to think Waitrose customers are the least child-friendly on earth?

[adelaofblois]

Over the last few months I've been reprimanded there for 'peddling filth' (telling DS that not everyone had a Mummy and a Daddy, some people had just one of two of both); 'letting kids get under people's feet' (someone stood on DS2 and didn't even say sorry), and for 'treating the supermarket like a playground' (DS was entering my PIN, which he can do on his own, the queue was 1 person long). Tonight DS1 (3) had a tantrum about wanting a bacon bun and some old bat got up, grabbed him and told him he was ruining her cup of tea. Why she thought that would help is totally beyond me, just making my partner (who was with him at the time) feel shite by proxy. Evil bint.

Look, I know some of that sounds over indulgent, and that people always feel strongly about what goes on with kids when out-and-about, but why Waitrose only? Am I just unlucky, or are Lidl, Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Booth's, Morrison's folk just much sodding nicer?

Heh heh.

I have never been told off in a supermarket, reprimanded by an older person (whether in a supermarket or not) or looked at funny on the bus. And yet I have two standard dc and go on buses and in supermarkets all the time. I MUST be doing something wrong.

Absolutely agree commanderprimate. The staff and customers at all my local Lidls are brilliant. Last time DS was howling because I wouldn't give him something, an old man looked at him sympathetically and said "yeah, shopping makes me feel like that too." And a member of staff gave DS an apple the other day.

Maybe the OP needs to slum it with us in the budget supermarkets a bit where everyone's expectations are lower?

Oh I don't live far from Windermere, avoid the place like the plague. all Windermere shoppers must suffer from trolley rage at some point. Too many soddin tourists, it must be absolute hell to live there.

Plus parts of Wales are far nicer and less cluttered imo.

I've never had any problems like this with my children in the Waitrose I go to now. But then I've never let my three year old key in my pin number so I'm not sure if that's why.

When I lived in Brighton though, oh my god, the Waitrose in Hove was FULL of the most entiitled, miserable, selfish, self-important people I ever had the misfortune to meet. It always used to get really busy after work and people would push and shove their way round. This was pre-DC by the way.

Yet the skanky Safeway on St James Street was never like that, even though it was in a far more...colourful...area. Go figure.

Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Cumbria.... sigh.... very far from me. :(

Looks a nice shop though. A bit Waitrose-y.

I find barbican waitrose super child friendly this very surprisjng

Yes Windermere Booths is hard work but the others all seen ok. Windermere is too small and full of dawdling tourists

haha gotta love mn

one poor person posts about being 'told off' by some old harridan

one poster suggest that it is her children that are to blame

rest all pile in with similar comments

poor op - classic mn

Actually, I have to say, the only time I have EVER had my parenting commented on by a random member of the public was when we were doing the big christmas shop on xmas ever or maybe the day before. I had DD1 (then 4 months) in my arms as she'd been screaming and when I'd taken her out I'd realised her nappy needed changing. So I was pushing the buggy with one hand and holding DD with the other and a woman stopped me specifically to say to me "you are pushing that buggy like a trolley!"

To this day I have no fucking clue what she was talking about, but she was definitely judging!

It's either your kids or that particular branch. In some rather twee (sorry!) places like Windermere, Waitrose is more often than not full of grumpy old people-hence the lack of proper sized trollies probably. However, the ones in reasonably affluent towns and city centres are not like that at all. They exist to sell £20 bottles of rioja and posh cheese! Neither of which I can have til I pop next month.

i still maintain busy supermarkets are no places for babies or children, people should organise their lives better and leave the kids elsewhere. it makes for a much more pleasant experience for everyone.

What absolute rubbish.

What if you have no other alternative?

Thank you Beertricks - when I am in the area I will try them. Not the horrible B**ts then.

I hate these insidious imaginary 'rules' about where babies are 'allowed' to be.

Personally, I love it when places state quite clearly that children aren't welcome - magnificent, now we all know where we stand.

But supermarkets? You're having a laugh aren't you? In fact, I remember a thread ages ago about how children shouldn't be allowed in shopping centres.

Bonkers.

Gosh you're right Lyin.

It's all my fault for allowing my child to walk quietly in the vicinity of an actual person. Who had no basket. And where there were no other people with baskets in the immediate area.

But clearly, yes, man-handling and shoving my child and tutting and hissing at me was the caring community-minded thing to do - I can't believe I didn't realise it was all my fault. Actually I probably should have thanked him for telling me off.

it's people like me who have let this country go to the dogs since the war. Thanks for opening my eyes to that.

[humble]

It's strange, but the only time I've ever felt judged in a supermarket was in Waitrose! For some reason, DS2 always objects to being in the trolly just as I get to the checkout and it only happens in Waitrose. I had a dirty look from a 'Morningside Lady' (those from Edinburgh will know what I mean, but think of a lady of a certain age who wears tweed), but never any comments

Both boys are generally well behaved, but have had the occasional meltdown.

never been to a Booths! Are they a northern thing?

I LOVE Booths! We've just come back from holiday and there was one in a nearby town (Keswick, home of the infamous pencil museum no less). A devil to park though. Would drive me bonkers if I lived there.

Look, for all those who are attacking my kids, they are really not badly behaved but...

I have always tried to make shopping something they took part in, combining the childcare and chorey bit. When they were little this meant telling them what things were as I put them in the trolley, asking them to put them in the trolley from the seat etc. As they got older they did a bit more, but with rules. So I let them walk free but ask them to hold onto (I describe it as 'help push' the trolley) until I want something low down, then they take it in turns to get it. They don't run, they don't shout, they just walk over and get it off the shelf and then put it in the trolley, same as any other shopper. And DS1 likes paying with the card-put it in, enter pin, press buttons. He does it as quickly as anyone else (the things are time limited after all), so why not? And he likes to go off with a book and get a table when we're in the queue at Waitrose. So, basically, they don't get shut in the trolley and whizzed round, and that is abnormal. But between them they have had three screamy tantrums in five years shopping, have never pulled anything off a shelf, are not frequently being shouted at or even shouting loudly. I think they do OK.

And I obviously don't think any of that is bad behaviour, it's just little folk doing shopping, but I can see how some folk don't like it (and if it is actually inconveniencing them I say sorry and ask kids to say sorry too). But in Sainsbury's or Tesco people say how helpful they are, or how nice it is they know they pin (jokes about that'll be my fortune gone then). In Waitrose they seem to think it marks the end of civilisation.

I prefer Waitrose, purely because I can generally go there to shop without having to listen to screaming kids. Tesco and Asda make me lose the will to live. I don't actually want to spend my leisure time listening to a tantrum or feeling like I'm babysitting other peoples' kids. In Tesco last week I had a bottle of wine in my hand, and turned around just as a child was running up the aisle. She got the bottle in the face, all accidental, but the mother was carrying on like it was perfectly fine for her little darling to be racing around the aisles.

That doesn't happen in Waitrose, well not the ones I go to anyway. And I can't help but think that if so many people have commented on the behaviour of your child, perhaps with the child being the constant, that's where the problem lies?

But look, so many people haven't commented negatively on the behaviour of my child. We go 'big' shopping together twice a week, with lots of little trips as well. We've been doing this for over three years. That's a hell of a lot of shopping trips from which to reckon that 4 incidents, only 3 of which could even remotely be about DCs' behaviour, eman they are uncontrolled little sods. They're far outweiged by the nice comments made about the way they are elsewhere, how it is good they are talked to, occupied, not having tantrums etc.

So why the concentration of comments in Waitrose?

Adela are you in Bath? I have been tutted at, moaned at, frowned at, shouldered out of the way and rammed (trolley) in the Bath branch of Waitrose, all for having the temerity to take my pram and my (mostly well-behaved, certainly not allowed to run around being a pita, DSs).

Hate going in there (it's too small, to be fair) because I am so often made to feel like a blardy nuisance simply because I have kids and a pram - but it is smack in the middle of town and I always use the adjacent car park, so it's where I always go to pick up the odd couple of bits that I have run out of, being a disorganised moron (as one poster implied anyone taking kids into a supermarket is ).

Once I thought, 'Aha, I will not take the pram, I will put DS1 in the trolley and carry DS2 in the sling, thereby taking up no more room than anyone else' and thought it would all therefore be alright. No, still tutted at for allowing DS1 (2 at the time) to put an item on the conveyor belt from the trolley seat. And was doubtless regarded as an unkempt hippy for having DS2 in a sling .

In conclusion, YANBU.

Ah, it's usually me banging on about how much better BOOTHS is than Waitrose, which of course it is

Our waitrose is always bloody empty, I have never seen more than about 20 people in at at one time, my children are generally ok in there, unlike m&s food, where they always turn into the spawn of satan .

We do internet shopping now, just entering the local Tesco raises my bp about 50 points, I can't bear it.

I think it is just your Waitrose.

Sounds nothing like the one I go to.

"ssmogwi Tue 23-Aug-11 20:39:41
i still maintain busy supermarkets are no places for babies or children, people should organise their lives better and leave the kids elsewhere. it makes for a much more pleasant experience for everyone.

What absolute rubbish.

What if you have no other alternative?"

You put your child in nursery of course - magic up the money if it's not readily available. And then take the hit for being one of them neglectful mums who can't cope with real life and her children and so gets other people to raise her children for her, the bitch.

What rot, my children quite enjoy going to the supermarket and I enjoy taking them. Is there anywhere else (other than the obvios, pubs, clubs, A&E depts), that are "no places for babies or children"?