Bad Mommy: Eating our way through the grocery store

The domes of cheese and bread cubes at Whole Foods started it.

The Costco vendors of mini bagel dogs and one-gulp fruit smoothies reinforced it.

Chef Charley at the Trader Joe's took it to a whole new level, what with his cups of cat-shaped cookies, apple cider and other yummies.

My children cannot get through a grocery run without eating their way through the store.

I let them. One whine and I am a goner. Anything to get through the hunting and gathering for the family with a minimum of meltdowns from my four- and almost two-year-old children.

I can feel my Southern belle grandma tsk-tsking me from heaven. She a would think my popping open of the bags of Terra chips and tiny boxes of raisins so unrefined. She would shudder as I yanked a juicebox from the rest of its family of 12, stabbed the straw in the hole and placed it in eager little hands.

At our regular stores, the cashiers know us well, and with smirks ring up the boxes and bags that have already been opened. They patiently weigh and ring up that single banana twice when I explain that one about that size was already devoured by the monkeys. The nice ones will even offer to toss away the sticky peel. Sometimes we have not even left the building before the staff are pulling out the broom to pick up the granola bar droppings we leave in our wake.

I guess this is totally uncouth, unsanitary (thank goodness for Purell) and maybe against the rules, but allowing the kids to eat in the store has cut the temper tantrums dramatically. It saves me money in that I am not tempted to buy them a little toy every visit - their hands are already busy noshing. We hit the produce and healthy food aisles first, so their little bellies are too full to whine for the verboten candies in the check out line. The rule is they can only snack on the items that mama has on the list - no neon blue suckers, no double-stuffed sandwich cookies. Now the kids look forward to the grocery store, an errand that used to provoke demonic seizures from the backseat. The three of us have a great time chatting about the foods, colors, uses for products and my oldest practices sounding out the words on the big labels...in between big bites.

I don't know why I seem to be the only parent doing this. The looks and head shakes from other moms as my kids scarf in the cart is the least of my worries, but really, what's the big deal? At least I won't be the one slaving over a sit-down family lunch once we get home.

Jessica blogs daily about activities for families in the DC area at A Parent in Silver Spring.  Watch for her upcoming post, Bad Mommy: Drinking our way through the liquor store!