Yesterday I met a friend at the movies. I had followed her from a restaurant and she waved me into a spot next to her. When I first pulled in I quickly noticed that there was a parking sign clearly marking this spot as “Senior Parking.” Now, I am old but I am not that old (yet). Fortunately the small print granted me permission to leave my car there and enjoy a slightly quicker arrival to the front doors.
Now I am not about to make this post seem like I am against senior parking. By all means they have earned their stripes and in my opinion should have access to the first spot in every parking lot across the continental USA.
But that is not what this post is about.
Nope.
This is about the Mom Spot.
and more specifically the Mom with Three Kids Parking Spot.
Now before we get started we have to agree that there is a HUGE difference between having 1-2 kids and three. Three kids and one adult are just out numbered and no matter how hard you try it is almost impossible to have a hold of all three at the same time.
Because let’s be real. Has any sane person ever tried to maneuver three kids across the chaos of a parking lot.
Not to mention the fact that you already had to park your giant “mom van” in the farthest spot you could find yet close enough to the cart corral so that you don’t have to take your eyes of said van when you are done shopping to return your cart. Because goodness knows someone will sneak in and steal one of those precious bundles if you are not careful.
Side note: That is of course if you don’t have a 7-10 year old that is begging to return the cart for you. A 7-10 year old that will then take the cart on a tour of all the cart corrals until the find the one furthest away from the car, all the while giving you a rancid case of acid indigestion.
Plus you need to choose a spot that is fairly wide because you have to have enough room to climb in and get all those kids out without flashing your Lularoe covered assets all over Krogerland.
So there you are, you have finally convinced your two walkers to stay on the “safe spot” hand print, grabbed the reusable shopping bags and purse and are ready to play the frogger version of crossing the parking lot.
You are hauling that infant carrier like a boss. Your toddler is being rather agreeable and holding on to the bags while attempting to jump in every puddle and the big kid is only two parking spots ahead of you despite your constant inside voice threats of “no cookie” if he doesn’t “comeback here this instant”.
When you finally make it to the the the most difficult part of the entire journey, the large canyon that all major businesses have between their parking spaces and the front doors. That two way street of absolute obscurity where you can never tell if someone is going to turn, go straight, stop completely, wave you across or just haul ass right over your brood.
You gather the crew, look both ways, dodge that teenager in the black Mustang and finally make your way to the other side. It has been a total of 56 seconds but you are sweating like you just worked out at the YMCA.
And just when you finally get everyone settled into the store, you realize you have to do it all over again, only this time you will be pushing 100lbs of groceries and dragging a cookied up toddler.
So big stores, little stores, how about giving us Mom’s an extra hand. How about giving us a Mom Spot.
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