For many of us, doing simple things such as going grocery shopping, doing errands, or making a quick run to CVS has become a source of anxiety. Did I bring my mask? Is that person standing too close to me? Is it safe for me to buy loose produce or bring my kids with me if I need to make a Target run?
Mother of two Emilia Donaldson, 30, of Kansas City, Kansas, admits that the current health crisis has been taking its toll on her mental health, so her husband kindly offered to go grocery shopping last week in her place. But she tells CafeMom that the result was a hilarious mix of ahem unique grocery picks, which goes to show that you must always, always, always send your partner with a list.
Typically, Emilia says that she does the family's grocery shopping.
She often buys enough groceries for herself, Anders, their two daughters, Ruby Claire, 3, Lyla Jane, 1, and Anders' two sons from his first marriage: Espen, 19, and Barrett, 14, who are with them part time, she explains.
When she grocery shops, she's organized. Very organized.
She meal plans, buys essentials for the week, and tries very hard to "to get fruits and veggies as well as other sides for each meal, and buy in quantities we can use before anything spoils," she tells CafeMom.
The ongoing health crisis has been taxing on her anxiety.
"The grocery store is a difficult place for me to be right now," she admits.
Seeing that the task might be too much for his wife, Anders sweetly offered to step in.
"He very kindly offered to do the shopping, and decided to go on his way home from work," she says.
"I didn't write out a meal plan or a list," she continues. "He's a human who eats, so I knew he could handle it, and he did in his own hilarious way!"
To say that he had gone rouge was an understatement.
Anders had a unique list of priorities when shopping on May 21: bread, pasta, meats, an impressive number of hotdog buns, and so many tater tots that Emilia had no idea how she was going to put it all in the freezer. He only bought one jar of pasta sauce for all that pasta and was a little light on the produce.
"I had to laugh," she recalls. So Emilia snapped some photos of her husband's grocery haul and at first only sent them to friends and family on Snapchat.
"I then shared the Snaps in a closed Facebook group, and had several requests to make it sharable," she explains.
So she decided to share it publicly, where it really took off.
Emilia posted the photos on Facebook the same day. "Y’all…" she wrote in its caption.
The post has now been shared more than 38,000 times and has been liked more than 13,000 times. But Emilia swears she never suspected it would go viral.
"I posted it publicly to my personal page expecting a few moms to share it for a laugh," she explained.
Thus far, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.
Mostly from other woman who can relate to her struggle.
The mom says she hopes people will take it easy on their husbands if they're taking on household tasks that they've never tried before this current health situation.
"We all have different strengths, and we rarely ace a new task on the first try," she says. "I adore my husband and am grateful that he will take on any task for the good of our family. I thanked him instead of chastising his choices, because we all deserve grace."
And really, he got the groceries home safely, which is all that matters.
"We had a great laugh together and have had some creative meals this week!" she adds.
