To ask why any sane person would take their dc's to do the food shop?

[TENDTOprocrastinate]

The kids hate it, it's more difficult to do it with them (for many reasons varying with age). Why not do it online (unless they don't deliver to your area- does this happen?) it's quicker to do it online once you've set it up. It's cheaper- as you don't tend to browse and buy crap so easily. And there is no crying/moaning/complaining children to drag along. You don't even have to load stuff excess times. Ie from shelf to cashier belt to bags to car to driveway to kitchen. No brainer really?

Because I live in the middle of nowhere and tend to do the shopping while on other errands.

I'm not paying delivery when I'm going past.

My DDs mostly don't mind food shopping, they have always done it.

We were outside delivery areas when they were very small.

Also they learn a lot more coming shopping than they do watching CBBC

I don't need a reason or excuse. I take my children shopping. Well, at the moment I take dd as the boys are at school.
But if you want reasons:
£3.00 or whatever is a lot out of my budget (diesel to the supermarket does not cost this)
My preferred supermarket (the one that does the best deals for my family) does not deliver
I sometimes change my planned meals when I see as I go round that something else is on a good offer.
I have heard lots of short dated stuff is sent.
I may shop at various shops if I know something is on a better offer else where.
Shopping is part of life, my children know this and are used to it.

Choosing food online isnt the same. You can't pick bananas which are going to be ripe at the right point of the week, or look for the piece of meat which is just right for the meal you have planned.

I do loads of other outside activities with dd's! They are by no means hermits because they don't do the boring food shop! Lol

Online shopping is also part of life.

DD1 always had her walking reins clipped to the trolly, she sliped the built in strap and climbed on the till belt.

Do you think it makes you superior or something? All this talk of your darling daughter helping do the online shop, how you're preparing her for the future and how you use your time so much more wisely by mumsnetting playing with her while waiting.

Startall- :)

Stuntgirl- no, I'm just a bit bored at the mo. dc in bed. Dh out with work. I've had a few glasses of my 'online shop' wine. And I had this debate with some of my parent friends earlier (I'm on maternity leave). Interesting to see what everyone else thinks. I just haven't shopped properly in a food shop for 6 yrs! The only time I've tried it since I've hated it! I don't mean to offend.

OP: Your DD is presumably school age at 5. Do you also not work? If both of these are the case then you have an unusually high amount of DC-free time. I could do it at the weekend without DS and leave him with DH, but I have endless hours in the week where wandering around a supermarket is better than singing "Old MacDonald" again.

Mrs hoarder-my point is online shopping- much less time needed!

x-post

Also online shopping ties me to the house for a couple of hours. Those couple of hours always somehow end up being ones where DS is screaming and needs a long calming walk. Shopping in person I can choose my time on the day.

Because I buy seasonal produce, I shop locally and tend to use more than one supermarket in my weekly shop. This keeps my costs down and money in my local community.

I try not to outsource. By using my local supermarket when I have to I ensure it performs and keeps employing people.

I have never had any issue taking either if my children shopping. We want to eat, we have to go. Means they've early a say in what we have too.

Sorry I think I misunderstood you. I can see how it could be a good time occupier. My dd(5) has just started school, I have a baby (13 weeks). I will be going back to work part time soon. I already feel v busy!

I take 3 dcs to do the weekly shop as it helps kill some of the 3 hrs we are waiting for dd1 to come out of training. Otherwise we would be stuck in the car for that time. (training is too far away to drive there and go home and then go back for her - round trip of about 50 miles) And its at night so there is no-where else open to wander round (apart from 10 pin bowling or cinema or pub )

I don't have any babes in arms though

I do not like ordering food online as I do not like green tomatoes, food which expires on the day of the delivery, food which was not subsituted properly. For us it is easier to go to the shop and buy everything we want. We see what we buy. It is tiring with children but they need to see what is going on in the supermarkets.

The local supermarket doesn't deliver. The butcher, the baker, and the greengrocer don't deliver. They're also only five minutes' walk away. I'd rather support local shops than Tesco. I like to be able to cook what we fancy eating today, rather than planning a week's meals in advance. It's nice to have a reason to get out in the fresh air and get a bit of exercise. Admittedly I've yet to actually produce a child, but when I do in a few months, she'll be joining me on my daily excursion up the road and learning there's more to life than a computer screen. And if my daughter moans and complains, then I'll feel a heightened appreciation for my mother, who put up with my incessant demands for banana yoghurt for years and never actually followed through on her threats to leave home if I didn't pack it in.

So you like to do it one way and others prefer another perfectly legal and acceptable way of acquiring their weekly shop - same with lots of things in life - they aren't harming you so what's the problem?

Online shopping is part of some people's life, going shopping is part of other people's life, hence for my children going shopping is part of life. It takes me an hour tops, where as I would have to wait in for a delivery for 2 or 3 hours I believe, therefor taking up more of my time.

extra petrrol? about 100 yards off the route home round the carpak is hardly going to cost the same as delivery. and you do nto get the deals/educed items that i rely on, no can you check dates, nor can you swap the whole list of items in a recipe if a crucial itenm is missing..

Fruit and veg is shit from an online shop. And I never see the nice offers on cakes naice ham online

I like doing my own food shopping, and picking which things I want in my trolley myself. Especially bananas. I'm very particular about exactly how ripe I want them.

I have friends who do internet shopping, and they often complain about getting substituted items. That would really annoy me.

And not all kids hate grocery shopping. I used to love it. I used to get really cross when my dad sneaked out to the supermarket on Saturday mornings before I'd got up. DS also enjoys it. He sits there in the trolley beaming at all the other shoppers and looking at all the stuff on the shelves.

We're another family who prefer to physically go to the shops rather than online shopping. Dd (who is 2) has always been to the supermarket and loves it. She's always been perfectly happy sitting in the trolley (usually eating something whilst we shop!) and randomly grins at strangers and checkout operators. Like JollyJack I chat to her constantly which has caused me to get some strange looks from people (interestingly other parents who appear to ignore their offspring) and she comments on what we see etc.

We tried online shopping but just didn't like it - substitutions then required me to go to a supermarket to get what I actually wanted in the first place! I like to look at the clothes etc. which you can't do online. Each to their own I say!

If you factor in taxi fare to the supermarket either there and back or just back/petrol costs (depending on how far you live) the £3-4.50 delivery cost is either the same or cheaper.

I personally always spend more in store because I end up seeing things on offer and thinking 'ooh that isn't on offer often, lets get 5' Also I detest supermarkets in general, i'm not a lover of crowds/queuing.

Downsides are that not everything is always available or they substitute for something you really don't want so you end up going to the supermarket anyway to get those things. Also sometimes the fresh stuff is the stuff about to go off.

My DCs don't mind the supermarket. DS (2.8) has a tantrum on the apple aisle begging for them so we always end up coming home with a bag of apples