Out and About with Kids

An Afternoon in the Life of Parents

• What: Running errands
• When: With three kids at the end of a long week
• Why: Sometimes things can’t wait
• Where: Our neighborhood

Remember the epinephrine battle? In case you missed it, I spent more than an afternoon trying to track down a refill for my son’s severe nut allergy medication. I hit the drugstore for the third time in one day after one and half hours at a home improvement store with my husband and three kids, which I would never normally do. But the babysitters had both left town and we had to make decisions about our ongoing construction project by… Yup. You guessed it. Today.

After even we gave up and left with our minds overwhelmed from the home improvement store, we stopped to run in and grab our prescription refill. We all know how that went. The sandwich shop where we choose to go for dinner (only half an hour behind our normal schedule) kicked us out even though they weren’t quite closed. They told us the dining room closed at 6:45 which they told us when we ordered around 6:30 and I thought, ok. Then they kicked us out at 6:41, as soon as they put the last wrapped sandwich in our hands.  The restaurant closed at 7 but the dining room shut down 15 minutes early, which seemed weird but I was hungry. It was quick, convenient, and near our next required stop without being fast food. My husband was hangry and livid as we ate precariously balanced in the car with sandwich wrappers spread on our laps.

After we got fed, we headed off to another home improvement chain for more fun. Once we finished there, I felt like it must be a weekend because it seemed we had spent an entire day out running errands, even though it was only a little more than four hours.

Now it is 8:30, I have just gotten my three kids (one of whom had school for five hours and normally naps for 1.5 hours afterwards but of course skipped his nap today) who typically go to bed between 7:00 and 7:30 into bed. But I have a dozen box Krispy Kreme minus five donuts. 🙂