Just back from a shopping trip to the Århus IKEA. Now, don’t get me wrong… I love IKEA. Love it in a special way, because of all the goodies lurking, and the flat-packed boxes that turn into fun furniture with some sweat and tools, and the occasional curse because I’m not really inclined to work with my hands that way. But why is it that I must be assaulted by hordes of screaming children when I go to spend some of the DH’s hard-earned kroner on parts and pieces for our little home?!?!?1!!! Honestly… take a perfectly good shopping trip, in a store the size of a small town, that carries pretty much any and everything you could ever want, and serves you tasty swedish meatballs, then add screeching kids screaming for whatever toy or stuffie they’ve just passed, or screaming because they want a nap, or a meatball… you’ve just ruined that perfectly good shopping trip, faster than I can say WTF mate?!? You think I jest? Not bloody likely!

I understand that IKEA is a hard place to resist, and even here the consumerist culture is taking hold (thanks in no small part to the very same IKEA that I hold dear to my heart) and so must be fed from time to time… and a shopping trip can be a fine family outing, checking out all the pretty or interesting things, talking about how you might redo your family room like you’ve been thinking of, the kids happily testing bean bags and bunk beds as you eye that lovely set of sturdy yet still beautiful cabinets that could really refresh your kitchen while the significant other finds the perfect couch for the family room… But must everyone else then be subjected to the pivotal time when the kids go from having fun to just wanting to go home, the parents are still deep in shopping mode, and the kids then do the only thing they know definitely works when they want attention – scream at the top of their little lungs?

Have you ever noticed just how loud a child can get? Today, there was one kid, I swear, at the OTHER end of the store, wailing fit to beat the band, and sounding like he was standing right next to me with a megaphone pointed at my eardrum… If you know how big IKEAs can be, then you know that when I say OTHER end, I don’t mean a few meters away…

Anyway, all this makes me wonder…  Are parents of small kids so addicted to getting out of the house that they forget that others might be hoping for a bit of peace as they browse the shops or stroll around, or do they really feel an overwhelming urge to make others suffer when their kids throw tantrum, as if to say ‘Don’t you wish you could have one too?’ Or maybe it’s a warning… ‘Be careful, or you could be as lucky as we are.’ eep

😀