Mom creates adorable grocery shopping lists for kids to keep them entertained: 'I love this idea'

Shopping with kids can be a tricky and patience-testing task for parents as the little ones love to walk around and pick up whatever they like. When it comes to grocery shopping, there are chances that they might just get bored and become cranky. A mom and TikTok user Jess (@learningencasita) came up with a perfect hack to help kids be entertained as well as learn a life skill that could be useful for them later. 

The mother uses printouts that have pictures of grocery items for her children to find in the store. The printouts are inside a plastic sheet so that when kids find a certain item, they can circle it with a dry-erase marker. For future trips, the mom can easily add new sheets and the plastic sheet can be cleaned. 

The video begins with the mom holding the printed sheet and saying, "Come shopping with us while I teach my kids some life skills." She goes on to say that the first list is for her son because it has more descriptive items like the type of cheese that they like to get or milk and cookies. "The second list is for my daughter which is mostly her favorite items. That way it motivates her to keep an eye out for them," says the mom. 

What the mom did not expect was that this activity would be such a "grounding" activity for them. "It kept them so calm, so aware of their surroundings and they were really into it," explains the mother. 

"And it was really cute to see how they would get so excited for each other and just be so happy whenever they found an item on their list," adds the woman.

The mother says that kids really thrive when they are given age-appropriate responsibility. "They love the trust that comes with it and just feel that they could accomplish something on their own," concludes the mom.

The video has about 119k views and is captioned, "They are looking forward to our next grocery trip together!! Think your littles would like to do this life skill activity?!" 

Many parents loved the activity that the mom planned. @tiffffffanyy_ commented, "Wait I LOVE the list idea! My son is almost 2 so this will be a great help for us in the store." @alexismbaker wrote, "I let them check off my paper list, I love this idea so much better! This is awesome." @sarahia0606 expressed, "This is amazing. Doing this with my son." @emmileigh said, "Crossing things off my mom’s grocery list was my fave thing as a kid." @freakynuggets commented, "Oh that’s SO cute!!! My toddler gets so bonkers in at the store, this would be perfect for her!"

These are not just life skill activities to prepare them for the future but these moments also become good bonding time with parents. It builds trust in children that their parents are relying on them for a task and they feel more confident and motivated.