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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think people should not be shopping with children

87 replies

Domjolly · 24/02/2013 17:23

Went to 24 hour tesco on friday night it was about 1:30am and i was shocked how many people were doing a full shop with kids in tow

Not getting bit and bobs in aemegancey they had a full trolly full and the kids were ranging from about 4-11 and it was a few seprate familes

There is so circumstance i can think of were your children need to be up at 1:30am doing a full shop with you

these were not small bairs these were school age children

I totally understand the frazzled mum in a onsie grabbing some calpol after a bad night of high fever

But under what other senero should a child be up at 1:30 period let alone doung a weekly shop

No wonder teachers have a time of it with kids to blinking tired to work

OP posts:

Chiggers · 24/02/2013 18:32

Nanny not all DC are next to useless in school when they go back.

One of DS's favourite shows is live at our local arena now and then. I would take DS and we wouldn't get back home until the wee hours (1-2am usually) and he gets up fine and dandy the next day. I have also seen him going to school bright and breezy on the Monday with DD and me collecting him to go to club. If he's tired, he will finish his homework and go to bed after tea, because he's sensible like that. DS has never been grumpy due to a late night. He is always grumpy and whingy when he hasn't had a late one and is in bed and sleeping by 8pm.

Lafaminute · 24/02/2013 18:33

The majority of replies here are why shouldn't op pass comment - as others have said these observations/comments make up most of mn. It seems like posters are looking for an opportunity to be cooler/better/less judgemental than others.

YANBU Op because it is hardly in any childs best interests to be in a supermarket at 1:30am, school night or not.

Bunbaker · 24/02/2013 18:33

I must admit I would think it odd, but then you wouldn't see me in a supermarket at 1.30 am either.

I can only assume that the parent has no childcare or the husband/partner is the only one who can drive but isn't trusted to do the shopping himself. Perhaps the parents work shifts or they have just come back from holiday?

I still think it odd though.

Tailtwister · 24/02/2013 18:33

It does seem a bit odd OP and I would be wondering about the circumstances myself, especially with the school age children.

Southeastdweller · 24/02/2013 18:35

I used to think this also when I went to the Tesco in Hackney late at night and in the early hours. I don't see any good reasons for this at all.

Of course, if Waitrose were to open 24 hours then this type of thing would simply never, ever happen

OnwardBound · 24/02/2013 18:59

I think all this judging is a bit weird tbh.

If the kids seemed happy enough and not grizzling or falling asleep on their feet really what is the problem? And I can't see how this would inconvenience other shoppers or Tesco staff (this being the time when I can understand raised eyebrows).

Maybe family had just returned from holiday in Australia and were jetlagged. Maybe children had been unwell and slept all day and were now wide awake.

And it was a Friday night at half term... so maybe it really didn't matter if children were a bit tired the next day.

SomethingOnce · 24/02/2013 19:02

Maybe they all had jetlag after returning from exotic locations?

Pagwatch · 24/02/2013 19:05

I think the possibility that they are heading home after a holiday is feasible

But tbh yes, if I saw several people inthe supermarket with a 4/6/8 year olds at 1.00 in the morning I would wonder in a slightly wtf way. One or o might have particular reasons. The rest are just a bit bizarre.

Why does half term make a child wandering around in the early hours of the morning fair enough?

freddiemisagreatshag · 24/02/2013 19:09

I have done it on the way home from a night out where we'd stayed longer than intended and kids were awake, on the way home from holiday and once with all the girls in pj's in the middle of a sleepover. And they weren't even all my own children

So flame me.

FlouncingMintyy · 24/02/2013 19:12

How strange! I have never been shopping beyond 6 in the evening so have never witnessed anything like this.

Where were you op?

Pagwatch · 24/02/2013 19:13

Is there any flaming going on?

I am just reading some vague befuddlement at why lots of children would be out at 1.30.

freddiemisagreatshag · 24/02/2013 19:14

Sorry Pag I was being flippant it didn't come across well

CremeEggScoffer · 24/02/2013 19:17

a few weeks ago, I let my ds have a sleep in the afternoon, we got to 10pm and he wasn't remotely tired so I went to tesco and did my shopping, noone batted an eyelid, by the time I'd finished it was nearly 1130pm, so killed 2 birds with one stone, he crashed when we got in and I didn't have to drag him round the shops the next day win-win

don't judge until you know the circumstances

shushpenfold · 24/02/2013 19:17

Have done this once with my 3....young at the time, but unfortunately all WIDE, WIDE, WIDE awake after a flight back from the USA....the time change had buggered up their body clocks.......

Don't see much of this sort of shabby parenting shenanigans in rural Dorset though

Pagwatch · 24/02/2013 19:18

gawd - don't apologise.
I'm am being ponderous.
I am staring to wonder if it is Tesco - Gatwick branch.

freddiemisagreatshag · 24/02/2013 19:19

not in my case.

Although taking 4 over excited pre-teens, who were very giggly and on a sugar high from all the rubbish they'd eaten, out at silly o'clock wasn't perhaps the brightest idea I ever had

McNewPants2013 · 24/02/2013 19:24

I wouldn't dream of taking DC out that time now, but any age before dd was born me and ds used to go shopping at crazy o'clock he was awake so I got shopping done in peace.

He still only sleeps around 4 hours and I have gotten used to never sleeping its only DD that stops us going now ( she loves her sleep)

everydayaschoolday · 24/02/2013 19:39

OP YANBU

MamaBear17 · 24/02/2013 19:40

I'm a judgy pants over people dragging their kids around supermarkets late a night too. I just think they should be in bed. A one off is fair enough, exceptional circumstances are fair enough. However, I hate seeing people screaming at tired, tantruming toddlers because they are dragging them around the supermarket when they should be in bed.

TartyMcTart · 24/02/2013 19:50

Oh come on, yes there are the odd exceptions but I can guarantee that if I saw families in our local Tesco at 1.30am they wouldn't be jet lagged or popping in for emergency goods. The way you hear them screaming at their kids during the day whilst wearing their dressing gowns makes that quite obvious.

I judge a lot so flame me.

BambieO · 24/02/2013 20:17

But how do we 'know' if it's a one off or not? Unless OP sees them every week we can't just presume can we? Give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they have all been off on exciting holidays while I have been stuck home counting snowflakes

tigerdriverII · 24/02/2013 20:28

The thing I don't get is two parents plus kids, where everyone is bad tempered, as supermarket shopping is grim for everyone. I know there are times/circumstances when everyone needs to go to the shop but why doesn't one parent stay at home with the kids. Probably have read too many relationships threads but I sometimes think that someone is being controlling in those scenarios.

JockTamsonsBairns · 24/02/2013 20:37

I can't understand this at all - where is all this happening, OP?

I've been a shift worker for 20 odd years, and have been doing my weekly shop in the middle of the night for over a decade, and I have never seen as much as one child in the supermarket at that time, ever. In that time I've lived in Glasgow, the North of England and now the South East, and I've just never seen such a thing.

All very strange.

BlahBlahBlahhh · 24/02/2013 21:14

YANBU, no doubt there are odd situations where this may be acceptable...a baby that won't sleep, returning from a holiday, an emergency (doubtful if it necessitates a whole trolly load) but school holidays or not, it's bad parenting in any other circumstance in my opinion. I work nights and often see people out and about with little ones, late in the evening in the cold. They should be tucked up in bed, poor little mites.

littlemrssleepy · 24/02/2013 21:20

A friend got some terrible looks when she took her little ones to the supermarket at 2am. They had just flown in from Oz and were all jet lagged .

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