To think that children really don't need to use their scooters in the supermarket?

[Pointlessfan]

Or inside shopping centres or any other place where there really isn't enough space and the rest of us have to keep dodging them. This is seriously getting on my nerves, every time I go shopping I have to keep jumping out of the path of children zooming about on scooters. Why can't they ride them in the park? I was brought up to be considerate of others and would never have been allowed to use a scooter, bike or roller skates in shops or any where else where I would be in the way.
Feel better for getting that off my chest! So is it just me or are others equally annoyed by this?

I use to have mobility/balance problems and this was a problem. It gave me an insight into older peoples problems with the sudden appearance of an unpredictable scooting kid.

If you let your kids do this please stop!

Chopin- you are putting your child's desire to scoot in an unsuitable place ahead of any consideration for other people. Supermarkets are for shoppers to shop in, not kids to scoot about in.

And kids on foot without scooters DO have more control because they can stop.

Yes there are worse things than a well behaved child on a scooter- but there are better things too- a child with NO scooter who understands the world cannot be bent to fit his or her desires at the expense of others.

Why can't parents just tell kids that on this one, they can't get their own way? It's a valuable life lesson.

Thank you for the advice.

I do discipline but don't really see the need on this point. My dd is very careful and I am on hand to supervise her; she is not crashing around at twenty miles an hour and, in actuality, I have seen many children running around at a far faster pace than she does on her little scooter.

I am afraid my little one does get rather bored and mental tiredness swiftly follows which, in turn can lead to a dreadful melt down which can upset other shoppers, me and, worst of all, her.

So, there is no need for her not to get her way, in this particular case, as her way benefits all of us and, as I say, I am on hand all the time to make sure that she does not put herself or anyone else in danger.

Indoor use of scooter by a careful child is no more dangerous than a child running about and, as in my example up thread, throwing glass jars on the floor.

We need to be a little more attuned to children's needs but we aren't. As an aside and without wishing to derail: I have asked my local supermarket to move glass jars from shelves that are within reach of a little hands. I am afraid this request was ignored, albeit after much fobbing me off with ridiculous emails.

halfdrunk why would it not have occurred to you before that using it may be a silly idea? I am just really shocked that people are so short sighted!

We need to be a little more attuned to children's needs but we aren't. As an aside and without wishing to derail: I have asked my local supermarket to move glass jars from shelves that are within reach of a little hands.
No, people need to try and teach their children not to touch the glass jars. Not everything should be child proof. We cannot remove every risk.

We need to be a little more attuned to children's needs but we aren't. As an aside and without wishing to derail: I have asked my local supermarket to move glass jars from shelves that are within reach of a little hands. I am afraid this request was ignored, albeit after much fobbing me off with ridiculous emails.

and that ^^ is what is going wrong with society today. The world is being bent to fit with children's desires NOT needs. Children are not being taught to fit in. They are being taught that what they want trumps everyone else's needs.

You let your child use a scooter in the supermarket and had the nerve to tell the supermarket to make the supermarket more scooter friendly??

Words fail me.

Indoor use of scooter by a careful child is no more dangerous than a child running about and, as in my example up thread, throwing glass jars on the floor.

I have never seen a child throw glass jars on the floor of a supermarket. It's very rare. You cannot ban glass jars because of a one off. You can ban scooters as it would seem from this thread that many people have had or have witnessed accidents caused by them

Also- just having a kids buzzing round on a scooter in a supermarket puts me on edge. YOU might think your child is safe, but everyone else is dodging them and feeling wary. Why should they feel like that when they are buying food?

I'm afraid I haven't read the full thread and have had wine but MUSEUMS. They do it in MUSEUMS. One very particular museum, with serious and sensitive subject matter, where visitors sometimes break down and cry. No respect.

We get this a lot at work and I'll be honest and say it really pisses me off - problem is, we don't have anything up to say children can't use them, so us on the shop floor are very wary of engaging children doing it. I've been subjected to torrents of foul-mouthed abuse for far far less. Having said that, I've always got involved when it looks like someone might get hurt (if it's busy and/or they're going really fast or just generally if they're doing something ridiculously stupid)

Complaints are good though. I could become a one-woman army against it, but if I'm the only one making people stop then I just look daft (happens with ecigs and dogs-in-bags, if I pull someone up on it they just point out that they've got all this way without anyone else mentioning it so I must be an evil fun sucking jobsworth ) Customers pointing it out though might instigate a store wide push against it...

Even if your daughter is being careful on her little scooter, it's still not correct practice. MissBattleAxe had it spot on - shoppers don't want to feel anxious of potential scooter accidents while they're shopping. All you have to do is turn your back for one second (surely this must happen in a supermarket?) and your child has scooted off into a customer, their trolley and a huge glass display. It's not safe. It's not polite to other customers. And you cannot pander to a kid to avoid a meltdown at the annoyance and potential safety risk of others.

Miss Battleaxe.

I did not ask a supermarket to be more 'scooter friendly'. I asked them to show a little consideration towards children, on scooters or not, by removing dangerous objects out of reach of their little hands.

I have only witnessed one dc, not my child, throwing glass items onto the floor but they were thrown in such bulk and with such ferocity that it made me, and other shoppers, very upset to think how he could have hurt himself. It all happened very quickly and we calmed the poor thing very quickly but it could have been a serious situation.

The supermarket staff were lovely and gave him a cheap toy to placate him and seemed to agree that glass within a child's reach was a danger.

In the light of that, it didn't seem unreasonable to suggest that these things be kept at a height out of the reach of most young children: maybe on the top shelves.

It would cost nothing and inconvenience no-one but could save one child from harm...not to mention harm befalling anyone who was in the way of the meltdown: glass injuries can be pretty horrific.

Anyway, this seems to be derailing the thread and that wasn't my intention.

Oh for goodness sake, moving things to top shelves won't prevent accidents, parents watching their kids properly and being willing to actually discipline them will.

Glass cannot be thrown in bulk in seconds if a child is being handled appropriately.

As a teacher, I despair when I hear about wimpy parents like this. No wonder some turn up the way they do at secondary.

Staff will nod and agree to anything. Shops are businesses not playgrounds. They aren't designed to be child friendly, they're designed to make it easy and convenient for adults to buy things. They might very well be family friendly, but that's not the same as being safe for a child to run around without supervision.

I didn't time it but it was more than just a few seconds and although I said 'bulk' actual broken jars probably didn't amount to more than a dozen or so, although the rainbow of sauce that was decanted looked pretty dramatic.

I don't think positive reinforcement and an understanding about how tiredness and frustration equates to 'wimpy parenting' although obviously we all have our own ideas.

In my case, and to get back to the original question: no, I think a child can be perfectly safe to themselves and others when using a carefully supervised scooter in the supermarket.

Heavens above, children can run amok when their needs are not met and although those needs can't always be met, in this case, for me and my child, they can. I should add, I would ask my child to dismount if we entered a small shop and, like all children, when they are given a reason that they can understand, she complies.

I understand that I am in a minority of one on this thread but luckily not so in the supermarkets. However, I have given my opinion and there doesn't seem a lot of sense in just repeating it to the annoyance of others.

I have never seen this, but if I do, I don't think I'll hold back. Those with limited mobility or who are struggling with walking have enough problems getting round the supermarket. Sorry, but they are more important than scooting constantly for fun. I blame the supermarket manager's though - they should simply ask anyone allowing their child to do this to leave immediately.

I also find it strange the amount of young children scooting wildly on pavements - often I can't even see an adult nearby, and they look like they could veer into the road at any minute.

Honestly I dispair. Sometimes it makes me second guess my choice to try and conceive next year. Your little darlings are not the centre of the universe. Children need to learn boundaries. If everything is taken away, how on earth will they learn?

So basically that child has been rewarded with a 'cheap toy' for chucking products on the floor.

And if their 'little hands' are that little they should be in prams or grasped by their parents.

It would cost nothing and inconvenience no-one but could save one child from harm...not to mention harm befalling anyone who was in the way of the meltdown: glass injuries can be pretty horrifi

Actually it would cost supermarkets. You don't think their product placement is by accident do you? Items are placed strategically to gain the most profit. There's all sorts of research that has gone into the placement of products, most importantly the height at which they sit.

The thing about the risk of speaking up is true, sadly.

I must just say: he wasn't 'rewarded', that was not the impression I wanted to give and not what happened.

We were trying to calm him down. He was upset, shouting and not a little frightened at the enormity of what he had done. The toy simply distracted him, we reassured him and he soon realised that he was not going to be hauled off and beaten!

After some deep breaths in the car park, we took him back in to show that the mess had been cleared away and that all was well. My friend offered to pay for the toy but the staff said there was no need.

It was at this point that I mentioned the danger of glass being within a child's reach. I later entered into a fruitless email exchange with head office about the possibility of putting safety first.

Goodnight.

Indoor use of scooter by a careful child is no more dangerous than a child running about and,

Chopin I suspect (and fervently hope) you are a spoof poster.

If you aren't, why do you not realise that neither scooting NOR running about is appropriate behaviour in a shop?

You seem to view your role as some kind of whim-enabler. Terrifying.

I've never seen a child on a scooter in a store here (Ohio). Heelies were very popular here a few years ago, and they were banned in most of the stores in my area; there were signs on the doors that they were not allowed.

My daughter is four, and she always wants to walk when we're shopping. If she doesn't behave, she knows she will have to sit in the cart. Sometimes she asks to ride in the cart because she's tired.

chopin do you think that's how a child will see it? And I really don't think placating a child after their bad behaviour with a toy is right at all.

Can I have the window seat arsenic?