Have to go clothes shopping with kids in tow, tips for survival needed.

[ThatBigGermanPrison]

Ds1 will nag, whine, demand and fiddle and wander off - this has been my experience of every trip into town for the past year.

Currently, I have pared it down to once a week. But today, I have to go and buy him some shorts, and me some shorts and something for tea.

I need some help keeping this positive. Help me handle the fiddling and wandering without blowing up - doing it without him is not an option. Help me to deflect the whining and demanding.

[ThatBigGermanPrison]

I will of course let him choose his shorts!

[ThatBigGermanPrison]

Sorry - he's 5.

[BettySpaghetti]

My tip would be that if you want to try on clothes yourself then go somewhere where the changing rooms are not curtains that open directly onto the shop floor - unless of course you enjoy random strangers seeing you in your pants when your DC flings the curtain open

Yes, I've been there

Other than that - bribery. Promise something at the end of the shopping trip if hes good.

[ThatBigGermanPrison]

bribery doesn't work - he just doesn't have the self control to win the bribe ever. Whenever I have bribed him, he has 'failed' to do what I had bribed him to do - so I can't do it then without looking like Pushover Mum.

[ThatBigGermanPrison]

Sorry - thanks for the tip about dressing rooms.

[ChopsTheDuck]

promising at the end doesnt work for mine very much, it's too distant. Sheets of stickers with one after each shop seems to work quite well, though I do hate pandering to them like that! I'd never have dreamed of taking stickers but they kept giving them out at this shopping center and it worked really well. Smarties or something would probably do the trick too.

[BettySpaghetti]

How about alternating between shops for him and shops for you eg. you agree to go to 2 clothes shops for you and then 1 shop (eg. toy shop for a browse) for him ? Its a bit more "instant" than a treat at the end

[tiggerlovestobounce]

Get him to help you pick stuff and hopefully if he feels involved it will make him more interested (it work with my girls, dont know if it would work with a boy?)

[SlartyBartFast]

i would take them into changing room with me and help me choose,
queue lots of laughter