To think walking around a supermarket with three teenage boys is worse than walking round with three toddlers !!!!

[MagicMary1]

So I went Xmas food shopping today with ds 17 ds 16 and dss 17, they were no help what's so ever. They only came because I promised them I get a burger for them on the way back if they go.

I had them on their phones the whole time and they were so annoying in the Starbucks coffee shop.

They were useless packing they couldn't control the trolley.

Rant over

WHY did you do that to yourself??

on their phones the whole time

The phones ought to have been left at home.

The phones ought to have been left at home.

No way could I get Them to do that.

why??? why would you do that?

YANBU! Multiples of any age are always more trouble than the sum of their parts, but teens are a special kind of aggravatingly useless.

I need them to get items from top shelf.

Are you mad? Why would you take 3 of them???
Yes, it is worse than shopping with 3 toddlers, that's why I wouldn't dream of ever doing it! Take one to push the trolley, and 2 at home to unload and put away.

jesus Mary you'd be better off taking a stool - leave the teens at home

You took 3 teenagers rather than ask someone to get the off thing down from a shelf??!

I'm with Garden.

I went food shopping a few days ago and saw both Mum and Dad shopping with six kids. Surely if you've both got time to go shopping one can equally stay at home with all six kids whilst the other parent got to do a blissful childfree shop!

OP I know it's harder with teenagers but you need to be a bit firmer with them I think? Course they wouldn't leave their phones at home but they could pop them away in their pocket whilst with you.

Why were they so annoying in Starbucks?

I have no problem with teens looking at their phones. I wouldn't take them to Tesco ever (the teens not the phones)

Also I wanted to get two of them off the PlayStation.

One small blessing in life is shopping on my own. It's like mindfulness in a trolley.

One small blessing in life is shopping on my own. It's like mindfulness in a trolley.

So true

No sympathy.

You chose to take 3 teenagers to the supermarket, where no doubt they annoyed other shoppers, to get them off the Xbox and 'get things' off the top shelf'. Jesus wept. Madness.

Of course they're going to be on their phones, they're in a bloody supermarket on Christmas Eve, did you expect them to be thrilled at the outing?!

I'm reserving my sympathy for single parents (or those that for a GOOD reason have to both go) of younger children, or children with SN, that cannot be left at home.

Tesco rang me this week to congratulate me on my 550th online supermarket order (and tell me that they'd put a freebie in my delivery). That's 550 times I've saved myself the misery of trailing round the supermarket.

Wtf how have you raised your teens that they can't even help do the shopping? At that age both my brothers were doing the xmas shop for my mum.

I slightly shocked an assistant in m&s, this morning, when I barked at my solitary teen to stop ramming the trolley into me while I was engrossed in the important task of choosing the wine for tomorrow's lunch!

I'd probably have had the whole shop shaking with 3 teenagers bimbling around.

What have you learnt OP?

One teenager is one unit of useless nuisance.

Two teenagers are four units of useless nuisance.

Three teenagers are nine units of useless nuisance.

It's called exponential increase and I thought everyone knew that.

I went with dh and three under 11's. We actually had good fun! It is what you make it :)

Oh fuck why do people insist on taking their entire family to the Christmas grocery shop? The supermarket is rammed and you want to grab some cheese but have to wait until mum, dad and several teenagers have blocked the entire fridge and shouted at each other for ten minutes over which cheese to get

Agree. Families traipsing around supermarkets pisses me off no end. Still some people just have to do everything as a "family" so it's no surprise.

Seriously, OP why would you do that?

You just forced three teenagers to go to the supermarket when they didn't want to and wondered why they weren't interested in helping out or ding anything useful?

I work in a supermarket and it's been busy enough this week without parents dragging kids of all ages (and grandparents, aunts uncles and various other family members) around the supermarket, causing chaos when it would have been much easier if one or two had come and everyone else stayed at home. It's one thing if you can't get someone to watch the kids but an entirely different one if you drag them along for fun!

I don't see any reason why teenage boys can't be expected to help with Christmas preparations. You should have given them a list OP and gone to the cafe for a sit down whilst they got on with it. I'm sure they find being chased as useless very handy though.