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AIBU?

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Original poster

People taking ridiculous risks with their dc in supermarket trolleys

211 replies

wherewasi · 21/04/2013 16:30

Just done the supermarket run, as always I find I have to avert my eyes and bite my tongue at the sight of so many tiny children standing up in the trolley while it's being pushed round the shop or hanging off the side.

I have seen so many accidents where the trolley gets shunted and the child falls over/off and hurts themselves - bangs their head, bites their tongue, scrapes themselves on the metal. Why do parents do this? Presumably they take the normal precautions in other areas - car seats, road safety awareness, advising dc to take care in the playground or running round the house?

Even saw a really tiny one today slumped in one of the shallow trolleys with his head lolling over the edge, just at the right level to bang it on a shelf.

AIBU or OTT to cringe about this?

OP posts:
ShadowStorm · 21/04/2013 19:51

YouDont - risks of taking a buggy on an escalator would include:

  • You tripping on the escalator;
  • You losing your balance because you're holding onto the buggy instead of the escalator rails;
  • You losing your grip on the buggy handle;
  • A bit of the buggy gets stuck in the escalator mechanism (harder to keep a buggy away from the sides than it is to keep yourself away from the sides), and if this happens, the escalator will be trying to drag the buggy down into the escalator mechanism;
  • You get a bit stuck getting off at the top / bottom, and anyone behind you on the escalator will pile into you;

Any of the above could result in serious injury.

MarvellousYou · 21/04/2013 19:57

I guess it's lazy parenting, when you know your kids should sit in the proper seat but scream when you try. Letting them walk round ends in a tantrum because they can't go down the toy aisle and all you went in for is a refund for some pants and some frigging milk!

Some people will say you're judging but I think you're just saying what parents already know

NorthernLurker · 21/04/2013 20:03

The thudguard boasts of 'by protecting our precious loved ones little brains from everyday thuds and bumps' - which is of course a ridiculous over-reaction imo. Sitting in trollies isn't an every day requirement. Nobody needs to do it so there's no point running any risk whatsover with it.

ChippingInLovesSpring · 21/04/2013 20:06

sparklingbrook - I can't answer for everyone of course, but yes, if there's not a lift I'll take a buggy on an escalator...

wherewasi - (I said) 'they are at far more risk of getting hurt if they walk around the supermarket] Your reply of 'What a ludicrous comment' is ludicrous... Of course a toddler walking around a supermarket is more at risk than one in a trolley - it should go without saying.

Sparklingbrook · 21/04/2013 20:10

Well if there's no lift Chipping there isn't much option. Sad

NorthernLurker · 21/04/2013 20:13

'Of course a toddler walking around a supermarket is more at risk than one in a trolley '

How? Yes if totally free range and liable to be flattened by a stock trolley or to pull down baked beans on their head. Not if somebody is holding their hand.

Btw if there's no lift in a shop only an escalator then you need to visit that shop when you don't have the pram with you. Going upstairs in a shop isn't worth the risk of serious injury to you or your child. What do you think is up there? Solid gold buttons on sale?

ShadowStorm · 21/04/2013 20:18

I'm also not understanding how a toddler walking around a supermarket is more at risk than one standing in the trolley unless toddler is totally free range.

TheChaoGoesMu · 21/04/2013 20:23

My sil took ds to the supermarket a few months ago, she was holding his hand, and he still got bashed in the head by someones shopping basket. He arrived home with a bloody great gash on the side of his head. He would have been far safer in the trolley.

jamdonut · 21/04/2013 20:23

I've only read the beginning of the thread, but I have a Husband who works for Tesco, he says they are told to challenge the parents of children standing in trolleys ,because it is dangerous.There are also notices on the handles of trolleys in most stores telling you not to allow your children to do it. I guess if you've got the sort of children who will sit still, then the chances of an accident happening are slim, but so many you see are jumping up and down or climbing in and out. If a trolley tips and hurts your child, would you then blame the store,or make a claim against them?

iloveshortshorts · 21/04/2013 20:25

A customer let her DD sit on top of what was about £100 worth of food shopping and she did a wee on it, it soaked through
All of it and left a big puddle on the floor!

NorthernLurker · 21/04/2013 20:25

'He would have been far safer in the trolley.' - in the seat part of the trolley. NOT the basket part.

Sparklingbrook · 21/04/2013 20:26

Hopefully the sign saying don't do it will prevent any claims direct stylee stuff jamdonut.

Katla · 21/04/2013 20:27

When I was a student about ten years ago I worked in a shop and I witnessed a small boy, I think he would have been about 3 or 4, fall out the front of a trolley. His father was pushing it and he stopped rather suddenly, whilst looking the other way. The little boy just went head over heels right out over the front. He landed on his head and I heard his head hit the solid concrete floor from where I was standing about twenty feet away. It was one of the most horrific things I've ever seen and I remember that sickening sound. His head swelled up with an enormous orange-sized bump on it where he hit the ground and he screamed so loud. His parents went absolutely spare with panic and worry. Then first aiders were called and the child got a cold pack on the lump and the parents were going to the hospital with him.

It happened so quickly that they couldn't have caught him and the trolley wasn't even going that fast. I recall it vividly even to this day.

So I too want to tell people with their kids standing in the trolley to just don't do it. Yes, I've seen many many kids riding around in trolleys without mishap and just that one child fall out. But there is no way I'm going to risk hearing my own child's head hit solid concrete like I did that day.

TheChaoGoesMu · 21/04/2013 20:33

'He would have been far safer in the trolley.' - in the seat part of the trolley. NOT the basket part.

Nope. Because he's too big for the seat and above the weight limit.

Khaleese · 21/04/2013 20:34

We don't allow ours to stand in a trolley, far too dangerous.

Did watch the youngest run away in the trolley as i deal with dc1. It was a heart stopping moment, hurtling towards parked traffic!!

Level the freaking car park!!!

It happens to us all.

Sparklingbrook · 21/04/2013 20:34

Trolleys should have brakes.

Khaleese · 21/04/2013 20:37

I know, it didn't. I was horribly sleep deprived though, so that didn't help....accident happen when you just don't see a danager!

curmit · 21/04/2013 20:39

totally in agreement with this. Saw a child (way too old to be sitting in a trolley) sitting in a shallow trolley, she leaned over and tipped the trolley over and she banged her head. The crash was horrible. Mother continued with her shop and child cried the entire time, later I saw that the girl was BACK inside the bloody trolley.

girliefriend · 21/04/2013 20:43

My dd, once she was too big to sit in the front bit, always sat in the bottom of the trolley, I wouldn't let her stand up but sat down she is contained and less likely to run off. She still sometimes does this and she is 7yo Blush

ChippingInLovesSpring · 21/04/2013 21:02

Northern there's absolutely no need to be rude to me, none at all. We have a difference of opinion over this - that's all. And, not that I should need to justify myself to you, but I was actually thinking of escalators in tube stations etc not shops.

Curmit & others... those of us who don't think letting kids sit or stand in the trolley is putting us straight onto the path of hell wouldn't necessarily be the same people who would allow a child to sit or stand in a shallow trolley - I for one, would not.

Children regularly get hurt in supermarkets when they are walking about because they are small, they can't be easily seen by other shoppers and they get knocked by baskets and trolley and that is why they are safer in the trolley, whether that be in the seats in the front or sitting in the (deep) trolley.

Anyone who thinks a kids shoes are the dirtiest/unhealthiest thing that ever gets put in a trolley need to have a wee look at where they are stored... and that's without going into the contamination of packaging of food along the way, meat juices and christ knows what else.

chickenfactory · 21/04/2013 21:11

My DH sprained his ankle falling out of a trolley as it tipped over. He was about 25 though so really should have known better. Wink

pamelat · 21/04/2013 21:14

Before I had my DS, I would have taken a similar, quite self righteous really, view.

DS (2) is uncontrollable in a super market, he would run off or at the very least hurt himself or someone else scooting under legs etc

I have a dd (5) and she didn't do this! It's a personality thing.

It is safer for me to let him stand (not at bread/end bit) in the main trolley with me watching him than to have him "loose"

I think it's a bit trampy somehow (?!) but needs must

NorthernLurker · 21/04/2013 21:14

The context of the thread is about shopping not public transport Chipping. It never occurred to me that you would mean tube escalators because if there's no lift in the tube then you either ask the station staff to help you with a folded buggy or you plan your journey to avoid those stations or travel with a sling or back pack. Nobody HAS to take a buggy up an escalator just as nobody HAS to put their child in the basket part of a trolley.
Whilst we're throwing around personal experience as evidence I'll say again, 3 kids, oldest now 15. In all that time none of them have sat in the basket part and none of them have emerged from a supermarket with as much as a graze. The stubborn insistence on this thread that it's your right as parents to pointlessly endanger your children simply beggars belief.

Tanith · 21/04/2013 21:19

YANBU
I know a child who smashed his front teeth tumbling out of a trolley. His mum was so upset - it looked awful until his second teeth came in.

TheChaoGoesMu · 21/04/2013 21:20

Well good for you that none of your children have emerged with a single graze. My ds has, and I will therefore continue to keep dc in the trolley to keep them safe.