Monday's Daily Lesson

Starting today, I shall have a "daily lesson".  No, not some sort of tutorial or teaching guide.  Just something I discovered/learned that.

When you go grocery shopping, do not let your 2 year old hold on to your coupon binder.  It won't end well.  At the same time, don't let your 5 year old hold it either.

We started the trip with Miles playing with the binder.  Not a big deal really.  He was just flipping through the pages.  Until I looked away.  That snot was slowly pulling out my sorted coupons and throwing them down.  Being I was distracted, I didn't notice this.  Finally some man stopped me.  He had a handful of coupons!  Our conversation went like this--

Bob--Ma'am please stop a moment.

Me--Oh I'm sorry, am I in the way? (yeah I don't know why I would need to stop if I'm in the way haha)

Bob--No, but I wanted to give these back to you (hands me the stack of coupons)

Me--Oh.  Are you sure they are mine?  Is it that obvious I use coupons (as I cover up my binder haha)

Bob--Well, I've been following you for 10 minutes now watching your little boy in the cart pull them out and throw them down.

Me--Stalk much?  I'm kidding, thank you though I really appreciate it!

Bob--No problem.  I find it a fun hobby to stalk to women who have coupon littering toddlers (he's laughing while saying this--so glad he understood my humor)

We chatted a bit more and went about our ways.  After that I let Josie carry the binder.  After all, she is my helper.  Even with those.  She loves when the neighbor brings over the paper for me.  She rushes to the kitchen to snatch up the scissors before I can.  And she's good at it.  That girl has been known to find coupons I missed (hey, sometimes they are hidden in advertisement!).

Having Josie hold them wasn't much better.  She would look through them and ask for everything!  Okay, not really.  But she asked for everything she liked that she spotted a coupon for.  In the end,  I did cave and buy her some of those Lucky Charms cereal bars.  After all, I had a coupon for it.  And through her whole list, she only asked for things we had a coupon for.

Which reminds me.  I decided to pick up a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  Happens to be Josie's all time favorite.  Here's the short conversation we had about that--

Josie--Mommy do you have a coupon for that?

Me--I don't think so.  You have the binder why don't you check.

Josie--(after taking a moment to look) Mommy put it back, there's no coupon!

Me--Josie, it's ok.  We don't always need a coupon.  But next time we'll make sure we have one.

Josie--Oh I'm telling Daddy.  Better put it back.

Me--Josie do you want your favorite cereal or not?

Josie--Mommy I love you.  We'll just pretend we had a coupon but gave it to some other girl.

Me--Josie, I love you.  But let's not lie.

Lesson learned.  Don't let the toddler hold the binder, he'll just pull them out and earn you a stalker.  And don't let the 5 year old hold it either.  She turns into the Coupon Police.