8 Hour Shopping Trip With Mum Immediately Made Worth It

SANDY FRASER | Youth | CONTACT

The tides have turned for a pair of siblings in Betoota’s flight path district after a brief stopover at a car wash on the way home from Westfield. 

Theo (12) and Bear (9) were almost ready to pack a bag and run away forever after their mother subjected them to a gruelling 8 hour shopping trip.

“It got really bad when we went into Myer,” said Theo. 

“That’s basically when we knew we were in trouble. Coz we’d already been in the shops for like what, 4 hours, maybe 4 and a half at that point, and everyone knows what happens when your mum says she just wants to ‘see what Myers has at the moment’.”

“That’s when we devised our plan. We could gather enough stuff in the kids section to take off forever.”

“But then, something miraculous happened. She found a dress she liked, and this perfume that she thought was discontinued.”

“Before we knew it, she was saying ‘come on boys, let’s head home’. We could've cried.”

Bear, the younger of the pair, admits he actually did. 

“Just a little bit, but yeah there was definitely a tear or two,” he said.  

“Anyway. Then she said she wanted to stop in and get the car washed.”

“I turned to Theo and I said, ‘we could be on here’, but I didn’t want to jinx it.”

“But she put her coins into the machine and then I saw her press the button. Rainbow car wash. There was no mistaking it.”

“And then it became real. That windscreen is just - well, there’s really nothing like it.”

“It felt like all our hard work had paid off. In a second, it just all became worth it.”

“Agreeing to go shopping with Mum really is a risk versus reward thing. But this is soo much better than getting a Boost juice.”

More to come.