A couple of weeks ago, DH2U and I went to Costco. I was pushing the cart around until I abandoned it to look at some bright shiny thing that caught my attention. DH2U took up the slack and headed on down the aisle pushing the cart. My thought process when I saw it made me laugh: first, I was a bit peeved that I didn’t get to push the cart, but then I realized he’d been good so he’d earned the right as well.
Flashback 40 years: When I was growing up, I remember always wanting to push the cart. At first Ma said I had to be big enough, and then it was switched to being a treat. “If you are good, you get to push the cart.”
I was always on extra good behavior when a cart pushing opportunity was in my future. A few years ago I was grocery shopping with some friends when I cheerfully volunteered to push the cart. They didn’t think much of it until they realized how happy it was making me. I told them the Ma story.
“Wow. She brainwashed you good.”
I now realize it was probably a Tom-Sawyer-fence-painting level of con job on Ma’s part, or when looking at it from her perspective, an example of excellent parenting. However I view it, I still find pushing the cart a wonderfully grown up thing to do.
So I relayed all this to DH2U as I resumed pushing the cart through Costco. His response was, “The cart pusher has a lot of power. You can run into things!”
I gasped audibly. “NO! Never! You’ll lose cart privileges forever!” He never would have been allowed to push the cart in my family, and I’m sure he would have been just fine with that.
In what fun ways did your parents brainwash you? or Shopping Cart, Trolley, Buggie: What are they called where you live?
Grown Up, Now What? 