Embarrasing But True

Photo - Junior Year H.S. - 1993

The thing I REALLY miss about my pre-children life is that I rarely had to grocery shop. I use to go grocery shopping about every 6 weeks. I would always purchase a half gallon of organic milk because it has a much longer shelf life than the regular stuff. Even then, we rarely got around to using it all. For the most part, we ate out every night.

Each time I grocery shop, I always think about how one day I would love to be able to afford to pay someone to do my grocery shopping for me. I'm serious when I say I have put considerable amount of thought into preparing for this. Grocery shopping is the only kind of shopping I don't enjoy! Then tonight as I went up and down each aisle, it dawned on me that once my kids get a little older, I really need to teach them how to grocery shop...and cook and do laundry. With three kids to teach, I guess I will be retirement age before I could hire someone and by then I probably will have nothing else better to do with my time than to buy my own groceries.

I had a wonderful mom but those are things she didn't teach me. She worked full-time and it was probably easier for her to do a lot of those things herself. I find myself shooing my kids from the kitchen while I cook and clean. I go grocery shopping by myself. It is simply faster that way. But then I get to thinking about it and I don't want them to be a spoiled little prince/princess like myself. Mom meant well but in a lot of ways, it sort of handicapped me. I'm 34 years old and just started learning how to cook a year and a half ago! I still don't know how to grocery shop worth a flip. As for the laundry, well I actually have that down now.

As I went up and down the aisles of the grocery store, I thought about the 18 year old Shana that went off to college:

I had never done a load of laundry. I didn't know how to sort laundry. I would have to rely on roommates to help me or call my mom and describe each garment to her so I knew which pile it went into.

My "cooking" included making Jello, warming up a can of soup, and baking a grilled cheese sandwich. At some point, I did learn how to make a pan of cornbread my sophomore year of college. I ate so much pizza in college, that I can hardly gag it today. More specifically, I would rather eat the cardboard box than a Papa John's pizza itself. I'm not sure how I ever managed to avoid gaining the Freshman 15 lbs.!

And for the BIGGIE....I didn't even know how to style and fix my own hair! My mother, a hair stylist, did my hair every morning before school. Then on Friday and Saturday nights before I would go out, she would have to wait around for me to wash my hair so she could style it before she and my step dad could go on with their plans! She did my hair everyday until the day I left for college. We both fretted over how my hair was going to look without her doing it everyday. I simply didn't know how to do it.

I'm pretty certain, I never cooked an egg in any sort of fashion until my mid-20's.

To this day, I have never mowed a lawn.

So, I guess I'm going to start making an attempt to take Fuller to the grocery store with me each time. He is 7 years old and getting pretty proficient at reading. Now is the time to learn, even if it does take me longer and frazzles me even more. Then I guess it will be on to the cooking. Besides, my kids are stair steps and I won't be able to afford having three in college at the same time AND eating out all the time!

Hmm...now I'm wondering at what age should they start making their own beds?