you pay, you leave. Once you have kids it gets complicated on several levels, but the first obstacle to negotiate is how to transport your child(ren) as you shop. 

When my son was a baby his carseat didn't latch on top of the cart child seat as some brands do. I couldn't put his infant carseat in the cart or I would have no room for groceries. So, I would either put my son in his stroller and use the stroller basket as my grocery basket for small shoppings, or I would carry him in an infant carrier such as a baby bjorn and fill the whole cart with food for big shoppings. With this strategy the real challenge became loading and unloading the cart with my arm length compromised by a baby strapped to my chest.

Around 18 months of age, my son graduated to the car grocery carts. Our first venture was with carts like the one below. The SUV of shopping carts if you will. These do not handle turns well, and your child is low to the ground just waiting to jump out (despite the straps provided). My son also managed to get his foot stuck between the two steering wheels on more than one occasion. You have no sight lines to see what your child is up to, which makes traveling back to the car with a full cart of groceries a little scary.

SUV-style shopping cart, good intention but still pretty poor

Next we tried the truck version of the car cart (below). It handled a little bit better on turns but still had similar problems to its predecessor above. Both carts have the problem of being extra tall too as if that will make up for the smaller basket they offer. When I was 9 months pregnant and pushing my almost 2 year old in these SUV carts, it was nearly impossible. Being petite already, it was hard to maneuver a belly to be able to reach to the bottom of the cart. Then you get in the skinny checkout aisle and can only access the basket from the position by the handlebar--forget it. I either made sure I went through the spacious handicapped aisle if it was available, or I would ask the bagger to unload my cart for me. Luckily they did it!

An attempt to improve the regular SUV-style cart, still flawed

The same problem described above continued when my daughter was born but still too little to sit in the cart herself. The SUV carts aren't much easier to maneuver with a baby strapped to your chest than they are with a big pregnant belly.

Eventually my daughter was big enough to sit up in the cart herself (what a great day that was!) I discovered the ultimate car grocery cart. The children sit up by the handle bars but face outwards. The basket has two tiers solving the tall basket-short arm problem, and was just generally easier to unload. For a while there was only one store in the area that had these cars so I always made sure we shopped there.

The ultimate cart for shopping with kids in my humble opinion

We also tried the cart with the two forward facing seats in front of the handle bars that is a separate piece from the actual cart. This cart handles much like the SUV carts (ie: not well). The seats are narrow and the straps are iffy. My daughter kept sliding. The one good thing was we were able to put her in the actual seat of the cart, while my son sat in one of the extra seats. They could face each other and entertain each other with tickles and giggles.

 

Thankfully the grocery cart thing is becoming less of an issue, which is fantastic if just for the reason that sometimes the good carts are unavailable. We went shopping today but none of the car carts were available. Our only option was a regular car with no extra kid seats. But my son is approaching age 4, he is maturing, which opens up new possibilities. 

Today our shopping trip looked like this:

 

 

and like this:

 

My son hung on to the cart like a pro and even helped pick items and put them in the cart. When he got tired he decided to lie on the rack underneath the cart.His sister relaxed in the regular child seat. It was easier to maneuver than the SUV carts.

I figured out the cart situation to fit each stage even though it wasn't always pretty. Now the problem is resolving itself. Now I can just focus on the constant requests for snacks, treats, and "Are we done yet???"