A 'shopping' experience!

Shopping! We men will most likely (and I am speaking in very general terms) never understand what spell it holds over women, why and how it fascinates them so much and what it means to them. We just accept it as another part of our lives; another clause of our vows that we solemnly agreed to follow and uphold. I might as well come on terms with the fact that my daughter may become a shopaholic as well (women, please excuse!). So, in the true spirit of reconciliation, "if I cannot fight it, I'd rather join it". Or in this case, teach my daughter how to shop.

The key for a successful indoctrination is to start early. Nothing molds as easily as a young mind....or so I have read. I have been taking Jennifer for all sorts of shopping ever since she became 3 months' old. We have been grocery shopping, clothes shopping, getting take-outs from restaurants, etc. And even if she is too young to understand what we were doing, she has always been well behaved, anywhere we went.

Now she is 6 months' old. She may not be able to sit upright on her own yet, but that does not mean she won't try to. I figured out her back would be strong enough now to put her into the "baby part" of the shopping cart. What happened after that almost made me stop shopping that day and only focus on what she was doing.

My daughter realised she could finally sit upright without support in the kart. And that she was safe inside. This opened up a whole new world of opportunities. She tried climbing, she tried letting her hands go, she tried leaving forward...who knew I had sired an adrenalin freak! The mundane activities of her parents (i.e. shopping) seemed to bother her least. And who cares! As long as she is comfortable doing what she is doing and not disturbed by what we are doing, all concerned parties are happy.

I came to realise that nothing is 'mundane' or 'ordinary' for a baby. There are things to learn, experiment, try out, explore...and I am saying this well aware that my kid has not started walking yet! I cannot wait to see it all. I cannot dream of missing out on her stages of growth. And if I might sound judgemental without intending to criticise anyone in particular: I really pity parents who choose to or due to circumstances have to leave their children behind with grandparents or the like, and miss out on these instances in their child's life. I can only say, "I wouldn't want to miss anything for the world."