Do you go shopping in these days before Christmas with your husband and all your kids?

[ToomanyMilesAway]

I ask out of curiosity after a trip into John Lewis yesterday. Why would you do this? Men standing about blocking aisles with prams 🤷‍♀️ crying children? Why don't you leave him at home with the kids and you get time alone at the shops? Is it to do with that he has to play his part in all the organisation etc? Genuine question.

Why?

i have been shopping with dh and my 4 year old the last few days. We were in a town 4hrs away we never usually go to, so just browsing and shopping in general. We didn’t need any gifts. It’s wasn’t even that busy for a weekend. We were away 4 days so a mixture of shops, restaurants, markets.

No. We have done online deliveries but if people enjoy themselves why not go?

I don’t get why this bothers people. They are just as entitled to go to the shops as you are.

DH, DS(6) and I all went to M&S yesterday.
I don’t drive, DH has a mental block when choosing food so can’t be trusted to go alone and DS is too young to stay home.

This is the second thread I’ve seen about this in the last few days. Not sure when it became an issue for families to shop together?! We’re all trying to do the same thing and actually spend a bit of time together while we’re all off work/school.

I get your annoyance because I used to think the same but now that my kids are older I actually do it. I suppose I enjoy the atmosphere and I also hate parking when it's very busy so it just works well for us

Oh, another 'How dare other people shop differently to me and get in my way' thread. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas 🌲

Also the tins of sweets are not safe with my husband and kids in the house alone !!!

We've just got back from town. Kids were picking presents for each other, so we all go, have a look around then split up into pairs to buy their choices. Stopped at a cafe for a bit, picked up a few odds and ends (some more snacks, some bits for a nice lunch at home). It's nice when you aren't trying to do all your present shopping, can just enjoy a Christmassy town.

But I dont want time alone in the shops. I actually like my husband and children. I like his opinion and I like my children getting involved in picking things. There is no magic Christmas fairy in our house who arranges everything while DH and DC do nothing.

I just got back from M&S and was wondering the same thing - families of 4, with teenagers, taking up whole aisles! Why? Why do all of you need to go and make it so much busier?

Complaining about others' Christmas shopping habits reminds me of the days before online shopping and supermarket delivery when shops were hell on earth before Christmas. If I was with DM she always seemed to end up talking to someone saying "look at all these people, they go mad don't they? It's ridiculous ". When I pointed out that they were doing exactly the same as her, she took the huff!

I’ve been into two supermarkets today.

When I rule the world those little trolleys with a flag on will be banned. Why on gods earth would you let little children loose with kid sized trolleys in the chaos that is pre Christmas supermarket shopping.

I don't because I can but I understand that some people just can't for various reasons. Babies not like being left with dad if very little and its 100% less stressful all to just trapse to the shops.

We talk about what we are buying everyone before I go shopping (although I mostly shop online now) so DH is part of the organisation then. Same with food shopping although that I do go to a shop for.

Why is there another thread about this?! 😂
Why do you care?
Go about your Christmas shopping and leave others be.
Families have a right to be in the shops just as much as anyone else.
If they're blocking aisle's say "excuse me" like a normal person and carry on your merry way.

Have a drink and a merry Christmas op.

Every year DH goes and does the shopping while I stay at home and do the cleaning and the kids stay at home. However, this year they wanted to go shopping with him 😬. Sorry. Although they're teenagers so not crying babies/toddlers and they wanted to choose stuff.

I get what you mean though. I nipped into Tesco one day last week and the schools must have let out early and there were lots of primary aged children that seemed like they'd drunk Stupid Juice or something. Obviously excited for Christmas/end of term and it was just so busy!

I can't imagine anything worse. DH and I go shopping together incredibly rarely - he panics about presents so anything I show the slightest interest in stands the risk of being panic bought so he can go 'thank God, can we go home now'.

He hates shopping.

We are both doing the Christmas Food shop, and he's done it on his own before as have I, but it is quicker with two.

What gets my goat is where one partner does the food shop every week for 51 weeks. They know what's needed, they know where everything is in their supermarket, they know the drill at the checkouts, and they know what to put through and when so that nothing gets crushed or cracked.
Week 52 (this week) arrives and the other partner decides to 'do their bit' and come shopping. The bravery, the heroism. The fucking chaos.

Zombies wandering up and down the aisles staring at shelves of stuffing mixes. Picking up single cream and going into a trance over whether it should be double. Adding shit to the trolley that's not on the list and won't be eaten. They just liked the look of it. Taking 25 minutes to return to trolley with a jar of pickled onions. Grabbing things off the conveyor and flinging said cream into the bottom of the big bag. Trying to wheel the trolley out of the In door. Getting the trolley stuck in a drain grating in the car park.
Partner, stay at home and clean the toilets instead. Then crack on with the hoovering.

That were us when DD was young.
These people OP could be only 15 minutes in JL to buy grandma a present.

There's a long thread already running about this

To think that Xmas food shopping isn't a sodding family day out? http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/amiibeingunreasonable/5235575-to-think-that-xmas-food-shopping-isnt-a-sodding-family-day-out

My kids like going to the shops, so if they want to come I'll take them 🤷‍♀️

I'm self-employed so I normally end up going to the shops when literally no one else is there, like 10am on a Tuesday.

So it's absolutely horrifying at the moment to go in any time and realise what it's like there at busy times for regular people.

People standing gormlessly around trolleys, suddenly stopping dead in aisles, not being able to look at anything properly, and queues that take forever.

And if people didn't bring their entire families it would be only 1/4 the volume of people.

Luckily most of our Christmas food is delivered from a local farm company or picked up from the butchers so there wasn't much else to get. God only knows how people cope when they buy everything at a supermarket, I saw one woman who I can only assume was in the midst of a breakdown, who had a trolley with just 6 giant bottles of milk and a microwave Rustlers burger.

It's a way to fill the time and tire the kids out I guess?

No but I wouldn’t take them all shopping at any time. I avoid the shops myself the week before Christmas.

God no!

I can count on one hand the number of times we have been shopping as a family. Can’t see how it can be enjoyable for anyone. Food shopping is always done on line as is shopping for presents.