Eating in the supermarket

Good heavens Pie, where did that come from?!! Did you have a bad grape/pea/bead experience when you were young? Fascinating... (not for you though)

Sainsburys do have notices in the biscuits and sweets aisles stating that "Please note that all goods must be paid for before consumption"They are at child's eye level!

count me in as well

for all of you that disagree i say
my kids,my money,my problem

My vote is

I would love to join you ladies eating grapes as a protest, but I can't.

I have a serious honest to God phobia of small round things, particulary grapes, peas and beads. If I have to look them I start shaking and vomitting. Maybe I could hold a bread roll protest further down the road.

Eh??? Didn't mean to do that!

tallulah, I think you have started a great thread here, loads of entertainment value. Just goes to say as well how different we all are!

Just a thought there have been a few comments about big supermarkets putting children's comics, toys, sweets etc within children's reach making shopping difficult therefor justifying allowing a child to eat something that we are not going to pay for (ie a few grapes) or have a magazine and just put it back later. I was in my local shop yesterday and saw all the same things magazines at toddler level, sweets at toddler level (no toys in this shop) and I saw a two year old grabbing at the magazines and sweets and her gran removing them from her hand and telling her no. Just thinking this gran could have quite easily have given her grandaughter the Pooh mag that she so desperately wanted to read to keep her occupied whilst waiting in the Post Office queue for 10 mins but I am sure most of you would think this awful, possibly damaging the stock of a small shop. Why is is OK to do this to the big guys then? The two year old then trashed a sweet display, placed just at her level, the gran apologised profusely to the lady behind the counter and tidied all the sweets up whereas I know myself if something like this happens in a supermarket I would tidy the sweets up but I would be muttering under my breath at the cheek of them to put sweets within my child's reach etc. Just a thought.

tallulah, I think you have started a great thread here, loads of entertainment value. Just goes to say as well how different we all are!

My vote

My brother works in a large clothes shop and he said it is not against the law to put an item on clothing in your bag, it only becomes a problem when you leave the shop without paying. I just think that people have so many views on everything.
I never judge another parents if their kids are playing up and having a tantrum because you never know the circumstances, it is easy to ignore a toddler having a tantrum at home, but not in public, you are damned if you do and damned if you do not. The world would be a better place if people stopped getting wound up over silly non issues, the shop themselves clearly do not mind, and thats the important thing, what business is it of anyone else.

You have my vote
Katierocket I will rise up with you

We pay for them, pick up the stray ones of the floor - what's the problem ?
I say
Anyway mums with Toddlers probably spend more when shopping with our sprogs than when without so I can't see supermarkets worrying.
No one has voiced their objection to me as my 2 stuff their faces with the french stick!So I will carry on.

but noone who has posted has yet explained precisely why toddlers eating in supermarkets is such a heinous crime??? For me - my vote

actually forget Anarchy UK I'm going to start a 'mums with kids eating grapes in supermarkets' group! that's it - rise up sisters, join the revolution...

Lock 'em all up and throw away the key!

My children would throw a tantrum if I offered them a grape in a supermarket.

Thought of you guys today.
In supermarket in Auckland today DS aged teriible two having a tantrum cause wanted to eat the strawberries. Young guy a shelf stacker came over watched by his supervisor and asked if I was ok. Told him why DS was having paddy and he told me to give him strawberries and wait there. He came back and told DS it was ok to eat them now and they had been weighed and priced, which DS promptly did.
So what happens to the debate now if the staff think like me it's ok.
(Yes I am terrible mother as I didnt nip out and wash them!!!!)

Hey, sounds like a cool cat, Edgarcat! What colour is he? We've had three rescue cats in our time and now have a 'kampung' or village inbred cat in Jakarta. Rescue cats all seem to have such great characters! This one (imaginatively named Lucky by his previous owners cos he's black, but we call him 'Scabby' ) is great; he enjoys biting us (memo to self: get rabies jag organised) when he is not stuffing his face with food. We have a tabby and a Persian cat at home. She's 13 and a dumb blonde; spends most of her day staring at the wall!

And to get back on topic, to eating in the supermarket for me personally but for those who do, so long as sticky hands don't get wiped on me!

Goodness, there are a few knickers in twists. Judgementalism is on equal par to hypocrisy, IMO, as a deadly sin.

There seems to be an underlying objection to eating in public, which I've never understood, either.

What's the problem? If you don't like it, don't do it - but stop judging other parents who have different parenting tactics. It's NOT stealing as you're on your way to the checkout and the evidence is that the supermarkets actively encourage it - the cashiers at my local Tescos obviously expect it and take it in their stride.

My 2 year old dd snacks all the way through most mornings no matter how large or substantial her breakfast has been - which is normal in a 2 year old - I do the shop after I have dropped ds at school and it takes me up to 2 hours to do the weekly shop (I'm not a focussed shopper) so there's no way she'd last the trip without her blood sugar dropping out of control so, of course, I feed her and I refuse to take a bag full of pre-prepared stuff to a place that has shelves full of it. I don't feed her grapes as I don't want to have to deal with the resultant nappies (what on earth happens to the children who have scoffed a whole bunch?!). She usually snacks on marmite rice cakes and those cute boxes of raisins. And, of course, they all get paid for - not that I feel I have to justify myself to the nay-sayers.

Chill - there are more important things in life than counting how many grapes other people's children are eating.

I do my main shop online every fortnight as I don't drive. Our local Sainsburys used to have hand scanners, which I thought were brilliant; it meant that if I needed anything between deliveries I just scanned the items and put them straight under DD's pushchair. This facility is no longer available as not enough people were using it and I now have to balance the basket on top of the pushchair our push it one handed, which is not very easy. I think that they should have creches or provide secure areas for pushchairs to be left whilst we do our shopping.
Why don't we all bombard our local supermarkets with requests for creches for secure areas for pushchairs!!!!!:-):-):-):-)

I have literally been hysterical reading about chopping hands off...tits in mouths and grape stealers. My daughter is 18 months old and I only yesterday shovelled in grapes to keep her quiet. She also ate some scannable cheese and some bread. She has previously had currant buns and crisps also. Thanks for a good laugh...I will be watching in the supermarket next time!

unsurprisingly a from mrs fagin

Most toddlers are the perfect size for hiding a Posh Peg Bag behind while going through the checkout. Don't let them see it though or they might not be able to produce the required innocent expression if discovered. But I guess that depends on how many free chohcolates you've already bribed them with.

I have never fed my dd while walking around the supermarket. We always went shopping after lunch when she was little so she wasnt' hungry and she's not really the temper tantrum kind. I have seen people feeding their kids crisps or rolls etc. I don't see it as a problem so long as they pay for it at the end. Now dd is older she always tastes a grape or two. But she usually does that in M&S where they now have a small bunch or red and green grapes in a special little tasting tray so that you can taste them from there rather than out of the bags, great idea in my opinion.
And on the pegs issue my pegs used to be in a Harrods Carrier bag, posh or what? well I thought so, but it broke and now they are in a plain blue carrier bag,

This thread is great!

Mum2Toby - please stop SHOUTING all the time...my eyes are going woozy reading your posts (And for the record, I am not saying that you are a drama queen etc, as per the other thread, you're a great gal, just a bit EXCITABLE) This is a bit of fun by the way.

And...my vote is a big

I do not see a problem eating scannable food, but I would not do it myself.