Grocery shopping with our autistic child

Does anyone have a problem taking the kids to the store. For us a trip to the store could be almost an impossible mission . Our son Dylan could be in the best mood. All giggles and happy on the way to the store. But once we open that van door and get the cart . His mood starts to change. I don't know if it's the cart or sound the cart makes, maybe it's not even the cart. Maybe it's the amount of vehicles in the parking lot. Maybe it's his little sister Sofia, he doesn't really enjoy her presence at all. He starts his vocalizations letting us know he doesn't like it, kind of like high pitched Oh uh oh uh. We tell him he's going to be OK and continue to push him in the store. Usually we're pushing the big tank cart, you know the one with a cart and 2 seats attached to the front. So it's like you're driving around over sized truck on a small lane in the grocery aisles.

He seems okay when we're pushing him down the aisles, but when we stop he breaks into full tantrum. So I'll have my husband keep pushing on doing circles around the aisles until I have picked the things that I need to get off the shelves. Poor Joe, it's like a roller derby, with his over sized monster cart. All the while I'm committed to making this shopping trip a success, we need food in our house it's a necessity. I always end up going to Walmart, because I know you can get everything there in one trip. But Walmart has to be the worst store for sensory overload. They have the bright lights, there's always a ton of people there, and you can barely get through the aisles. I go down the bread aisle and I picked the bread I want I get about five loaves, Joe is already making his trip around the other aisle so I just wait for him to come around and I toss in the bread. Then off he goes, as long as Joe's moving Dylan's fine. I head over to the meat department, I could just hear Joe sighing, there's no aisle to circle around, only them open freezer chest. And this is when it gets good, people start looking at you like what in the world are you doing. I just feel like saying to them, trust me you don't want him to stop the cart lol. 

The freezer section is the worst, I would have thought it would have been Dylan's favorite area because he likes to feel cold. But he hates it. It has to be the way them doors open and close and the sound it makes when its happening because if we open a door he starts to scream. Joe keep circling the aisles, but in the freezer section it doesn't matter if he's still going or not doing keeps making his uh oh sounds to try to soothe because he dislikes the area so much.

Today's store trip I need to buy a little more than just groceries, I wanted to pick up some Corelle dishes and a new coffee pot and that meant going down the skinny aisles. The more closed in the aisles gets the more anxious Dylan gets. It took me a few minutes to pick out what design I wanted for the dishes , for me the decision was pretty quick but not quick enough for Dylan. By this time Sophia was getting tired of being in the store also and she started kicking at Dylan and he didn't like it at all.

 So here my two toddlers are fighting in their seats and I still have to pick out a coffee pot.

We see an aisle with coffee pots but I know it isn't the coffee pot aisle. It only has two coffee pots there and they're both over $70. I finally find the aisle, and my husband is ooooing and ahhhing all of them and their neat little gadgets. I say we just need a coffee pot so let's get a coffee pot, and I grabbed I a Mr Coffee pot that happened to be the cheapest out of them all. It doesn't need to be fancy we just needed to make coffee. I throw it in the cart and we're off to check out.

On the way to check out I see the hair aisle, and remember that I need some bobby pins so I go down there and grab some Dylan and Sophie are still fighting. Ok ok now I'm ready to go to check out Joe starts pushing them down there. Now when we go to check out we need to stop the cart. Dylan isn't happy at all , so I let my husband know its okay to take him to the car I can handle it

. 

The whole event was only about 30 minutes, when I'm shopping I feel like a speed shopper. I got to get in there and get out as quickly as possible with as much as I can get that we need. People always look at us. It does bother me sometimes, but then other times I feel like they're just looking at me cuz I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I wish I could say shopping was my favorite thing to do, sadly I cannot. And I know it is my husbands least favorite thing to do seeing as how he's the one that always runs a marathon while we're there.

Well thanks for stopping by 

Jessie