Holy Shopping Woes, Batman!

After work on Wednesday, the five of us headed to the mall return a few things at Sears and we wanted to use the gift card-type cards and coupons that were going to expire soon.  So, we started out by going into Sears to do the return.  For some reason, Hubs' shorts required special authorization to return (they must be solid gold or something), so we had to wait 15 minutes at the checkout for a "manager" to come swipe a little card to clear it out for us.  Let me say, I was not feeling the greatest and the boys were testing my patience already at this point.  So, I was really not in the mood to stand there for something that seemed so unnecessary. 

We survived the return and started walking around the store for a couple minutes when it became super obvious that we all needed to eat - to settle the kids down a bit and to help mom & dad regain some patience.  Not sure which is the chicken and which is the egg.

We decided to eat dinner in the food court to save time and hassle.  The kids got to sit at their own table while Hubs & I sat at a raised table next to them.

They LOVED having their own me-sized table to share their meal and WE loved having a slight separation so we could eat our meal without getting heartburn (at least avoiding heartburn directly related to the stress...I can't vouch for the heartburn from the actual food...). 

Dinner went well until they were done eating and suddenly started racing around the small tables, calling my name roughly 10 times in a five second time span.  I took the boys to the family bathroom to calmly (it may or may not have become yelling at one point) explain to them the folly of their ways and to remind them what the rules and expectations are.  "Yes mom, " and we were off to find Hubs and Calah. 

We walked back down to a couple stores and the boys were just completely amped up about everything they saw and kept pointing and saying, "Mom, lookit!", as they were touching whatever it was I was requested to "lookit".   Hubs took the boys out of the jewelry store so I could browse in peace for about 15 minutes.  Calah and I found a few things and checked out.  I bought her a cute purple, beaded bracelet topped with a tulle flower and rhinestone on the flower.

As we left the store, I saw the boys basically sitting atop Hubs' head in the middle of the mall.  It was a relief to see they were having a better time out there than they were in the store.  So we kept moving along, back to Sears once again.  Their sales were really hard to deny, especially with the gift cards and coupons we had.  Sadly, the boys' behavior did not get much better.  They were shouting, whining, chasing each other, and hiding in clothes racks.  There may have been a few violated mannequins and jumping stunts off of tables along the way.

We went to check out and there was a problem with the gift card so between that and our indecisiveness at the register, we sat there for a good half-hour.  No joke.

We ended up being there way too long and we were all very crabby and tired by the end, but we survived.  Our kids are usually pretty patient and understanding when we are out shopping, but it was not this day.  This day, we FIGHT! (A little LOTR shoutout!)  I think I would much rather shop alone and possibly have to return some things after showing Hubs than to experience that type of debacle any time soon.

Do you dare take your kids to the mall with you?  Is it worth it in the end??