by Annie Biller

Created on: December 06, 2008

Like all young mothers I learned early to juggle the baby carrier, the diaper bag, the baby bottle, teething rings, and various other baby care necessities when shopping. Most of the time shopping was not a problem, but if the baby was a little out of sorts I could find a doting grandparent or an aunt or even at times an uncle to keep an eye on my little one while I took care of necessary shopping trips. Unfortunately, that was not true 100% of the time.

My young son was a cranky little person when he was teething. He developed a nasty case of diarrhea and needed to be changed constantly. Diapers disappeared like magic and I found myself needing to go shopping for more when there was no one around to keep an eye on the little guy. It was early fall and very nice outside so for convenience I put my son in a fresh set of pajamas. I didn't bother with shoes. I just put a nice pair of soft fuzzy socks on his feet and I bundled him up and carted him and all of the necessary baby paraphanalia to the car and made a trip to the grocery store to purchase diapers, formula, and a few other grocery items we needed.

The fifteen minute drive was uneventful and when we parked in the grocery store parking lot I checked to see if I needed to change the baby before we went into the store. He was fine, smiling and gurgling at me. The store did not seem to be very busy. It took a little longer than I had counted on to get through all the aisles and locate what I needed. A couple times I stopped to talk to someone I knew and show off my little pride and joy. We were in the last aisle headed for the diapers and I was happy things had gone so well when I caught a whiff of an unpleasant odor and glanced down past my little guys smiling face and noticed his feet. Horror swept through me and it was almost more than I could manage but I looked to the floor and slowly, horrified and embarrassed, looked behind me at the nasty little trail going down the aisle.

The trail was almost unnoticeable on the speckled tan pattern of the tile floor but it was there. red-faced, I stopped and pulled a small blanket from the diaper bag and wrapped it around my sons bottom and legs. I lifted him from the cart and retrieved my purse and the diaper bag and left the store feeling like I was the worst parent in the world. As I left the store the loudspeaker was ringing in my ears. "Clean-up in aisle six....and seven."

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