Am I Smarter than a Third Grader? Not Usually.

I discovered a way to get my children to behave in the grocery store. I'm so amazed that it worked, that I wanted to share it with everyone.

About 30 minutes before leaving, I had them all get out a piece of paper and gave them the following instructions: Make a list of 3 items that you would like to purchase for yourself. One of these must be a fruit, the other a vegetable, and the other can be anything you want (no candy, cookies, and all the normal things I don't usually buy). Not only were they excited to pick out the foods THEY wanted, but it made it so they would be excited to actually eat the food they picked out. Since they were the ones who picked them out, there would be no whining over the disgusting vegetables I made for dinner!!

They were so engrossed in finding their food choices, that they all managed to behave during the outing. Dinner tonight was also a success and snacks and dessert have consisted of the fruits (cantaloupe, watermelon and pineapple) that they picked out.

I have to admit that this was pretty brilliant. If only all my ideas were this good, parenting would be much less difficult.