Shopping Genetics

Army Guy and I are shoppers. However, we are VERY different types of shoppers.

He prefers to wait until he's used all of one product, go to the store, purchase that ONE product and leave the store. I like to stock up on items and do my shopping on a weekly basis. I also like to look through what's on sale to determine if it's worth purchasing ahead of time on sale. I'm a shopper--He's a "get what you need"-er. Additionally, when Army Guy is done shopping, he's DONE. There's no trying to get him to shop just a bit more. He stands between you and item you're looking at saying things like "so are you about ready to go?" or he starts questioning EVERYTHING that I put into the cart. "Do we really need that? Don't you have one? Why are we getting that now?" until I get tired of the constant barrage of questions and decide to come back later without him to purchase said items. :)  Army Guy is definitely give and take when it comes to Mall Shopping. He'll tolerate Old Navy, Gap Kids, jewelry stores (though he doesn't actually go in those stores...), etc. and when I've shopped until I've dropped he casually says "oh hey can we go walk through Sears, GameStop, Hibbetts Sports, etc?". And since he's been so tolerant of me wandering through all of those other stores, typically not purchasing anything, I say "Sure." and off we go to ManLand.

I used to think that Thing 1 had my shopping genetics--he was always content to go shopping. No fussing. Just happy baby/toddler/kiddo. Thing 2 has Army Guy's shopping genetics. She's tolerant for about 20 minutes and then she's just done. And everyone in a tri-state area knows that she's just done. When she was little, she used to throw her arms and legs out of the stroller and scream "I DON'T WANNA GO IN THIS STORE!!!!", now she just walks way behind us whining about her legs falling off. I swear if Army Guy thought he could exhibit those same behaviors without me having him committed he would. :) Sam-I-Am is an awesome shopper, so of course, I take full credit for that.

However, I started to suspect Thing 1's shopping genetics were changing during our last deployment. While strolling through the make-up department, I casually threw an eye shadow into my cart. At which point, Thing 1 picked it up out of the cart and said "Do you really need this? You have some at home." and put it back. I stood there in complete shock. Somehow my husband had morphed himself from Iraq into my child's body. Sure, it looked like the small child in the cart was Thing 1, but at that point, I was CONVINCED that my husband was in cart. I explained that I needed more and he didn't get to put stuff back until he started paying for my stuff. :) A fellow mom in the aisle snickered as she walked away.

So, I've been working extensively since that point to "fix" Thing 1's shopping genetics. And after furniture shopping with him lately (which is a whole other story...), I thought I'd finally smushed all of Army Guy's shopping genetics out of him. Until yesterday.

Yesterday I discovered he's learning Army Guy's subtle shopping manipulation skill. While walking through the mall, Thing 1 says "Do you want to go to that jewelry store and look for your princess cut? I remember you said you like that. I told Daddy too. We can if you want to." I smiled from ear to ear and immediately thought of how lucky his future wife is. I was walking a tad bit taller all proud that my shopping genetics had come back and were shining through. I politely declined his offer to shop for princess cut diamonds and we continued on.

About 4 feet later he says "Oh, hey, can we go walk through GameStop?"

Defeat.

Army Guy's shopping genetics are just stronger then mine.