Pain to Gain Ratio

Growing up, I hated running errands.  The word "errands" was synonymous to a baseball bat to the forehead.  I have memories of sweaty afternoons driving all across town with my mom, trying fruitlessly to take a nap while my head leaned against the vibrating car window.  

But, today, I have a kind of "love/hate" relationship with errands.  I crave the freedom of leaving the house and finding any opportunity to distract my little man.  Not only do errands serve as an "educational tool" for my son by exploring colors and shapes of the jewelry at Target, it is also retail therapy for Mommy Dearest!! 

This is what I feel like most of the time!!

As much as I love getting out and about, I loathe what I like to call the"trial of transitions".  These are the 10 minute increments of time pre and post errand that can turn a 30 minute trip to the store into an hour and a half epic crusade....... (more on "trial of transition" later)

But today, I had to really evaluate my pain to gain ratio.  After schlubbing my child all over creation, in and out of stores, dragging my purse, diaper bag, and cart cover behind me, I finally got in the car and headed home.  I was barely out of the parking lot onto the highway when I realized I left my sunglasses in the cart at the store.

Now I am the cheapest (I won't even try to class it up by referring to myself as frugal) person in existence, but in that moment I did a quick calculation of the pain to gain ratio in my head.  Were those $12 sunglasses worth the effort of turning around and pack-muleing it back into Hobby Lobby?  Not even the threat of cornea damage and premature eye wrinkles from squinting at the sun could turn my mini van around.  So long tortoise-shell Mossimo sunglasses... you were a faithful friend.