Despite my fury over local grocery stores putting “SALE” tags on items that have a measly 50 cents reduced from their original price, I am raising my four children under the age of seven years to be Park n’ Shoppers and Welcomers.

If you’re a parent with several children and multiples and are uncertain if you should be taking them to the grocery store – give it a go. As incredulous as it sounds, at first, taking my four children under 2.5 years to the grocery store was a sanity saver. A family event that all of us: the triplet babies and Sebastian, my husband Charles and I – could do on a rainy day. One of the few activities it seemed. And where else was there such a ready supply of wipes and nappies, just in case we ran out? It got me out of the house, the kids were seeing colourful, captivating items, and it ticked a chore off my “to-do” list.

Four years later, the kids have longer arms and operating legs and voices that they use to repeatedly ask for items, grocery shopping has remained a family activity all six of us enjoy. For any like-minded mums, here’s how we made grocery shopping not just doable, but fun.

Positioning Is Key
When our babies were tiny, we found the toughest part of The Weekly Grocery Shop (TWGS) was remembering not to bend down too violently. Charles and I would each carry a baby in the Baby Bjorn (hence the need to bend gently), and the remaining two children were put in a twin stroller. The massive baby bag was shoved in the stroller compartment. Whoever wasn’t pushing the stroller was responsible for the trolley. I have seen mums with three kids pushing a stroller with one hand and pulling the trolley behind them with the other. Unsung heroes.

Hong Kong grocery stores don’t make it easy for larger families – no bassinette seats carts or larger trolleys that house twins. So when the kids got older and we were at the point where we could contemplate leaving the stroller at home, we had to get creative. Because once the stroller was at home, ostensibly this meant I was ready to venture out on grocery shopping by myself, without Charles.

It is impossible to push a triplet stroller with one hand, so seating was a bit of a technical issue. I learned to get two kids in the front sitting section of the cart (which is meant to seat one child) by putting one child’s leg through each hole, and loop the two legs closest to each other over each other. If the kids started to fight or whinge (and you know they did)…I would dole out little bags of snacks. I would let Sebastian, our oldest, hang on to the side of the cart. (“Faster, Mummy, Faster!”) As for child number four? She sat beside the milk and bread in the cart.

While stroller free did mean there was one less thing to push around during TWGS, it was also the beginning of increased chaos. The kids’ arms suddenly had so much more range. They were higher up, within reach of so many more items. The grocery aisles, narrow at the best of times, loomed in like a worst nightmare when suddenly eight arms were reaching octopus like (and the mouths were singing Henry the Octopus if I remember correctly). This meant I had to increase my distraction techniques.

Singing their favourite songs worked as well. When I used to have a moment of sanity and get embarrassed as I realized I was singing aloud in the grocery store (something I had NOT done pre-children), I just recognized that people would rather hear me and the kids singing, then the kids whinging.

Foolishly, I thought “kids in cart” was bad, but that phase was actually a stroll in the aisle compared to kids being OUT of the grocery cart.

Learning, Entertainment, and Education at TWGS
I listened to other mums around me, and prolonged letting the kids actually walk free in the grocery store for as long as I could, but the day Carys fell out of the cart after reaching for something (she fell into the dairy section, so at least she had something cool to put on her head), I realized it was time to let them loose.

That first WGS “kids using feet” experience was scary. I deliberately made it a short list shop, because I knew the kids, dazzled with their new power and position, were going to race, possibly screech, and be annoying. If I recall correctly, at least 75 percent of them were all three. But all four seemed to like shopping, and to this day, they take up the war cry when it comes time to head to “BAGUIO!” and express certain aisles and items as their favourites.

Unfortunately, their favourites aren’t always my favourites. I was so proud when the kids started recognizing food we stocked at home, but I quickly got over the squeals of recognition and joy that inevitably arrives when I walk along the Feminine Hygiene aisle. The children happily shriek, “Mummy’s little nappies!” (bless them), and hold loud discussions about feminine hygiene while I hastily try to interpret the Chinese writing. The kids reach out, each wanting me to have the softest, prettiest packet. What is the allure of that aisle? If we are at Chi Fu, they want to linger in the meat n’ carcass section.

They know about checking out eggs in cartons before putting them into the trolley and we have learned the hard way about how we need to be gentle with the eggs. They know there is no taste difference between white and brown, but they still press me to get the white eggs because brown eggs “don’t have all the poo washed off” and include a sideways glance to see if I have caught the “poo” word…not a naughty word, but still… lots of giggling from fellow siblings, one who invariably carries on the theme, “We could have poopy-doopy eggs!” and then we briskly move to cheese and I am briefly grateful that the kids have no idea whatsoever what orifice goat/cow’s cheese comes from.