Do you allow things to be eaten before paying?

[georgousbold]

In a supermarket etc

When I walk around, I do open something to keep DS quiet. Works a treat.

Nobody has ever told me off or questioned me on it

Is this the done thing in the UK? Can think of a few countries it would be allowed in and nobody would say anything

But you could never do that in Japan for example, South Korea either

I can't believe something so insignificant could incite such vitriol and strong feelings 🤣

Nope and I hate it when others do.

Our children already struggle so much with delayed gratification because so many things are accessible to them at the touch of a button or a simple voice command.

I still feel it is incredibly important to teach them to wait - it pays dividends later. Same reason my children only get pocket money once a week (the younger ones, anyway - older ones monthly) and need to take their weekly treat to the till and wait until I have put all my shopping through to pay for it.

And someone said something about people preferring not to listen to the alternative. The alternative, for me and my kids, was always a conversation about the shopping and later on involving them in choosing food and dropping it into the trolley. Who knew a 3-year-old would get so excited over a 3-pack of peppers?

I didn't even realise this was a thing until I worked at Asda when I was 19.

It was really common, I would daily have people coming through the check out with half eaten or empty packets. Can't say it ever bothered me and I definitely never felt disrespected (massive overreaction from PPs - it's not as if they're spitting the food at me).

One that did grind on me a bit though is the people that did it with fruit like bananas that needed to be weighed as obviously they've not then paid for it. Again, couldn't personally get worked up about it but it did seem really cheeky. I did hate though when they'd then leave the banana peel sitting on the belt for me to bin

I think it's cultural too. In my country this would be frowned upon as it's considered bad manners. I grew up this way and even though I've lived in the UK for quite a while, I rarely did it with my DD.

I have given DD water a couple of times before paying as she was very thirsty, but when it comes to food she knows we go to the supermarket to buy groceries not have a feast. She doesn't know any other way and when I did offer her a snack as there was a queue at the till, she was a bit confused as to why she is allowed to eat before paying. She is 4.5 yo now and we will carry on this way.

I think it's cultural too. In my country this would be frowned upon as it's considered bad manners.

I agree with this but suspect in the UK it's (like everything) class related. My Mum never let us eat anything walking down the street in town. It was considered 'common'. But also, more practically, very bad manners to then go into a shop after eating in the street (or even worse, actually eating in the shop) because you don't want to touch the items in the shops in case you get sticky food stains on anything you touch.

I did it on the odd occasion not with food, but water. Toddler would be very thirsty so I get a bottle, open it and give her to drink, but never with food. I always have snacks with me.

Surely water is more important than food. Why wouldn’t you make sure you bring a drink rather than snacks?

or use online shopping or click and collect rather than subjecting your toddler to a boring trip around the supermarket and then wondering why they start crying and need to bribe them to stop. It's one downside about the end of covid, the return to the family supermarket outing sad

What about if you can’t afford the minimum £40 spend to get your shopping delivered?