Toddlers shouldn't be in Asda at 12:45am?!

[OrangeLily]

Due to a DH accidentally damaging part of a family members Christmas present I had to nip out to Asda past midnight and I was pretty shocked to see two different women with toddlers doing a huge shop.

Now I realise that due to shift work this might be the only time the parent has to go shop but these weren't babies asleep in buggies in PJs or a sleep suit these were very awake bubs. All local accents, etc so not jet lagged kids I'd assume.

AIBU??

I took a 5 year old and 10 month old to tesco last month at 11.30pm. It was a Saturday and we were the only people there with children. It was the easiest supermarket shopping experience with the two I've ever had. YABU.

Singapore- here it is a regular thing to find whole families food shopping at 10pm; grandparents, parents, small children and maids all going round browsing. The children invariably run off shrieking while the maids chase them up the aisles. The parents and grandparents ignore the children.

I do pull up my judgy pants as the children should be in bed and they have staff who can look after them. There is no need to be out so late with the children.

Could have had autism and not ever sleep and they were using this to their advantage for once and you were stood the hoiking up your judgy pants

I'm just adding this because I want to know why someone wouldn't talk for 2 days because of butter, cucumber and a christmas pudding.

As you were

1. its not your business
2. its not your problem
3. so what would you like them to do with their toddlers, leave them 'home alone'?

Going shopping at that time is an adventure and will probably be remembered fondly by those kids as a part of christmas.

Life is too short to get worried over strict bedtimes if they dont have school in the morning!

I am assuming the poster was caught short and all they had was butter, a cucumber and a Christmas pudding.

Not a very festive meal, eh?

You will need to make sure it is only a Christmas present that is damaged with your judgey pants hoiked up that high!

YABU. It's not your business.

I wish I'd done that with my toddler. Shopping at 7am was quite unpleasant whereas at the timeyou're talking about it would have been beautifully quiet and he could have "helped" to his heart's content.

YABU

Our youngest had us (well dh) up a few times last night and then was up for the day at 5am. A wee trip to the supermarket at 12.45am to tire the tyke out might have actually got us some sleep. If only we had thought of it.

Mine have always attended midnight Mass since they were born. I guess that's the same thing

You absolutely could do this ten years ago. When I was in my third year of uni 17 years ago my housemates and I used to do midnight shops at Asda and have trolley races in the lovely empty aisles.

Shops were doing midnight openings ten years ago

This is why I hated taking my 2 year old out past his bedtime when I was working. I'd get filthy, judgey looks and comments like "oooh past your bedtime little man?" at 9pm.

Honestly it's none of your business.

YABU

The happiest toddlers IME are the ones who don't have too rigid a routine nailed down, because they cope with change and can be flexible. If the kids were wide awake then what is the problem?

Maybe they were on their way back from a party and took a detour. Maybe they had been visiting relatives and the kids slept most of the evening anyway. It's not ideal but at this time of year surely all routines fly out the window anyway. No it wasn't me, but it might be later!

Were they happy alert toddlers? If so, I don't see a problem. If they were tired, grouchy, screamy toddlers, then you might have a point.

DH & I took DS to Tesco late night shopping with us the other night. DS slept through the whole thing in his pushchair.

YANBU
I can't believe just about all the posters think this is reasonable behaviour. Typical MN responses.
There may be 101 reasons why they were there but, under normal circumstances, surely this is unacceptable.

I wouldnt do it but i have dh to help me. I also have come back late at nught with ds (2) in the car, its no problem.

You don't know if these toddlers are habitually awake in the middle of the night. Perhaps they had the clever idea of avoiding Christmas eve supermarket shop nightmare with overtired toddler the next day.

I really should have had that idea last night when dd couldn't sleep.

I used to go and do the shopping at that time of night 13 years ago, whenDD was a non sleeping toddler. By the time I had got the shopping done, she would fall asleep in the pram on the walk home.

If I had to push her around in the pram to get her to have any sleep, I might as well have been doing something useful!

Just a shame I can't do it now with DS3 - I might actually get some sleep then. Only problem with that is the older 3 DC's!

I'd do it with a toddler, but not with school age DC's.