The Day I Discovered I was a Ninja

I have three kids. For anyone who has three kids, you know it is a battle of sorts to go, well, anywhere. You know that going to the store is never just a quick errand.

 

So let me walk you through my Costco trip the other day. You’ll probably know the scene.

 

First, I had to unstrap all three children from their car seats. Then, I had to get the baby out while simultaneously managing where my 2- and 4-year-old. Then, I had to get them to hold my hand and cooperate so that they did not run out into the parking lot into peril. Then, we get up to the door and grab a cart.

 

Of course my two and four year old go and grab their own carts while I grab a different one. The beautiful thing about Costco is that their carts seat two so I always put my older two in the cart, and I wear my six month old in a baby carrier.

 

 

Next, of course, we go through Costco, a land of beautiful, wonderful samples that we did not need.

We try some hot chocolate.

We try some cake.

We try some ice cream.
No, we cannot buy the ice cream.

 

 

It’s also almost Christmas season (at least in retail land). So we see the toys.

 

We get up to the front and we stand in the checkout line. But we can’t just stand in the checkout line because they want pizza and they want ice cream and they want cereal and they want the dip that I bought at Trader Joes that’s in the car. Yes, I do my shopping at two different places with three kids.

 

 

Once we get through all of that, of course, my daughter has to hold the receipt. Her thing at Costco is she likes to ask the door people to draw her a face on the back side of her receipt, and if they don’t it’s not a pretty scene. She asked the man to draw a pumpkin so the man draws a pumpkin (thank you, thank you, thank you).

 

We get outside, and I have my baby in her carrier and my two kids in the cart, so I put them in the car, shut the door, and ask them to please put on their seat belts. I keep my baby in the carrier and begin to unload my groceries into the trunk of the car.

 

(I’m sure you can see this scene pretty vividly in your head.)

 

As I’m unloading my groceries, a mom walks by me who only has one child with her. She’s watching me as I am holding my baby in the carrier unloading groceries and trying to get my two children into their seats for the love of God, so I’m positive she’s thinking, look at that hot mess.

 

And then she looked at me and made my day.

 

 

That was literally the coolest compliment I could have received from anyone.

 

She didn’t remark that my hands were full. She didn’t laugh and ask if I was done having kids yet. She didn’t ask if they were all mine (because don’t we all just randomly pick up kids that aren’t ours and take them to Costco for fun?) She looked at me and thought I was doing so awesome with my three kids that I was obviously also a ninja. 

 

So from now on when I see someone struggling with their kids I’m going to ask them that. Because really and truly moms who juggle kids and are doing other things are basically ninjas.

 

You are doing an incredible job even if all you’re juggling is one baby. You are doing an incredible job of keeping that baby alive, healthy and still managing to do whatever it is that your life calls you to do.