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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Every day a new outrage! From today Waitrose has displays of sweets by every till!

51 replies

PhylisStein · 30/09/2011 12:01

Is no where going to help me lead my child towards adopting a healthy lifestyle?

I asked the manager why the sudden move to selling sweets right by where you queue for a till .... he said it was a national sales drive in the run up to Christmas.

Surely pester power at the tills for sweets is a really LOW way of getting a few extra quid through the tills!

#firstworldproblems

OP posts:
mumblechum1 · 30/09/2011 12:03

Our Waitrose has always had sweets next to the till. Sadly I almost always succumb to the temptation, they have lovely old fashioned things like rhubarb and custard sweets.

Ragwort · 30/09/2011 12:04

Just say 'no' - three are going to be loads of temptations in the future for your children, and it's a very important lesson to learn that you can't have everything you want in life Grin.

worraliberty · 30/09/2011 12:04

Oh dear god

I'm sure you and your child will manage such temptation Grin

Personally I like them by the til because I nearly always forget to buy them otherwise.

My local Morrissons has always put them there.

GrimmaTheNome · 30/09/2011 12:04

Oh yes, just the time when we all really need to buy extra sweeties. An aisle full of Quality street I can live with - this is just going to annoy quite a few customers.

aldiwhore · 30/09/2011 12:04

Ah well, if you shopped in lesser shops you'd be well used to it by now.

It annoys me, and I adopt a no means no policy.

However, if my child picks up a sweet and unwraps it, when I'm trying to pack the shopping, and if I catch him in the act, I removed said sweety from his mouth, and will not pay for it. I return said sweet to the cashier/manager.

YANBU

StrandedBear · 30/09/2011 12:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

worraliberty · 30/09/2011 12:06

Anyway, have you never bought a Newspaper from a Newsagents?

Original poster
PhylisStein · 30/09/2011 12:08

I do say 'no' - I have no problem with authority over my children! It is the motivation and the principle of it I object to.

OP posts:
squeakytoy · 30/09/2011 12:10

Adults eat sweets too.

As a parent, you have the right to say NO to your child, and they learn to understand. If you always say no to sweets at the till if they ask, and never stray from that, they will learn.

worraliberty · 30/09/2011 12:11

You mean a shop trying to sell products to the public? Shock

The sneaky bastards!

Original poster
PhylisStein · 30/09/2011 12:11

My children have sweets from party bags only - I have never bought them any - ever!

OP posts:
worraliberty · 30/09/2011 12:13

I don't see what that has to do with anything though OP?

So you choose not to buy them sweets, so what?

Waitrose still need to sell their produce whether you buy it or not.

kat2504 · 30/09/2011 12:14

They are a shop, not the national health service. They can sell what they like where they like. it is up to you if you want to buy it or not.
How do you manage to get in and out of a newsagent shop with a whole wall of sweets?

Fo0ffyShmooffer · 30/09/2011 12:15

Yes OP for goodness sake. I got from your OP that you clearly have no control over your children and an inability to say no.

If you hang tight someone will be along to scorn that this is clearly the only thing you have to worry about.

mumblechum1 · 30/09/2011 12:15

You've never bought them sweets?

Blimey.

worraliberty · 30/09/2011 12:16

How do you manage to get in and out of a newsagent shop with a whole wall of sweets?

With a very large coat and a getaway truck parked outside? Grin

minipie · 30/09/2011 12:18

Yep agree with all the others. Just say no.

mumble my mum never bought sweets either. I'm really grateful to her now as it means I don't have a sweet tooth at all. (Although I do love butter and cheese Blush).

ZacharyQuack · 30/09/2011 12:18

DD2 has a friend in her class whose parents never buy her sweets.

All the other kids feel very sorry for her.

When she comes to our house for a play, she always pesters me for chocolate biscuits. Which she doesn't get, because they are ALL MINE.

HecateGoddessOfTheNight · 30/09/2011 12:19

They are trying to tempt you, not forcing curly wurlies down your throat at gunpoint Grin think of it as a test of your willpower Grin

mumblechum1 · 30/09/2011 12:20

DS eats his body weight in sweets, cakes etc but does tons of exercise (5 or6 sessions a week) and has never had a filling.

He's 17.

squeakytoy · 30/09/2011 12:20

I am amazed that so many children are interested in the sweets at the tills, considering they have never been allowed to eat them Grin

I think it is possibly easier to have a display of sweets or chewing gum, rather than Heat magazine and its ilk, with their "interesting" array of headlines which I have often seen to produce very amusing answers from parents to their young children who can read...

"mummy, what is that word?"

"euthanasia darling"

"what does that mean Mummy?"

cue mother behind me looking flustered as she tries to explain in very simple terms.. after which, the kid then says..

"oh, so can we do that to our cat so I can have a dog then?"

Shock
onepieceofcremeegg · 30/09/2011 12:21

no means no.

Either you will have to say no to your child, or you will have to shop somewhere that doesn't have sweets at the till (try Tesco or Sainsburys) Morrisons and Asda have loads of yummy unhealthy treats at the till points

onepieceofcremeegg · 30/09/2011 12:22

squeaky my dd2 could recognise Cadbury purple well before one year of age. (dd1 is 4 years older so dd2 had access to chocolate on occasion!)

Grin
worraliberty · 30/09/2011 12:22

I don't have a sweet tooth at all (crisps and nuts are my vice!)

Yet, just like most children my parents treated me to sweets when I was a child.

I must say, from reading MN there are some very self indulgent parents (not the OP btw) who tend to allow their children nothing more than water and carrot sticks...yet when the kids are at school/in bed, it's all "Oh, shall I finish this cake, it'd be rude to leave a slice" (egged on by other posters) and "Ooh it's wine o' clock at last"

It doesn't seem fair sometimes Sad

HecateGoddessOfTheNight · 30/09/2011 12:23

re motivation and principle - they are a shop. their motivation is to get our money and they will display things in the way that will tempt us the most. That's why the bread smells are pumped round the store, why the treats are at the end of aisles, why the nicest stuff is at eye level...

and why the choccy is sat waving at you when you're trapped at the tills.

it's just the way it is. They don't owe us a duty of care, aren't there to make our lives easier and don't owe us anything. They exist to sell us stuff that we need/want. It really is all down to us what goes in the trolley.

Now then. If you'll excuse me, I wish to go and fantasise about being forcefed curly wurlies Grin

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