Let’s Make Grocery Shopping Easier for Special Needs Families

Posted by Angelyn Harrenstein on 2nd April 2015 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Campaigns, Disabilities

Let’s Make Grocery Shopping Easier for Special Needs Families

Are we the only parents who feel a tinge of jealousy watching that adorable family across the restaurant whose little one has the muscle tone to support himself in the restaurant-provided high chair that our toddler can’t use?

Why does it seem as though catering to the group of special needs children in public places hasn’t been thought of yet?

Our current grocery store trip looks like this:

1. Mom assesses grocery list and decides if all items can fit in tote bag or if a cart is absolutely necessary

2. If tote bag will suffice, mom removes stroller from trunk, hooks straps of tote bag over stroller handle….or grab cart if necessary

3. Place 19-month-old in stroller…or lay him in the back of the cart on a blanket

4. Beg 3-year-old to behave and walk next to me without crying

5. Fill tote bag with all items on grocery list but equalling less than the weight of child/stroller combo to avoid tipping the stroller (yes, I figured that out the hard way one day) - or strategically balance and stack all items around toddler laying in the back of the cart

6. Unload, pay for, and load groceries and children into the car followed by immediately breaking into the chocolate bar that was calling your name in the checkout line

I just want to get my groceries and get out as fast as any other mom!

Can’t it be any easier than this?!

What can we as parents do to give our child a “normal” experience?

Cue the amazing company called Firefly!

This company has given a big dose of “normal” back to our family as we are learning to adjust to meeting the ever-changing needs of our growing boy.

We currently possess a Firefly GoTo Seat.

With the GoTo Seat I was able to put my three-year-old and 19-month-old in the shopping cart together for our trip to the grocery store this week.

I nearly cried, but laughed instead and took an absurd amount of pictures in every aisle on my phone, forgetting half of the items on my list because I was overjoyed at the reality that my children, both of them, were having a “normal” experience!

My daughter shared in my joy as she said from the cart, “I always wanted to sit with my brother in here!”

This was a reminder to me that I’m not the only one searching for “normal.”

Our daughter wants it for her brother, too.