Problem: parking lots are dangerous places for little children, in part because the children are almost always distracted away from the important business of looking out for cars and in part because the children are small and fit perfectly inside rear view blind spots.
No matter what manner of solution I improvise (hands on strollers, holding hands, walking next to me), we always end up in the same situation, which can be summed up neatly as "the children wander aimlessly through the parking lot at a snail's pace."
I've realized lately that my solution to this problem - stopping and waiting for them to catch up, because they need to be close to a responsible adult, right? - only exacerbates the situation. Apparently, there's a parking lot specific buffer around me past which the children cannot proceed. Thus, when I stop, they stop. Rather than catch up to me, the net result is an even slower trek through the parking lot.
the gawking dawdlers;
you know they're slow moving if I have time to dig out my camera
from the depths of our backpack and take a picture
I don't exaggerate when I say it's one of our biggest parenting problems, if only because it frustrates me so very much and the parking lot is such a dangerous place. I'm not one with an acute sense of peril, but even I get sweaty palms thinking about the big mama mobiles whizzing around parking lots willy-nilly. I know they do, because I'm sometimes one of them.
I've brainstormed two solutions, both of which would be well-received by my children but would probably earn us some strange looks as we make our way across the vast black asphault of the average parking lot.
First, leashes. One of Lucy's current favorite game is that we tie a leash around her midsection; she got the idea after seeing a toddler in a baby leash at The Children's Museum. The kids would love to be tethered to me, and I could then cajole them into running away from me or I could drag them to the car.
Second, installing bicycle flags to their hats. It would solve their visibility problem, although it probably would do nothing for our pace.
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