Shop in the Name of Love

Hats off to all of us for how often we've managed to act like civilized people while running errands with our small children. If it's any consolation, this is a reminder that this is time well spent on several levels, including an incredibly natural way to instill a countless number of values.

Let's start with a classic: kindness, which is optimally how we treat and interact with them and with personnel wherever we happen to be. Through repetition of kind, respectful interaction, our kids see us hunting and gathering in a context of collaboration and respect.

We can add the virtue of patience. That becomes our collective challenge when we have to wait to get service or stand in line. Or do errands, period. Or listen to them asking the same question five hundred times. And as we try to navigate patience, there's often an opportunity for our children's creative solutions, such as inventing games to pass the time.

The list of learning opportunities is endless if we want to break it down (another time). In these moments, which can end up as hours, our power as parents is enormous. Times in the shops convey on every level and in so many directions, behaviors, and values that we don't think we have time to teach or model effectively.

We can be so focused on the missions themselves, or making sure the kids don't lose it, that we forget we're doing a great job being us, and showing them hands-on how we handle life. How we treat others. How we get things done. How we consider and take care of them. How we set boundaries. How we protect them. How we handle our anger or our impatience. How creative and resourceful we and they can be.

In no way am I claiming it simple, much less enjoyable. That much I remember. But by setting out with a multi-level parenting mindset, by which I mean staying focused on accomplishing our immediate tasks while miraculously acting like great humans, the odds of raising decent human beings tip enormously in our favor.

All of the above hopefully serves as a reminder to make our best effort at showing our better selves, or at least channeling Mary Poppins, when we’re out and about with our children.

I see a lot of inspiring parenting going on everywhere I turn, and it's heart-warming. Cheers, people. Thank you for positively contributing to humanity - present and future, by raising decent humans.