Entertain me!

What is it with feeling like we need to make sure our children are entertained all the time? Today I was in Kroger and saw these carts.

I've seen them at Wal Mart before but had not ever seen them at Kroger where I frequent. So they must be new to Kroger. They are carts that the children sit in as you're grabbing your groceries and instead of having to actually behave and sit in the cart or walk beside you, they can watch TV in a colorful, made-for-kids cart. As I'm looking them over I started thinking about why this is really necessary. First of all you have to pay for them. And does it really make much sense to clip coupons, whip out your Kroger Plus Savings card, or pay attention to the special deals in the store and then PAY for your grocery cart when there are perfectly adequate FREE carts available?Secondly, what ever happened to, "Sit down in the cart and let Mommy get some grocery shopping done."? I mean, is that really an unrealistic expecatation we are putting on our children? I think not. So why are we, as parents, made to feel like we should be entertaining our children through the grocery store? If we are constantly making them feel like everything revolves around them and whatever makes them happier and more comfortable is what we'll do, even if it means we have to pile our groceries so high we can't see over them because these carts can barely fit any actual groceries, what are we really training our children to become? It's like the DVD players in cars. Is it too much to ask of our kids to sit in the car and look at a book or play a game with their siblings or just plain 'ole sit and do nothing while we make the 5 minute trip from home to the grocery store? Do they need to have a TV on with their favorite cartoons for them to be expected to sit in the car for a few minutes? Now, don't get me wrong. I have a DVD player in my car. I had them add one at the dealership because it was something we definitely didn't want to live without. However the only time it gets turned on is when we are going on a long road trip. And the kids know it. They don't even ask to have it turned on unless they know we're going to be on the road for a while. I just can't see the need for turning it on for a quick 10 minute trip from playgroup to lunch. I feel like we are setting our kids up for failure when we constantly cater to their every whim. It really is a problem in society these days and the dvd players & shopping carts are just a few small ways of feeding that problem. What exactly is the lesson for the children in it? Think about it.