Literally had the worse experience In Sainsbury’s Alphington today and so many mums will be able to relate, left feeling humiliated, deflated, upset and anxious! 😢
I as many mums thought after picking my VERY active 3 year old son up from nursery today I’ll kill two birds with one stone and combine the weekly food shop with the drive home as I can’t possibly make beans and cornflakes go any further! so after bribing the 3 year old with the promise of sausage rolls and yoghurts on our trip I went in determined to be in and out within 30 minutes! Of course this never happened as within seconds my 3 year old is running round the shop as he refuses to be restrained in the Seat and screams angry threats of ‘not being my best friend and how he is going to punch the whole shop’ at the top of his voice!! And if he stands in the actual trolly I have battered brown bananas and flat bread!
Anyway as you can imagine a weekly food shop after a full days work with a 3 year old Terrorising the place was beyond stressful, playing games of hide and seek whilst your grabbing things from isles you probably don’t even need Just quick enough so you don’t lose your child or run the risk of him getting ubducted and being branded the worse parent in the world! As well as running after him im abandoning my trolley before he rips the free toys off of every magazine that is just low enough to be within childs reach and us stressed mums agree to buy them as a last ditch attempt for the child to be good and behave for 30 seconds Just so we can feel like we are gaining a tiny bit of control back!
I finally reach the till, which at this point feels like the finish line of the London Marathon to start unloading my shopping. What I would have loved to hear at this point from the man who was serving would have been ‘would you like a hand packing today? after all he had has witnessed a lot of my ordeal.
Not only would I have jumped at the chance of help on this occasion but I probably would have kissed him! However I didn’t even get a ‘ hello!’
I continue loading my food as quick as I possibly can not to inconvenience anyone, the conveyer belt still not moving so I’m squashing this all on top of each other and of course in the mean time my son is off again only this time he has found the charity box, the one where you put the penny’s in and and it spins round in a circular slide. so he is coming back and forth for penny’s and of course I’m searching my pockets for 1p coins so I can keep him entertained and not hold anyone up. I am at this stage conscious that I am not the only one at the till and there are people waiting.
I’m still Packing even though now I can’t see where my son has gone and stupidly I’m justifying in my head that he will be fine and to hurry up just so that I don’t annoy anyone by taking to long. I’m panicking at this stage so much so that I have to apologise to the man Serving me because I can’t think straight as to the task in hand and I just need to make sure my son is safe and not to far from me.
Of course all is well and he is just playing in the photo booth and my continuous calling of his name that was falling on death ears was completely pointless! I finish my packing and pay my bill without so much as a thank you from the man that served me or any help from the ladies working on the shop floor that we’re just watching me struggle and could have at any stage said ‘ it’s ok I’ll keep an eye on him or ‘it’s ok I can see him, he’s only there!’
I struggled to move my £125 shop to quickly as the trolley was quite full and I was looking for my son at the same time, only to be rammed in the back of my feet by the the lady behind me!
When I turned round to see what had Just happened the lady said ‘ excuse me, excuse me!’
I in complete disbelief replied ‘ I believe the word that your looking for is sorry!!
What came out of her mouth at this point has literally still shocked me now I am in complete disbelief that people like this exist, she said...
‘ I did say excuse me a couple of times but you were just taking to long and I wanted to get this hurried up!’
I as an early pregnant, very hormonal women do not know still to this point how I did not scream blue Murder and hurl myself at her but I very calmly and somewhat emotionally said
‘ can you not see I’m struggling here, I AM LITERALLY DOING THE BEST THAT I CAN! you should be ashamed of your self and sorry’
To which she replied, well I’m not! 🤭🤭
Thank you to the man on the next till packing his shopping who said to the lady that it absolutely should have been sorry that she was saying to me and how it was obviously very unlucky that I had picked till number 13 and had her behind me today!
I don’t believe that women is a mother or has ever looked after small children and I can only imagine that was why 80% of her shopping was made up of cat food!
Is this really what things have come to, where we see mothers struggling and rather then just try and help we watch and Judge.
I know that If I was ever watching a mum struggle like that, if I was that man serving, that mum or those ladies on the shop floor watching her call her child that was out of sight but I could see him, that I would lend a hand, because it’s tough and tiring and challenging being a mum and we absolutely do not deserve to be scrutinised or frowned upon or made to feel like we are doing a terrible job.
Today I lost a little bit of faith in humanity!