Monday's Musings - Grocery Shopping

I've discovered the #1 way to get strangers to talk to you in a grocery store: bring a baby!.

This was something I didn't realize would happen until the first time we brought Edison into a store. Our first trip out into public with him was to London Drugs. He was only a few days old and I wore him around the store in the Moby Wrap. He was so little (7lbs) and he slept the whole time. With him curled into the wrap, the people in the store couldn't even see him. Yet, I still heard the whispers: "Oh, look at that little baby in there!", "He's so small" ....and I could feel the eyes on me. I really never realized that would happen....and it made me feel kinda weird getting all that attention.

Because of Edison's dislike for being in the car seat, I always wore him around the grocery store in the wrap or the Ergobaby Carrier and just got used to people looking at us and asking how old he was.

Now that he is able to sit up, I can sit him on his own in the top part of the shopping cart. He really likes it, probably because he can see more stuff. And all the shoppers and people who work in the store can see him better too, which has led to even more people talking to us.

A couple of days ago I was in Coopers Foods, the closest grocery store to our house, and I was overwhelmed with how many people asked me about Edison. I was asked how old he was at least five times. Some other comments were: "Wow, he has such big eyes", "He's so observant", "He seems so small to be sitting up on his own", "What a cutie", and lots of people like to tell me about their own kids or grand-kids, like the sample lady who talked my ear off about her granddaughter. It's a small grocery store and I guess word travels in there because while I was down the meat isle one of the ladies who works there came up and said "Oh! I heard there was a baby in the store!".

The funniest experience I've had so far was a few days ago in London Drugs. A man and a woman were shopping in the same area as I was, and the lady was talking baby talk to Edison; at which point the man said to me: "You'll have to excuse my wife, she loves babies. If she were a fish, all you'd have to do is dangle a baby on the end and you'd catch her every time". It gave me a good laugh.

I guess I didn't realize how much people oooh and ahhh over babies until I had one. I think it's funny that normally strangers won't talk to you....but have a baby with you and suddenly everyone's your friend.