The Grocery List Game

Once again, I found myself returning a sugary snack back to the grocery store shelf.

"Trevor, you know we have enough sweets. That's not on our shopping list," I reminded my 6-year-old son for the third or fourth time. I was losing count, and losing my patience.

"But Mom," he whined. "This is sooo boring. If I have to come, why can't we get stuff I like?"

Trevor enjoyed our weekly trip to the grocery store about as much I did — which means he dreaded it. But how else could our family get the food we needed to survive?

Obviously, we had to make our weekly grocery trek, but there was no reason it couldn't be more fun — and possibly less expensive — if I could curb his urges to add things we didn't need to the cart.

The following week, I gave Trevor a copy of the grocery store sales paper and his scissors, asking him to cut out pictures of the things we needed. He spent half an hour happily cutting out apples, lettuce, cereal, and ice cream as I made out our list.

"Can we get some fruit roll-ups too, Mom?" he asked. I said no, expecting some extra begging, but Trevor just turned the page, intently scouring the ads. Maybe hearing "no" was easier for him in the privacy of his own home, I thought.

"Do we need paper towels?" he asked next.

Paper towels? When did he start caring about such essentials?

After Trevor pasted his pictures on a sheet of paper, we headed to the store. Much like on a scavenger hunt, Trevor carefully shopped off his list, getting excited every time he could cross off an item as he added it to the cart.

"Here's the green apples," he shouted. "Next I have to find the bagels."

Soon we were done in record time, with no extras in sight.

Getting ready for the grocery store now takes a little longer, but his new-found eagerness to actually go is priceless.