To think that Xmas food shopping isn't a sodding family day out?

A pet hate, couples shopping together, stroking avocados and agonising over wine. Even worse with children, granny on her mobility scooter, teenagers just getting in the way. Old folk (of which I am one) ambling along aisles for hours. He/she who shops alone, shops best.

YABU Christmas food shopping is the only time I drag my kids to M&S for a food shop everyone in our house gets a say in what goodies we get in for Christmas.

No issue with entire families going but:

Control your off spring and if they are screaming the place down and there is an option please get the other parent to take them outside and. It stand in the que for a lifetime - fwiw if the adult is on their own with a screaming child I always let them go in front as it's clearly no fun for anyone and there is no other option.

Also the ammount of men who are walking behind with a face of doom, looking like they are there under duress, who just randomly stop in the middle of the isle / on their phone obstructing the flow of people gives me the rage

How annoying that people might want to do things differently to you, OP. Or teach their children to function in modern society and crowds by example.
I mean, I don’t often take my DCs shopping with me, but who cares if others do?

Although I do agree with op if you are taking your children to the supermarket on one of the busiest days of the year please control them, don't let them lay on the floor, don't let them go on skates/scooters etc, don't let them climb on equipment, don't let them run around, dont let them push the trolley if their to young to do so and actually watch them 4 seperate kids today where lost and 2 fell out of trolleys. And as the parent please don't spend an hour in there screaming at your kid at the top of your voice as that's annoying to.

@K0OLA1D

It is a discussion forum

I agree with this

YABU You don’t have any more right to be in the shop taking up space than anyone else. Children are people too and have the right to take up space. Especially in a public place which is…open to the public!

I think the lack of tolerance people have for others is such a shame and making the world a much worse place for everyone else.

Never cared about when/who other people do their shopping. Literally doesn't bother me. In shops, there are people= that's the way it is.

I took my 15 year old this morning - because it’s takes two of it to carry it and there are only about 10 trolleys at our M and S.
They took the coin locks off them and they all got nicked.

Oh, & I saw a family group to end all family groups on the way home. It stretched an entire block of pavement: adults, children & dogs in groups of 3s & 4s, all calling & chatting to each other. I so hope they were on their way to Waitys. They would've been as annoying as !!!! in there.🏆

I went today, because I had to collect the turkey from M&S that I ordered - deposit non-refundable!

The shop was very quiet, not a single child, no family groups, no civilians. The queue for collecting orders was short & well-organised & everything went smoothly.

However the experience was made hellish by having to sit in stop-start traffic to the slightly out-of-town store & then finding no parking places in their minute car park. DH stopped with the car & I dashed in, got the order & left without any of my planned shop. Waitrose on the way home was equally stacked up with cars, so we gave that a miss too. Luckily we have all the basics & a few treats, but we're raiding the freezer for tomorrow's dinner.

Last time I used click and collect at Christmas, another customer took all my fridge stuff
They said I could go in and get it but I'm immunocompromised hence the click and collect...
ended up in the carpark for an hour while they sorted it and said never again!

Has OP ever considered using click & collect?

That way if she absolutely must go to the shop then she could avoid the vast majority of what she complains about.

I actually give this more of a pass right before Christmas. Maybe you needed an extra pair of hands to carry all the stuff, maybe dh and dc wanted to come and choose some bits themselves. It's always going to be hectic to shop around Christmas it's a fact of life.

I have way less sympathy when it's march and theres entire families clogging up the supermarket. I especially hate it when the woman is clearly at the end of her tether and rather than helping at all with the shopping or the kids the DH is walking just behind aimlessly like some kind of lost soul. I always wonder, why they didn't just leave gormless DH at home with hyperactive children?

Ah, in the UK maybe, fair, but in Toronto where I live it is very multicultural and there isn’t the same level of Christmas insanity. I don’t expect shops to be much busier tomorrow than on a typical weekend, necessarily. A bit busier, but not total madness. Even so, one kid is in the cart, one kid pushes the cart, and the other kid holds my hand or holds the cart. We really don’t take up acres and acres of space and I suspect even a UK Asda could cope with the extra 1 square metre of humanity that they represent. 😆

@UpToMyElbowsInDiapers to me that's fine, 99% of the time of course they should go shopping

But the couple of days before Christmas when the shops and roads are rammed and it's unpleasant enough as it is surely you would try and minimise how many people you take with you just so they don't get in the way?

Why is that your business?

He seemed to be on his own with them so assume he didn't have an alternative but there was a Dad in the supermarket today with one child pushing the trolley, another sat in the trolley, and a 3rd sat on his shoulders. Good luck to that Man. Rather him than me.

I love seeing families shopping together, especially at Christmas. I really don't mind if it takes me a few minutes longer to accommodate the odd family. The children I saw today were all involved with choosing things, and shopping lists, and clearly very excited. I think it's lovely.

100% this. So weird.

I’m in Canada. I bring my DCs (7, 5, 3) to the grocery store quite frequently, and will do so tomorrow. For me, this is a big part of 1) them learning how to exist in society and 2) encouraging healthy eating

On 1) - I make the expectations VERY clear before we go in. Me: “are we buying sweets?” Them: “no!” Me: “are we buying toys?” Them: “no!” Me (playfully): “if you nasty rotten children even so much as ask me for sweets or toys, what will happen?” Them: “you’ll tickle us!!!” I think I’ve needed to follow through on the threat twice in 5 years. Once, the tickling worked. Once, the whining persisted so I put everything in our cart back and we left the shop. Every other time, the kids have been completely and utterly fine. No whining. No bargaining. No straying away from the trolley.

2. Any fruit or vegetable or herb they want to buy, on the other hand: the answer is “yes”. Giant sweet potatoes, jackfruit, persimmons, kiwis, long beans… the kids try to find interesting looking items, and then we have fun preparing them at home. This is how I now have a 7-year-old who complains when a salad is missing radishes, a 5-year-old who loves chomping down on a massive wedge of raw cabbage, and a 3-year-old who loves garnishing meals with parsley and chives. They feel like they are allowed to be Masters of the Family Meal sometimes, and it is exciting for them (and healthy and tasty for all of us!)

I find that strangers in the shops are typically lovely towards my kids. I’ve had people stop by to explain to them how to choose a good melon, others who ask them what will be eating at home vs what will go in school lunches, and a couple of times older women have stopped to give each kid a $2 coin so they could band together and buy a tub of ice cream.

Going to the shops to me feels like a community activity where all of society is teaching kids how to behave but also how to delight in life.

(in case it was not clear, this is a topic I care deeply about 😂 )

And some children/teenwith SEN cannot be left alone at home while the parents scoots off to Tesco. So I drag them along shopping. Not everyone has support.