Shopping with Three

So when I was little my grandmother had this hand cuff/cord device.  It had two velcro bracelets attached by one of those spiral vinyl cords, like the old phone cords.  I remember when she bought it.  The box had a picture of a mother wearing one of the bracelets and her son wearing the other, both happily smiling, linked together.  Well Grandmother used it to cuff Meghan and I together, and then she'd hold the cord in the middle when she'd take us shopping.  I was probably six, which means Meghan was four.  We were both mortified by the thing (and I repeat- I was SIX), and I remember begging not to have to wear it.  She could trust me.  I had previously gotten lost in Beall's one day.  I was terrified.  I never strayed again.  Why did I need to be cuffed?  I've vowed never to do that to my children. 

But I'm rethinking that vow now.  I took the boys to Home Depot and Kohl's this morning, and let me tell you, Clayton was everywhere and into everything.  I've never dealt with a wandering child because he's never had the opportunity to roam.  He's always ridden in a stroller, partly because I'm a control freak like that, and partly because he just likes to ride.  Now that Aaron's given him the boot from the double, a whole new world has opened to him, and it's making errands a lot harder on me.  We're going to really have to work on that one. 

All this is to say, that vow or no vow, if I had one of those hand cuff/cord things this morning, I may have actually strapped him to the side of the stroller. 

Ohhh... Look what I found.  Apparently there are lots of ways to strap your child to yourself, your cart, or your stroller.  Clayton had better watch out, or he might find this in his Christmas stocking.