Growing up my mom did all the grocery shopping. When she got diagnosed with breast cancer she needed to undergo multiple surgeries. One of the limitations of her surgeries is that she couldn’t lift anything for about 6 weeks so my dad started doing the grocery shopping. While my dad did his best he would come home with things like cocoa dots. After we all gave him a hard time I volunteered to go grocery shopping with him to make sure he got the right stuff.

I was in 8th grade and while my friends were on dates or hanging out on a Friday night I was at the grocery store with my dad. And I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. My dad is the most organized person I know so after time he started making a very accurate shopping list. It was organized in the layout of the store, contained items we would regularly request and had a space for us to mark the quantity if it was something we wanted that week.

When we got to the store he would send me to go get an item off the list and I would pick up a few randoms things for myself along the way. I would look at him when I got back to the cart and he would just smile at me as I placed the stuff that wasn’t on the list in the cart. I would always snag a magazine (Cosmo Girl or Seventeen). I loved going grocery shopping with my dad.

Now that I’m a mom I love going grocery shopping with my son. We go to Target together and it’s our special time. I love going up and down the aisles with him and watch him get so excited. I’ve never seen anyone so excited to get yogurt. I know he won’t always want to spend time with me when he’s older but I am loving that I get to carry on the shopping tradition with my sweet boy.