I found myself in a stare down with another mom at the grocery store the other day all over a plastic race car shopping cart (and I won…YES! Probably because her child looked to be about 7 or 8, which is way too old to be taking a kiddie cart away from my precious 3-year-old. Ahem.)
Parents of small children are all too familiar these inventions. They are bulky, cumbersome shopping carts designed to entice your children with their Nascar looks and sticky steering wheels. They are both a Godsend and a pain in the ass.
People who don’t have kids give you that irritated get out of my way look while your child is perched atop the car cart at a ridiculously high vantage point, giving them the ability to scope out and just barely grasp the strategically eye-level placed toys and candy, thus sending them into a frantic rage when you tell them “No, you can’t have the [insert name of cheap plastic toy or candy here].”
Add pushing a giant plastic car around the grocery to the list of things I swore I’d never do as a parent. There is nothing that screams “I am on the downhill slolam to Soccermom Villa” more than slogging through the produce aisle behind a giant plastic race car. The grocery aisles are difficult enough during peak shopping times without commandeering the S.S. Dork Parent. If you are “lucky,” and I use that term lightly, the car carts are all in use when you arrive at the store with your small fry in tow and they must sit in a regular boring metal cart like we did as kids and begin facing the unjust inhumanities of life. However, this usually causes problems if your child, like mine, is stubborn as hell and refuses to ride in anything BUT a car cart. And the fun begins before you even get out of your car. Your child will spot the car carts from the traffic light a mile away from the grocery and start screaming “I want the red cart mama,” “I want the red cart mama,” I WANT THE RED CART!!” and you will start praying fervently that the mom in the minivan in front of you is going to pick up dry cleaning and is not, for the love of sweet Jesus, also eyeing THE COVETED RED CART.
The last time Caitlin and I navigated the grocery in a car cart I left feeling relatively angst free. I’d only knocked down three jumbo cans of beans and one senior shopper with the car cart. We made it safely to the car, I buckled Caitlin in her car seat, shut the door and wheeled the cart to one of the cart docking stations. I was congratulating myself for escaping without any incidents when I realized Caitlin was crying hysterically from inside the car. You see, I returned the car cart without her help.
Those car carts are nothing but pure, incarnate evil. Stephen King is going to write a best-seller about the demon-posessed racecar grocery cart that goes on a freewheeling rampage in suburbia. You just wait.
I hate it when they have those. They are always so hard to maneuver and about 3 minutes into shopping my son decides he doesn’t want to drive the car anymore. So I’m stuck pushing the thing and chasing him.
you know, i used to LOVE the car cart thing for Lily but then it became too obvious that every time she sat in one, she’d come down with some kind of hellish cold. Can you imagine the nose/butt filth that other kids leave? And I doubt my tore ever cleaned them so there is a no car cart rule despite Lily’s attempts at getting me to change my mind. Resistance is futile. I am glad to know that someone (you) is able to use those dang things!
Looking forward to the days of the car carts! I wish they made them big enough for me.
Ah, the car cart. The bane of my existance at the mall.
While I share your hate of the car cart overall, I am actually beginning to pride myself on my driving skills. Like the driver of an 18-wheeler, I’ve learned to push, pull and turn that sucker around anything. I am the Master. Bow to my skills.
Haha…nice post! my kids scream for that cart when we go to the store, too. And they are pure evil, ‘cause they will throw a fit if there isn’t one available!
I have never forgiven my husband for introducing my older daughter to the concept of the car cart a couple of years ago. I wanted to resist forever, but once she knew about the car cart—fugeddaboutit. We’ve actually gotten to the point where we will scope out the cart corrals in the parking lot before we enter the store, so we can have a greater chance of scoring one of the coveted car carts. Insanity, I tell ya.
Ours are more like Little Tykes Cozy Coupes stuck in front of a standard cart. So the kids aren’t reaching things at higher levels; they’re stocking up on stuff from the bottom shelf that the parent doesn’t even notice.
Thank heavens they didn’t come along till after Emily was too big for them! She rode in the old-fashioned cart seat (often with her shoe laces tied together so she wouldn’t hop up to a standing position to grab all that delicious looking stuff on the higher shelves).
Yup, we loved and hated those carts too! Fortunately for me, the choopas have now moved onto the mini “shopper in training” carts. These are far worse, because whenenver Jessie drives these things she always seems to clip me from behind in the ankles – ughh!
the fun of shopping with kids
[...] BlondeMom comments at BlondeMomBlog (”Mastering the one-handed booger grab since 2002.” Classic.) that she’s a big fan of the racing car carts for keeping kids semi-occupied during the weekly provisioning foray. [...]
Yep. Hate. The Damned. Car Carts. They’re impossible to steer and they cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth in our family (in the kids if we say no, in US if we say yes).
With two kids under two it is a necessary evil right now. I have a baby seat on top of the cart and my toddler in the lovely car. Well, unless I want my toddler in the basket of the cart buried under a pile of groceries. All I get then is squished bread and fruit with bites taken out of it.
Ours are also the ones with the little tykes car strapped to the front. Very innovative…blehhh
[...] If you saw a 30-something year old woman persuade her 4-year-old that it was just fine and dandy that all the giant kiddy car grocery carts were in use late yesterday (thank God for the Publix cookie club for kids as I was all over the “Let’s go get your free cookie!” angle), there’s a good chance that was me. [...]
[...] Workin’ From Home Mom Blues Delusions of a Working Mom More Boobs Than Bourbon Street WWJD Super Caitlin Being 3 Means Hell on Wheels Mama Don’t Get No Flex Time The Young and the Mostly Restless Baby’s First Car Ride and Up, Up and Away in My Beautiful Brassiere [...]
[...] other stores, I don’t hesitate to take Pi for a spin in the fancy race-car shopping carts. This particular store’s carts are more bumper car than NASCAR, though, so I try to avoid [...]
[...] writing a post about this entry http://blondemomblog.com/2006/03/20/hell-on-wheels/ Stay [...]
I am glad I am not the only one that hates those carts!
I still do not get those types of carts I do not know if it an age thing or the fact that I am from Italy but I just do not get it.
Relli
My kids used to love the racing car carts, but now their favorite is the smaller carts at our local market. They like to push them around themselves and put things in.
I wish they had carts with electric motors on them. That would be cool.
Those carts are really really terrible! You’re not alone!
If King ever does write the book you predict in the post above it could make quite a movie !
I cringe every time I see one of those car carts. They are horrible!
Lol. You won. Way to go. I remember when I was a child we didn’t have those but we played the normal shopping carts. We would steal then and go down hills and everything. Fun times
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Electric motors on carts would be an excellent idea. I would love to see that one day. There are many applications for that. Large grocery stores would turn into race tracks!
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Brook. Lol. Indeed large grocery stores would turn into race tracks but there are reasons against it too. For example a large number of our population are or is over weight. These people burn calories when grocery shopping, so by making it electric we doom these people even more.
Anyway
Who says we don’t race with carts already 
Heck Brook you do not need the motors. Next to my house the place gets filled so much that folks run and bump each other for a cart. All it is missing is a few advertiser and some uniforms and you have a true blue bump and grind Nascar Race LMAO!!
Shoot if I could do a few laps in my local supermarket in a motorized cart I would be doing more shopping on a weekly basis LMAO
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I have run into those families that feel they can hog those much sought-after carts for their six and seven year olds. Heck, I wouldn’t even use those shopping carts if I only had one child with me, that’s how polite I was. WAS! I soon got tired of polite as I did not see kindness being returned. I am sorry to report I have stooped to the lowest common denominator, and I will take one of those carts if I have just one child and even if that child is older than other kids.
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OMG that is to funny – I’ve seen more than one parent screaming at their crying child next to the car carts.
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I think carts are always fun for kids… until they start crying! I know how you feel…
My whole family actually enjoys these carts. Most stores now provide sanitary wipes for cleaning off the carts between customers. We have gotten quite skillful at maneuvering these bulky things down the aisles. But I can see why you hate them and your post really made me laugh.
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My first time here. Anyway, i think that kids really enjoy carts because it something new to them.
Kids love Carts because they can play while shopping. right?
Carts makes kids happy while shopping. It benefits parents. right?
Yikes! These are the worst.. I hate that you can’t even turn them down an aisle! And what’s worse is the kids love them so much but they are so bulky and such a pain… I wish they never existed!
-Sylvia
nice udea dude
nice idea dude about this
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