AIBU to be fed up with screaming children in the supermarket?

Yes but it's not occasional tantrums we're talking about. Most people, whilst finding tantrums annoying, understand that every now and then, these things happen, and are more tolerant.

Letting your kid just yell and shriek, is not the same thing.

A good talking to would not go amiss. Bloody unruly kids.

I have a lot more patience for tantrums and upset than kids giddily running around the shop yelling. I encounter this quite regularly and find it really selfish of those parents who think it’s ok to have their kids hurtling around and getting in the way.

I think it's a tricky transitional moment of the year between summer holidays and starting the new school year/some of them having started at completely new schools/nursery etc. So kids are extra tired and cranky and parents are pretty much at the end of their tether. I know I am, summer hols are nearly 2 and a half months where I am 🫠 I've had several people working in shops making comments about my kids and I've felt like I can't go anywhere, not that they were seriously misbehaving or screaming. It occurred to me that retail workers are sick of having kids around so much too after a long summer. But sometimes as a parent you have to run errands with the kids in tow. I don't know that it's some significant generational trend you're noticing, might just be the time of year.

Oh bore off, all kids cry sometimes. Nothing to do with poor parenting.

Op if other people’s children crying in a supermarket for 5 minutes is enough to drive you to drink then perhaps you need to learn better coping mechanisms.

Nope, tantrums are a normal part of development, when a child has a tantrum they are in a high stress state and cannot reason or listen, the best thing for parents to do is stay calm, be there for them but essentially ignore them (in the nicest way possible, be there but don’t react) this is how children learn to self regulate, children borrow their parents calm, so it might look like parents aren’t doing anything but actually that’s the best thing to do! Intervening for the sake of strangers will actually make it worse. eventually children will stop having tantrums. I don’t know what you mean by ‘not standing for it’ but fear can temporarily stop tantrums but it won’t teach a child how to manage their emotions, quite the opposite. Parents should do what is in the best interest of their child, not what strangers would like them to do so that strangers can be more comfortable.

1. Shop online.
2. If you want a drink you don’t need an excuse.

I take my hat off to parents who ignore tantrums

All the wrong things

Great so there is no reason why a child should be in a supermarket then is there? The parents can get a delivery instead.

Went out the weekend it was screaming child day both days by the end of Saturday ds and my nerves were shattered at one point I swear a shrieking child followed us shop to shop so we went home on the train go to a shop just off the train in our home town shrieking child ds asked if they followed us as it was the same high pitched shrieking (im not actually exaggerating when I say shrieking really wish I was) went out sunday grizzly child on the train that low growly cry kids get when they have been going for awhile and are not planning on stopping anytime soon the parents were doing nothing honestly ds said he wanted to move carriage but they moved first "to get more room" on the way back the child was still going fortunately they got off early (heritage railway there are things to do at each stop)

My head hurt both days usually its not that bad people pick the child up try to occupy it distraction etc lately it just seems to be people trying planned ignoring which is great in your own fucking home not on family days out

Was it that bad, that it is driving you to drink?

Earbuds and play music!

We aren't talking about massive tantrums. Or at least I'm not.

I'm talking about people who have a kid, for example, sat in the trolley, grinning and entertaining itself by fucking screaming at ten second intervals. The whole way round.

That is what happens when children are not taught to behave properly - gentle parenting I think it is called - I would not stand for it.

When my kids were very young they had the occasional tantrum in a supermarket, sometimes you can take them out, sometimes you can't. I remember people tutting, making shitty comments and giving me nasty looks, believe me, it made a very stressful situation 100 times worse.
Kids scream and cry, that's life. A bit of understanding, a sympathetic smile and a bit of kindness is what's needed, not judgment.

yup. kids will do that. particularly in the evening when they're likely tired and cranky.

At least you get to walk away from the noise.

Can you please explain what you expect the parents to do when a child starts to have a massive tantrum in a supermarket?

Before you say not to bring the child to the shop in the first place, what about single parents with no choice? Also, before you say that the parent should leave the shop with the child, what if the parent has a full trolley and is in the queue to pay? Should they just abandon the trolley for the staff to sort?

Bet it wasn’t Waitrose

I guarantee you that there is no one more fed up of the child screaming than its parents

Also yabu that 5 minutes of crying makes you need an alcoholic drink, do you think mothers are just wasted all the time?

Children scream, they’re children, they can’t self regulate, parents should actually stay calm and wait for the child to settle down on their own, it might look like ‘parents can’t be arsed’ but actually intervening often makes it works and children need to learn to regulate themselves, hence the term self regulation.

Supermarkets deliver

Yes it gets my goat too. I have 3DC, two with additional needs. None of them scream and screech like some parents just allow. Before people jump on the "oh but you don't know if they have additional needs" the statistics say that that they most likely don't. But for fear of not wanting to be accused of being discriminatory, people can't just call it for what it is the majority of the time. Shit parenting.

You'll always get someone letting their kids act like the poster child for asbo, insisting "it's just what children do.". No no. It's what some children are allowed to do because their parents have no respect or consideration for their surroundings or anyone else in the vicinity.

Headphones

Every child?

I genuinely can’t remember the last time I saw a child screaming in the supermarket.