There’s a secret weapon in every shopping centre that’s a total toddler game-changer

I never thought I'd pull this out to per cent a shopping centre meltdown.

You’ve got a to-do list and a toddler; typically, the two are at constant war.

You duck to your local shopping centre with your list and little one in tow, and moving from store to store is punctuated with frequent stops to look at windows, armchairs, pot-plants,  playgrounds, specks on the floor and basically absolutely anything to slow you down.

I understand a shopping centre isn’t the most interesting place for a toddler, but sometimes, despite your best online shopping attempts, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

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Help in an unexpected place

So what do you do when your baby just isn’t vibing, and you haven’t even started what you need to do?

After the playgrounds and the toy section of Big W, there’s one place I don’t know why I had never thought about…

The pet shop!

It’s the zoo and aquarium in one- kind of

After taking my daughter to the zoo and aquarium recently, she absolutely loved seeing all the animals we read about in her picturebooks in real life.

As much as I’d love to visit these places every weekend, the price of admission for a family is a little cost-prohibitive.

So, when we walked past the windows with the way-too-cute puppies, my daughter’s excitement levels reached Taronga Zoo levels.

She jumped out of the stroller, and in we went.

It’s been years since I’ve been in a pet shop, and we were totally blown away by what we found inside.

There were puppies, birds, lizards, turtles, fish, bunnies, snakes, hermit crabs, and my daughter couldn’t figure out what to point at first.

We probably spent nearly 30 minutes in the store, and it cost me nada!

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So much pointing!

Don’t come for me

Now, before you start sending hate that pet shops are evil places and treat animals as commodities, I hear you, and I understand.

But as a mum with a 14-month-old who just needs to grab some groceries and a birthday present in peace, a 30-minute trip to the pet shop is a game changer.

Originally published as There’s a secret weapon in every shopping centre that’s a total toddler game-changer