5 Lessons Learned at the Grocery Store

Tweet First let me say that I hate grocery shopping, but because I love to eat, I shop. And while I was at the store a few days ago, I had several revelations. Okay, maybe the word "revelations" is a little strong, but I did learn a few things.

1. Parents are ready for school to start. I'm not sure why anyone would bring 5 or more small children to the grocery store, but they way the parents were yelling at them, I'm pretty sure they would prefer they were in school.

2. Teachers are not ready for school to start. I ran into two different teachers and both felt that they just have not had enough time to recuperate from last year. Because of snow days, school did not get out until June 9 and the teachers have to go back August 16. Most have barely had enough time to get in their summer coursework, let alone time for rejuvenation.

3. Children are bored, but probably not ready to go back to school yet. Of course, parents should probably find better summer activities for their children than going to the grocery store. If the parents were making the shopping trip an educational experience, that would be a different story. Unfortunately, I didn't see any of that. All I saw were unhappy children and unhappier parents.

4. Store owners love it when parents bring children to the store. I noticed a lot of kid-friendly items have been placed at eye-level (eye-level of the kids, that is). Unfortunately, that contributes to the unhappiness of the parents when children ask for items. It also contributes to the unhappiness of the children when parents say "no."

5. I learned that I need to find a different day and time to do my grocery shopping.