6 Ways having a baby changes your shopping experience

Shopping is a necessity for all, a pain for some, and a favourite pastime for many. As a new mom, you’ll soon realise how much you miss that freedom of quickly popping to the store because you forgot an ingredient for dinner. Shopping with a baby is a calculated event. From the moment you leave home with your baby until the moment you arrive back home, everything will have to be planned.

Here are 6 ways your shopping experience will likely change after you’ve had a baby.

1. Parking your car used to be simple, right? Now you’ll have to consider how wide you can open the car door to take your baby out.
2. If you’re used to taking the stairs or the escalators to the next level of the mall, this will likely have to change. You’ll need to learn where the elevators are to accommodate a pram.
3. As much as you may not be a fan of fitting rooms, it’s easier to try on items so you save yourself a trip back to the shops. Unfortunately, a pram doesn’t fit in a change room.
4. Then there is grocery shopping with a pram. It’s easier to push the pram while you pull the trolley behind you. People will look at you like you’re crazy, but it works.
5. A pram doesn’t always fit into public toilets. There may be times that you’ll abandon your shopping trip because you desperately need the toilet but have your baby with you and can’t take a pram into the toilet.
6. Ask any new mom about packing her car after a shopping trip. It’s all-new territory and you’re unsure what to do. You’ll find yourself debating what you should pack first, “Is the car too hot to put the baby in before your bags?”

Regardless of how much planning goes into a trip to the shops, as a new mom, you’ll need to make peace with the fact that there is no such thing as a quick shopping trip with a baby in tow. It’s something you’ll have to get used to. Shopping will now be different from before, but you’ll have a constant companion staring at you with her big, beady eyes while you push her around. You’ll learn to take things slower, even if it means hunting down the nearest elevator.