To not enjoy going into town shopping with the children

[LovelyBath77]

So, it's a bank holiday and DH was keen to go into town and the shops with the children. I dread this as it may be busy, getting dragged round shops I'd never want to go in, gadget shops, and toy shops and being there for ever, and you can;t look at anything as always keeping an eye on the children. It just seems futile. DH wants to go to Gap for clothes and maybe look for sunglasses. I offered to stay home with the children so he could go look, but he likes us all going together.

I let them go in the end and went myself a nice quiet walk in the park. Is it just me or do most people enjoy trips into town with the children? You do see lots of families going round the shops and it doesn't look very enjoyable. Except maybe when they have a baby and it doesn't have a choice of shops to go to. But even then it was a flap of finding changing rooms and the like, I remember.

I can't imagine shopping being a leisure activity at all.

Yanbu. I avoid like the plague. Thats what online shopping is for. Dh does the boys clotges shopping for them as he enjoys it. But now i have a girl i will probably want to do her clothes shopping. But everything else i do online

Yanbu. I avoid like the plague. Thats what online shopping is for. Dh does the boys clotges shopping for them as he enjoys it. But now i have a girl i will probably want to do her clothes shopping. But everything else i do online

Sorry not sure why posted twice

I hate going shopping with my 3 yo. However dh always suggests it, even for just a look around!

Yes I do most shopping online as well.

Wonder why they don't seem to mind it as much? Not sure...

Dh then moans about how awful it was afterwards. Well, duhhh!

Worst day out ever!

My DH says things like he enjoys it and they are always fine with him, etc. Hmm.

I don't mind shopping and therefore go alone and quickly buy everything we need e.g. kids' clothes, toiletries, birthday gifts (as in for others), stationery, books, socks and pants for husband. Sometimes we get stuff online, such as books or gifts. He and I share the food shopping, as in, one of us goes, more or less alternately. We get most stuff from a weekly local farmers' market. I buy clothes for myself on a solo shopping trip every so often. We live in the city centre so I can pick up a dress or whatever I need quite quickly usually. We rarely if ever take the children.

Never saw it as a leisurely thing to do. Mine are older and I'm glad those days are done.

I do not understand how shopping can be a leisure activity especially with young children. I enjoyed shopping / window shopping as a teenager with my friends of course, but can't imagine it as a family day out!

Shopping together is not a day out, if he wants to spend quality time together, shops aren't the place to do it. He can go and look in Gap another time on his own.

People in shops who don't want to be there just make it worse for other shoppers. I went first thing this morning because I need some smart workwear and I got utterly sick of tripping over (mostly) men who were clearly there against their will. They get bored and then get their phones out so have zero awareness of their surroundings and just hang about getting in the way.

Yadnbu

I don't think we've ever "gone shopping" as a family and they are teenagers now! Nothing beyond a quick pop in to grab something.

Most shopping is online, but if need be I'll go by myself. I've never understood what all these young families were doing there!

Yanbu. I hate shopping with children. Going with dd(9) is getting a bit more enjoyable but the 5 and 3 year old spoil it.

As a child, shopping together as a family was a regular event, maybe monthly. I hated it, got bored to tears and parents complained if i didn't 'show an interest'. Online shopping was probably invented just for me, to make up for those wasted days.

Now my mother is telling increasingly infirm, yet her only leisure activity is to go shopping. I try to be gracious and take her.

I don’t get shopping for something to do. It's a necessary chore for me. Online is preferable 9 times out of 10.

I'd rather stick pins in my eyes

My whole family agree that I am a complete nuisance round the shops: whiny and disengaged and miserable. By the time dd got to secondary, she started taking little brother on clothes shopping expeditions instead because anything was preferable to doing the shops with me.

I've yet to meet a child who enjoyed shopping. So many more child friendly things to do on a bank holiday - but I'm biased as I avoid the shops whenever possible and do as much shopping as I can online.

Yanbu. My limit is a quick supermarket dash with mine. Even that's unpleasant.

I used to like shopping when I lived in the inner city where there were small, interesting independent shops interspersed with nice pubs and coffee shops. I went with a friend and we used the time to catch up and look at pretty clothes, most of which we didn't buy.

Now? With kids? No way. I even have a toddler foot measured so I don't have to enter a shoe shop with DD, I can buy online.

Things that used to be fun but aren't now with kids -

Shopping
Holidays
Meals out
Barbecues
Car journeys
Phoning a friend for a catch up

I could go on.

Hell no- YANBU!

I'm the same. The word "walk" doesn't feature in DS' vocabulary- he runs, bounces, or sits and refuses to move.

Loo stops - Every. Five. Fucking. Minutes.

Stopping to admire EVERY PIGEON!

GAH!