A Particular Shopping Day

My wallet is regularly unpacked. It doesn't matter where I put my bag or how far down I try to hide my wallet M* always seems to find it and then proceeds to tear out all the cards and throw them around the house. It only took me once missing it at the cash register and having to send all my food back to check for it before I leave for the store.

On a particular shopping morning I searched for it everywhere and could not find it. Realizing we had absolutely nothing to eat and I needed to go I pulled out a credit card in hopes of finding the missing debit later.

My daughter used to do really well at the store but lately she just has NO patience. Some days she'll play the, "put this in the basket for me game" and other days if I ask her to do that she throws the food on the floor. Some days she'll hold the shopping list and other days it's ripped to shreds before we get past produce. This particular shopping day she did not want to do either. All she wanted to do is play with one of those plastic bags you put your veggies and meats in. I know know it says on the bag keep away from children but I let her.

So we finish shopping and I take away this bag and substitute them for the car keys which hurray it worked. And then it happened, M* had found a hole in the check out stand where some wires came through and dropped the keys down there. "Where go?" she says in her innocent little voice. AGH! They had to take apart half of the belt to get the keys out and it took forever. I didn't even know those belt things came apart but apparently they do. This whole time I am just red with shame and embarrassment. Luckily they were able to find them and get them out and they didn't ban us from the store.

We get home and M* helps by pulling all the groceries out of the bag-it's hard to stay mad at her when she is so sweet. After groceries are put away she wants to go play with toys so I open her little people house for her and there is the debit card. She grabs it and hands it to me, "Here go mama." What a stinker.

Your turn, what do you do to survive these public crazy kid moments? Do you sometimes let them do things that probably aren't the safest to keep the screaming, crying, and kicking monster at bay? When they really mess up at this age do you try to explain to them they messed up or do you just let it go? I feel like at this age when you are encouraging them to explore their surroundings it's hard to be upset when they drop keys into the dark abyss, but maybe I should have told her that was naughty. I don't know, what do you think?