Out of the Mouths of Babes

Because I'd rather our dinner not consist of frost-bitten chicken and stale tortilla chips, I decided to buy groceries today. I typically try to not take all three boys with me to buy two weeks' worth of food, being that their attention spans don't allow them to sit like little angels for the 1 1/2 hours that it takes to accomplish this task. However, life seems to be getting in the way of convenience these days, so off we went this morning.

The boys were really pretty good in the grocery store. The only problem was my embarrassment. I wanted to crawl under the grocery basket when Liam spoke freely to a scantily-clad woman in the bath and beauty aisle: "Your shirt...what's wrong with it? It's too little." Her shirt was lacking in the modesty department, especially considering she was in the grocery store and not a strip tease. I had to think quickly to pull my jaw off the floor and quiet Liam before he embarrassed me any further. But all I could say was, "Liam!" He hushed, but Jack couldn't stop himself from hanging out of the basket to lean over and take notice of her three-inch heeled sandals and say, "Shoes! Ouch!"

My next move was to push the basket and the boys from aisle 16 to maybe aisle 99! Only I couldn't move fast enough before Jack continued shouting, "Mommy! Lady's shoes! Too big!" And I replied with "Boys, hush!"

Being that Liam and Jack are 4 and 2 respectively, I can't expect them to know better than to comment on this woman's outfit. I'll need to teach them to use some tact, I suppose. She really could use another two yards of fabric to cover her body in order to shop in our local grocery store, so maybe she could use some lessons on tactfulness as well. What do you think?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Definitely agree! The grocery store is not the place for that, but hey, what can you do but try to set a good example for your kids. We can't expect everyone, or anyone else really, to think as we do, so we have to use what we can as teaching moments. Life is full of those, that's for sure. And kids are brutally honest . . . that's one of their best qualities if you ask me. We've all been embarrassed by something our kids said, such as saying someone looks like Grandma (who knows, they may be 30!) or that their shirt is ugly. I wanted to hide under a rock when Keira mentioned a man's big tummy in Wally World http://commonmom.com/?p=15 :-)

Trixie Twatwaffle said...

Out of the mouth of babes is all I have to say.

You know, maybe this might teach her the bit of decency she needs.

Katherine@Raising Five said...

That is hilarious! They say that men are visual - it starts young, eh? It takes me forever to get our shopping done, too. Hey, who needs to work out when you can push a full grocery cart with a few kids?

Love the sweet hat pic!