Triplets & Shopping Do NOT Mesh

 Shopping is a necessary evil that must be done, triplets, or no triplets. Being that I don’t have anyone to leave them with while I go shopping, I have to take them with me.

In the beginning it was different. I didn’t have a stroller until they were five months old, which meant I had to really improvise. 

In theory, I should be able to attach the car seat/baby carrier to the buggy. To do this, I would need no less than three buggies. 

Not a good idea for someone shopping solo. It looked promising at Sams, as they had a double seat in the front of the buggy that would seat two theoretically. 

Note to self: It does NOT seat two car seats. 

I quickly found a solution that would allow me to go out and get the things I would need SANS that stroller. 

The solution was to place two of the seats (usually the boys) facing each other(so that they could entertain each other) side-ways in the container part of the shopping cart and put the other seat in another cart. 

I could have put the third seat in the front and just had one cart, but I wouldn’t have been able to see over or around the car seat and I couldn’t have bought anything which would never do! 

I would shop like this for nearly four months.Eventually, it became necessary for me to have a stroller. I had to make a trip to New Orleans to say good-bye to my Grandfather and I would be going places that did not have shopping carts. 


I had many people looking out for me and one Saturday a friend of a friend who was out garage sale-ing ran across a triplet stroller. 


What luck! I threw on clothes and ran over to buy it sight unseen. Luckily it was in great condition and came with much triplet advice from the triplet mom who sold it to me. 


She gave me a very important piece of advice: Push the stroller, pull the buggy. I felt like Ralph Machio from “The Karate Kid” learning from Mr. Miagi. 


Little did I know that advice would take me very far both figuratively AND literally! It’s not easy pushing something so long and heavy and maneuvering through the angry mob shopping at Wal-mart. 


It takes a lot of coordination and patience to get anywhere with my “Limo” as I affectionately call the stroller; even more-so when I am pulling that buggy along as well. 


People defiantly take notice of us, that’s for certain. I have to be very careful when I go shopping to only buy what will fit into the trunk of my car along with the stroller. 


I know that the stroller doesn’t fit all the way into the trunk of my car(yes I still drive a sedan) and that the trunk must be bungee-ed shut.

I did once forget what I was doing and had a major issue when I had to buy a new TV set and get it home in one piece. 


You cant just leave the babies or your 12 year old in the parking lot while you run the TV home. Luckily, I drive around with a trunk full of various sized bungee cords so I was able to puzzle piece everything into the trunk and literally bungee the TV balanced precariously in the trunk next to the stroller and still get all four kids and the grocery’s home in one piece. 


Now, that was scary!

I have other issues that come up while shopping. I don’t recall having the same problems shopping when I had just one baby. 


One weekend, for example, I made the mistake of running to the Bossier Wal-mart to pick up some baby veggies and Shrek Triplet beanie baby’s (yes they were on my list too!) 


People who shop that Wal-mart are just not used to something like us, I guess. People were running their buggy’s into my stroller which really can hurt my baby’s. 


I can’t really maneuver out of their way like they expect me to because the stroller is so incredibly long plus I am dragging a shopping cart behind us. 


My only recourse is to ask them to please not run into my stroller, something that they apparently find an outlandish request or rude. I honestly don’t know what else to say really. 


If I try and move the stroller sideways, I run the risk of it tipping over which I figure is worse than the buggy impact. This sort of commando shopping behavior really frightens my kids. 


Kian cried when someone decided to back into him on the veggie aisle and that man almost sat on him it was so bad. 


The man in question actually glared at my 1 year old for daring cry in his presence. I haven’t ever had someone almost sit on them before. 


It wasn’t just an isolated incident either was the scary thing. This sort of thing continued to happen the entire Wal-mart run that day. 


The kids were so upset by the run-ins that they were crying by the time I got them to the check-out line. I was only in there for about 30 minutes, but it was 30 minutes too long! 


The funny thing is, I don’t have this problem at the Youree drive area Wal-mart. 


I don’t even have that problem at the mall where the department store racks are so close together that its nearly impossible to shop anywhere but from the main walk-ways. 


I suppose I should just be thankful that I can go out and do these errands all by myself. The struggle IS REAL!

Originally published THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB

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