“BAD DOOR, MAMA, BAD DOOR!!!”

Today I was reminded of a crazy event that happened a few months ago. This particular evening after work I was grocery shopping with the twins. I love shopping at Henry’s and Trader Joes even though their single shopping carts are a pain since there is not a place for both children. So, as we are walking across the parking lot toward Trader Joes, my son starts yelling, “BAD DOOR, MAMA, BAD DOOR.” This reference was to a door that his arm was stuck inside a few months ago. At the time of the incident I was loading the kids into the single shopping cart. I let go of Kaden’s hand to put Jaelyn in the cart. Kaden ran into the store to press his face up against the store window and make a face at me through the glass. As he pressed his hands against the glass, a man walked through the automatic doors and they slid to the side and over my son’s hand. His hand and forearm were stuck inside the door. He was screaming and yelling, “OH NO MAMA, OH NO, MAMA!”, so I left the cart with Jae still in it and rushed to him to try to get his arm out but it was stuck. We were so close to the door that we kept setting it off. So, he is being pulled back and forth by his arm as these doors open and close, and he is so scared and screaming. After working and failing to get his arm out, I yelled for help. 

The whole time this was happening surreal thoughts were flooding my head about how, this is it, his hand will never come out of the door and he will lose his arm and I will be on Oprah talking about having to raise a child without a limb and try to teach him how to survive without. Then, I would have to talk about the horrifying even I had to witness and the helpless feeling as I looked on. Flash back to reality…another few adults had rushed to the scene at this time and as we were trying to figure out what to do (as my son is being pulled back and forth by his arm because all of us are setting off the doors). I can vaguely hear a woman outside tending to my daughter, Jae, which I knew had to be freaking my daughter out. She HATES stranger and get super shy and nervous if anyone even makes eye contact with her. So, Jaelyn is trying to climb out of the shopping cart, and this woman stranger/helper is trying to hold her in so that she can be safe, which is making Jae flip out even more. Finally, a man says, “Miss, hold your son still.” I did and he yanked the door back off my son’s hand. Kaden is screaming his head off and his bottom lip is all the way out and he is looking absolutely terrified. I examined his arm and it appeared to only be a little red and swollen. So, I have this 37 pound 2 year old in one arm. I lift out Jaelyn with the other bench and I carry them over to the bench outside the store and we just sat down all of us crying. So, here I am sitting outside Trader Joes, with tears running down my face. The manager brings out a bag of peas to put on Kaden’s wrist and 2 fruit snacks for the kids. Kaden calms down pretty fast and I observe him putting weight on his wrist. I of course was on edge and over protective of him for days following this event. Nonetheless, we went back into Trader Joes and got our groceries, because at the end of the day, no matter what we had been through, we were still out of milk. 

Ever since this event I have not had a problem getting my son to stay near me in a grocery store, and he no longer protests about having to sit in the shopping cart. For a while, he would whimper and cry every time we went through the sliding glass doors at any store, but now he has down-scaled to just talking (in a very loud voice) about how bad the door is randomly throughout the shopping trip. Today, every time we rounded the isles and he caught a glimpse of the doors, he would make sure I saw them too. “BAD DOOR, MAMA, BAD DOOR!!!” This continued through to the checkout lane, where I felt obligated to explain to the checkout clerk why my son is exclaiming at the top of his lungs what bad doors they have. To my embarrassment, the clerk had been there that day and clearly remembered the event. 

I know when I am a full time stay at home mom shortly, there will be many more of these public embarrassments and maybe even crying sessions as we venture out to explore the world together.