Shopping habits

4 February 2011

The other day I had to go to a mall about 25min away from home to buy a car seat because I had a mall voucher. It’s a mall I used to visit often, pre-baby. I don't go there anymore because it feels like a schlep. In fact all I could think about on the drive there was 'man this feels so far' and of course, every mommy's worry, 'don't go to sleep, don't go to sleep'.
For those without babies this is because if your child falls asleep in the car and you've got to take them out at the other end they wake up thinking 'oh I've had a sleep' even if its only been 10min. That makes a serious mess of all other day sleeps and often makes for a grumpy child.

Anyway back to the point. Isn’t it strange how your shopping habits and habitats change so drastically when you have a baby? Before I had my son I would have easily made the trip to this mall without even raising an eyebrow. Now my world has shrunk so drastically that I have to take a packed lunch and padkos for an adventure like this. The mall I frequent is 10min down the road, so is my fruit and veggie store, my woolies, our doctor, my dentist, my pick n pay and my baby city. Now that I have a child my life seems to have a 10min drive radius.

Most of you moms are probably nodding your heads and saying amen sister at this point but for me this realisation is a big one and all of a sudden I feel all funny about it, sort of like ‘wow my life is a little sad’. You see I used to work in the film industry doing props, set and wardrobe for ads etc. For me shopping often involved driving from one end of JHB to the other looking for rolling staircase/ladder or driving to City Deep to source fruit and veg or driving to Springs with a giant tea pot in tow. Even in my personal life shopping was extreme and exciting. I shopped everywhere and anywhere, the plaza for fabric, cash and carry stores in the centre of town for furniture, Chinese stores on Market Street for clothes, Indian stores for funky hats and jewelry.

Sometimes I still frequent these stores (not the ones in town – I deem that too dangerous now) but I have to be honest the schlep with a baby is just not worth the interesting, reasonable priced finds. Maybe one day when my son is bigger I’ll go back to my shopping adventures. After all learning where to find stuff on the cheap is a good life lesson. My grandmother taught me, we shop in thrift stores and at garage sales together whenever I visit her in the States, that there is treasure to be found for a reasonable price if you are just prepared to look. I like the idea of teaching my children that you don’t need loads of money to look good, that second hand toys are just as fun as new ones and that you can make incredible lamps from washing machine drums.