“Do you, boo!”
I used to say this all the time when I was younger, and I’m totally thinking about bringing it back! I see so many people who are stressing themselves out trying to impress other people (strangers at the grocery store, random people on IG or FB, shoppers at the mall, etc.), and I just want to shake them and scream…
Stop worrying about those people, and do you, boo!
Now, don’t get me wrong…I am not exempt from the “let me please these random strangers who don’t really give a damn about me” syndrome. It actually crept up while I was at the store yesterday, and I had to scream (in my head)…Girl, forget them and do you!
Here’s what happened…
I was at the grocery store with Kori and as we were checking out she saw an Easter display with all types of toys and candy and super cute stuffed animals. I let her go check it out while I was paying for the groceries, and by the time I made it over to her she had 3 different items that she just HAD to take home with her.
I recently saw a post about this same thing, and the mom talked about she gets through these situations by allowing her son to take a picture of the items he wants to “add to the list” and then when they go back to the store, they pull up the list and he gets to pick something from it. So, I figured I’d give it a try.
Well, we took the pictures…and Kori smiled for each one…and then when we finished and I told her to put the stuff back and she looked at me like I had lost my mind. She told me that she needed to take all of the toys home with her, so I explained the whole point of the list and the pictures (again), but she was having no parts of it. She put her super cute sad face on and walked away to go “hide” behind the fruit display. I left my cart by the door to go after her….and then, with arms folded and the sad face in full effect, she walked away from me again. At this point I noticed some of the other customers looking at me, and for a second I started to panic because I knew that they were watching me….judging me….waiting to see what I was going to do.
Then I looked at my baby girl, who was just sad because she couldn’t get any of the fun toys, and in that moment I was able to see her…and her feelings…and her super sweet spirit…and I chose to ignore everyone else around me. I started laughing and chasing her around the store (totally neglecting all of the groceries I had just paid for) and as we went up one isle and down the next, her super cute sad face turned into a smile and I’m sure that her high-pitched laugh could be heard all through the store.
Now, I’m sure that some people were probably rolling their eyes at the sight of us running around the grocery store…but I bet there were other people looking like “I wish I could have fun like that with my kid!” Either way, in that moment it didn’t matter. All I was concerned with was getting my child (and my groceries) out of the store with as little damage as possible.
After about 20 minutes….ok….it was more like 60 seconds, but it FELT like 20 minutes….I decided to scoop Kori up and throw her over my shoulder so that I could carry her out the store with one hand and push the cart with the other. She was still laughing as we walked out of the store with her butt in my face and legs flailing all around…and I had accomplished my mission – I got the kid and the groceries out of the store with no drama AND I didn’t have to buy any of the Easter stuff!
Can you say winning?
So, yeah….yesterday I totally had a “do you” moment and the next time you find yourself parenting to impress other people….take a minute to ignore whoever else is around, and just DO YOU, BOO!! At the end of the day your child will remember how you treated them in that moment, and the other people….well, they probably were never even thinking about you in the first place! 😉