Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

Toddlers and shopping centres

123 replies

Thurlow · 30/12/2013 16:25

I went sales shopping the other day to one of those big 'event' shopping centres Milton sodding Keynes, and the place was full of toddlers in puschairs.

Now I have a 2yo, and I can't imagine anything worse than taking them around a hot, crowded, noisy shopping centre in a pushchair for hours on end. And it seemed most of the toddlers I saw thought pretty similar, given how cheerful and happy they were...

Now babies, fine, they tend to sleep through anything. Older children too, they are presumably interested enough in some shops and eating in a restaurant. But toddlers? I was trying to think of a reason for it. Now I know that some toddlers enjoy shops and might have loved several hours in a shopping centre. And also some people won't have anyone to leave the toddler with (though most toddlers I saw seemed to be with groups of both parents and some grandparents, though actually not many that I could see with older siblings). And of course there will be some people who really need to sales shop for clothes etc because of their budget, and so it's worth the hassle.

Also, I know toddlers have to fit in with the rest of family life, so mine has to do the odd short clothes shop, the food shopping etc, but the shopping centre really is one you sort of 'go' to for half a day, not pop to because you need something.

But AIBU to think that probably with so many of these kids - and there were hundreds of 'em, I swear - it really isn't a good idea to take a toddler around a shopping centre for several hours? I'm not judging people who do, I'm just... bemused. If I didn't have my parents to look after DC on that day, I wouldn't have gone sales shopping, I would have done it online.

OP posts:

formerbabe · 30/12/2013 16:27

I would never have gone shopping if I couldn't take my toddler.

Strange attitude...we don't all have daytime childcare options.

kinkyfuckery · 30/12/2013 16:28

You are completely right, of course, but people always get the hump when I leave my two year old at home to go shopping!

WorraLiberty · 30/12/2013 16:29

Meh! Kids need to learn the world doesn't evolve entirely around them. Sometimes they need to go somewhere they don't want to.

As long as they're not having a meltdown, I wouldn't give it another thought.

RandyRudolf · 30/12/2013 16:29

Maybe it's a sign of the times. When I was a child I was never taken around shopping centres. Probably because there were none back then

WorraLiberty · 30/12/2013 16:29

'Revolve'

Tractorandtree · 30/12/2013 16:30

Totally agree, I went sales shopping yesterday and left both dc (inc 1 toddler) with dh and saw many many v bored looking toddlers with equally bored looking dads/relatives waiting outside shops.

Most of the time though I don't have any choice so have the dc with me but restrict shopping trips to as short as possible in non busy times and do most stuff online.

Unexpected · 30/12/2013 16:30

If I didn't have my parents to look after DC on that day, I wouldn't have gone sales shopping - I think you answered your own question there. Very many people don't have the luxury of parents or family to look after their children and have no option but to take them. I don't think you can decide based on a fleeting glance into a buggy that all the toddlers there were unhappy and even if they were crying one minute, they were probably laughing the next. Finally, not everyone wants to buy everything online, sometimes only a real-life shopping trip will do.

WilsonFrickett · 30/12/2013 16:31

Mine spent quite a bit of time in our local shopping centre. It was free, warm, close and served good coffee. I probably wouldn't have taken him on the first couple of days of the sales mind you, but yeah, we did our share of mall hanging... Meh.

SlinkyB · 30/12/2013 16:31

I hear ya op, but fear you're gonna get flamed!

iamusuallybeingunreasonable · 30/12/2013 16:31

Oh dear, did the toddlers get in your way, some people have to shop with toddlers in tow as they don't have on tap babysitters like others do, reality if life means you sometimes need to go to the shops, maybe you are the one who should have stayed at home and shopped online

Gileswithachainsaw · 30/12/2013 16:31

If you can avoid it great however sometimes needs must. You just deal with it. It's not like they "ruin" anything it's just shopping and no fun fir anyone anyway. We have to take ours there for shoes.

SkinnybitchWannabe · 30/12/2013 16:32

I don't go near the sales at all.
I'm never desperate enough to buy anything!!

Binkyridesagain · 30/12/2013 16:32

Maybe they wanted to get out of the house for a few hours into somewhere that's warm and dry.

Heartbrokenmum73 · 30/12/2013 16:33

a) not everyone has childcare on tap

b) you can't 'see' things online/pick them/feel them/try them on

c) toddlers will not die if they occasionally go to a shopping centre

Having said all that, I avoid sales like the plague - there is nothing I want that badly that will make me endure what I consider hell on earth, toddler in tow or not!

formerbabe · 30/12/2013 16:34

I find the ops attitude incredibly smug. My parents are dead so not on hand to babysit. Should I not go shopping for my childs early years?!

HappTeeNewYear · 30/12/2013 16:34

If my husband hadn't been off today, I would have taken my 4 year old to the shops.

And I would have taken him when he was a toddler as well.

I don't have any other child care.

I suppose I could leave him alone at home...

iamusuallybeingunreasonable · 30/12/2013 16:36

I work full time, have no family close by, if I need new knickers in not gonna hold off because there's a toddler in tow who might pee off a miserable old git scouring the bargain (ha!) rails

Binkyridesagain · 30/12/2013 16:36

MY DCs when they were little frequently came shopping with me, if they didn't they wouldn't have had any food to eat or clothes to wear. DH worked away, no internet and no on hand babysitters.

ContinentalKat · 30/12/2013 16:38

Couldn't agree with you more, OP. Also realise that shopping is the nation's favourite hobby now and my family and I are usually the odd ones out for not conforming.

I have very fond memories of living in Switzerland where all big supermarkets and shopping centres have crèches and all shops are shut on Sundays.

DuchessFanny · 30/12/2013 16:39

I took my DC shopping with me when they were toddlers, it wasn't much fun sometimes ( for me mainly !)
But needs must and I had no other choice. All children are different too, my eldest two were pretty happy looking at all going on around them, my third wanted to create Merry hell during supermarket shops, let alone a wander round a shopping centre.

DuchessFanny · 30/12/2013 16:41

And I avoid the sales even now !!

Original poster

Thurlow · 30/12/2013 16:41

I completely agree that toddlers have to learn the world doesn't revolve around them. I do take mine shopping. Just 3 hours, say, stuck in their pushchair (the place was far too busy to let them out on reins and there isn't really anywhere to run free for half an hour) somewhere hot and busy didn't strike me as fun for anyone, parents or toddlers.

None of them got in my way at all. Like I said, I have a toddler too, there's nothing a toddler could do at the moment to annoy me as I'm in the middle of coping with it too And I know, as I said in my op, there's plenty of reasons why the toddler had to go too. I was just surprised by groups of mum, dad, both grandparents and a little one in a pushchair all shopping. Nearly 1 in every 4 or 5 people/groups I saw had a toddler - that's what surprised me, and a lot of them were having a bit of a meltdown (though that might have been because it was early afternoon and I guess naptime for a lot of little ones)

I'm in no way saying kids shouldn't go shopping - I said that in my op Just I was surprised how many people woke up on day 2 of the Christmas sales and decided to go on mass.

OP posts:

DuckieEggBlue · 30/12/2013 16:41

Well, we went to Milton Keynes at weekend, and my toddler loved all the Christmas decorations in the main hall, and both my kids thoroughly enjoyed the jungle play area at the side of the main hall. We had a nice meal too, went into a couple of shops, but didn't see many miserable kids. Agree that kids sometimes just need to tow the line sometimes though!

DuckieEggBlue · 30/12/2013 16:42

ExcuseTypos · 30/12/2013 16:42

I never took my toddlers shopping if I could help it, but I was fortunate that I could leave them with someone.

Not everyone has that, so what else are they supposed to do with their child?

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Swipe left for the next trending thread