To get irritated by children being allowed to play on self service tills?

[FudgeGirl]

Not irritated with the kids themselves, but the parents who let them "play shops" while everyone else is queuing.

In the supermarket the other day, a woman was letting her five year old scan everything through the till and it took forever.

Child was fighting when she couldn't scan something and mother tried to help, screaming that she could do it herself - all the time everyone in the queue is getting more exasperated at the time it's taking.

I've seen it so often, are some mothers just ignorant to everyone else wanting to pay for their shopping and get home? Or is it just me and should I cheer as their little darlings have a temper tantrum because they can't scan through a bag of pasta bigger than themselves?

I can live with parents letting thir kids scan stuff, but not with them letting them play on tills that someone else could be using! Or when the parents are using the till next to mine and letting their kids lean all over my packing area so the till won't work.

In fact I've been known to turf kids off a till because as far as I'm concerned it's available if it isn't actually being used for shopping.

MadameDeathstare is right, whatwait - there wouldn't be any issue with a child doing the self-scanning if he or she was doing it quickly and not holding people up.

I suppose that what I was really asking you was whether you would let your son do the self-scanning if he was doing it slowly and holding up lots of other people - and from what you have said, I doubt you would.

mine always scan and pack and i can't see the problem. there are rarely any ques at out SS tills and infact I have only ever seen one or two people waiting for the use of the tills (4 in total). the kids only take one or two mins longer than me and i think it would be rather rude if someone was tutting behind us.

I let my DD "help" me, she gets an item out and passes it to me to scan, but while I'm waiting for her painstakingly pick the item out of the basket, I have scanned and packed 3 others myself, so she gets to help and matters still proceed at a reasonable pace.
I do think though that in general if people thought a little more about others and a little less about themselves, then this argument wouldnt arise.
I'm sorry, but I do think that everyone is so self centred these days that the parents cant see past the needs of their kids, and the adults complaining cant see past their own need to get out of the store quickly.

Just a little thought - when you are old and have only your memories, what would you like them to be? memories of nothing much really because you lived your life at 100 mph and never really had chance to enjoy it? or memories of watching your kids playing at being grown up with the tills at asda?
I know what I'd like mine to be.

yabu
I thought the whole point of them is that you play shops/
ds(18) loves them and so do I for that reason

I love self service! I don't like the automatic voice much especially when i get shouted at but its worth it to play cashier for a few minutes!

i let the DC help me with packing - if they stand and be good while I scan 4 items then as a reward they can scan the fifth. It actually does work to keep them quiet, and doesn't massively hold anybody up.

The funniest thing happened though a while bacck when DS (5) came with me to a Tesco express shop - i was busy scanning and i didn't see him climb onto the machine where the bags are - then the automatic voice says "unwanted item in bagging area" Well quite...

Is it any worse than the one shopper in front of you at a manned till who turns out to want their shopping put through as three separate loads? The ones who take an age to pack in three million carrier bags and then seem to be surprised that they need their purse to pay?

YANBU. I am always amazed at how oblivious some people seem to be to the queue behind them in supermarkets - packing their groceries as if they're half asleep, spending ages scrutinising the receipt, not having their purse to hand and having to root for ages etc.

And I would certainly not wait in the queue while kids played with a free till. The parents must have been twats.

Self-service tills are Work Of The Devil.

Actually Sugarmouse, I often go through the self service with a bottle of wine. I will think more carefully about that in future though. To be fair, I usually scan it first so that I can be getting on with scanning the other stuff instead of standing waiting for the assistant to come (if the till allows this. They can be temperamental).

I don't get this 'letting children have a whole till to play on' thing.

Surely the next person in the queue would go up to that till and start scanning their shopping? You wouldn't just stand there and let the kids play on the empty till?

YANBU.

As already said, people get silly about their offspring and beam beatifically in a "Just LOOK at him - isn't he just PRECIOUS?!" way while said offspring does something totally unnecessary but tenuously "educational", holding up/inconveniencing other people in the process.

DP and I once waited hungrily in a queue for a hotel dining room for far longer than necessary while a fellow guest's small child laboriously filled in its family's name and room number, watched over/prompted by a beaming, ignorant father.

No, mate, we are NOT in fact watching and going "Aww, what an adorable child! How clever! Look, he can't be more than 3 and he's having a really good stab at signing his name and remembering what number room they're staying in! And what a lovely Dad he is, encouraging his child so patiently!"

We are thinking "FFS - sign the sodding thing yourself and then maybe there'll be some food left for EVERYONE ELSE"

I hate to see children in shops doing anything but being silent, tbh (I'm sure I'll change my mind when mine start running!). I can't stand mothers who are so absorbed in their private mummy-world they don't give a fig that they've entered an adult environment.

YANBU - I hate shopping of all kinds, my DTDs (aged 22) buy my clothes, DH does the food shopping & I have a tolerance of about 10 minutes if forced to go shopping in this country. The combination of factors which have made me take this attitude are:

a) dawdling people of all ages having convos in aisles, getting in the way, all the time in the world etc.
b) brattish children being pushed around in trolleys with their shoes on, being given food from the shelves which will no doubt not be paid for (parents usually not prepared to discipline them for fear of criticism in public)
c) the increase of self-service tills in lots of shops eg B&Q which does not save any human resource due the presence of the poor individual who has to 'supervise' ie check that people are not cheating
d) the lack of stock anywhere & everywhere due to shops being run down to the bone
e) appalling lack of customer service due to sales staff's lack of training and/or common sense and/or support from the company

Having been given a gift of John Lewis vouchers I ventured to the Welwyn Garden City branch on a Saturday afternoon - not the way I would normally chose to spend my hard-earned free time in early December. Less than 30 minutes later I was out of that place - the layout was atrocious, no way big enough for parents with prams and/or toddlers, and yet it seemed like a mecca for families. Staff in the electronic goods section were utterly clueless about expensive items, in the shoe section I asked whether they stocked Fly shoes only to be told 'I dunno' by a middle-aged male assistant who was standing right next to the display of them, and the clothes section was like a disorganised jumble sale.

So in the scheme of thinks I don't think you are BU but I can't help feeling sorry for those who have to take DCs with them as the general shopping experience is horrendous - I would rather go without, order online, send DH who has a much higher tolerance than I do, and do something else with my precious time.

Yanbu.

Real life does not revolve around anyone's toddler. They can play shopping at home or playgroup or pre-school.