PSA: Multi-Kid Shopping Carts Are For Families With More Than One Kid

You know those super-fun shopping carts made to look like cars? Don’t let the racing stripes and steering wheel fool you: they have a function. They are for families with multiple kids. And there’s usually only three or four of them at the grocery store. Maybe you’ve never looked beyond the joy of setting your single child into one to ask yourself the question, “why are there two seats in this thing?” Let me answer that for you…

because it’s made for two children. Kindly remove your one child and set her in a shopping cart made for one child.

When you are a parent of multiple children, you get used to dealing with things being difficult, heavy, and hard to manage. Frankly, those dumb multi-kid “car” shopping carts are difficult, heavy, and hard to manage, too. But not as difficult as attempting to get a tired three year-old to hold your hand while you use your other hand to push a shopping cart with your other kid in it.

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Look – no judgment. Putting your single child gleefully into a car cart does not make you an asshole. It just makes you someone who isn’t looking at the bigger picture. Does your grocery store have a ton of those things? Fine — have at it. I don’t know why anyone would opt to shop with that gigantic, hard to maneuver piece of junk if they didn’t have to — but you’re probably just a good parent who likes to make their kid happy. And steering wheels in shopping carts make kids happy.

But if there’s only two or three of those things at your local store and you are opting to take one — I’m just here with a friendly reminder that you are potentially making another family’s trip to the market way harder than it needs to be.

Not all stores stock the multi-child carts, so inevitably dealing with multiple kids and only one seat is something that families grow accustomed to. But those carts should just be “off limits” in your head if you’ve only got one child. When I shop with one child, I refrain from using them, even though they bring my kid joy.

This may lead you to ask, “What about families with more than two small children to deal with?” I have no freaking idea how they do it. Any of it — not just the shopping part. Kudos to all of you.

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