Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder why the whole family go supermarket shopping?

506 replies

turnipfarmers · 01/04/2018 17:00

I tend to shop without my children as it's easier; I get that lone parents have to take their children with them but what I can't make sense of is why you see two adults with several children in tow at the supermarket?

Shopping with children for the weekly shop doesn't seem to be much of a pleasurable experience to me and it's probably not that fun for the children so why do people do it?

OP posts:
Abbylee · 03/04/2018 22:16

@longestlurkever thank you very much for your kindness! I truly needed that today.

Take heart, things get easier, then suddenly, They are determined to be fine and gone.

Our children learn to see the world through our eyes as much as we see it through theirs.Flowers

Please take care and enjoy this bit of time, it's very precious.

My ds and I were just discussing Easter dinner (I've collected far too many old, fancy dishes bc dinners are here now). We agreed that while nice dishes are fine, we've had great fun on paper plates too. It's the company that matters.

SmiledWithTheRisingSun · 03/04/2018 22:22

Why the hell does anyone do a weekly shop & not just order it to be delivered ?! Hmm

BarbaraofSevillle · 03/04/2018 22:37

Smiling because of minimum orders, or because the cheaper shops don't do delivery, people like to check use by dates or choose their own fruit etc or substitutions and missing items make the whole exercise pointless as you have to go to the supermarket anyway.

crunchymint · 03/04/2018 22:39

Because you have to pay about £4 for a delivery slot when you will actually be in.

Loandbeholdagain · 03/04/2018 22:40

Usually we internet shop. But if we go to supermarket it’s usually together with the small kids because we’ve had a mega busy week and not managed to do the internet shop and we haven’t seen each other either, so we enjoy the chance to chat.

Idontdowindows · 03/04/2018 22:44

Why the hell does anyone do a weekly shop & not just order it to be delivered

Because of substitions, dates, quality, missing items, not being able to choose your own cut of meat or vegetables or fruit, being limited to certain supermarkets and delivery charges.

OlennasWimple · 03/04/2018 22:45

If you never take the kids shopping, when do they learn things like making sure to open the egg box to check for breakages, how to tell when fruit is ripe and when it's going to go over, getting the fresh milk from the back of the display, weighing up whether A is better value than B, and not being able to afford C until pay day?

PookieDo · 03/04/2018 22:50

This is usually because men don’t want to be at home alone with the kids

coconuttella · 03/04/2018 22:52

If you never take the kids shopping

There’s a big difference between never taking kids shopping, and having it as a weekly family ritual.... I certainly don’t do a weekly shop (in person), still less take the kids, but they’ve been done many supermarket shops in various occasions.

Personally I dislike shopping, especially the grocery shop and can’t see the fun in trying I decide what I might want to eat for evening meal in three days time.... but, each to their own, and some people do have fun doing that, which is fine.

Sparklingbrook · 04/04/2018 07:23

I never took my DC for shopping lessons but they are teens now and know how to do it.
It's not difficult and mostly common sense.
DS1 is at Uni and knows exactly what he's doing re getting the most out of long dared food and the most for his money.

Sparklingbrook · 04/04/2018 07:24

*dated

coconuttella · 04/04/2018 08:04

I never took my DC for shopping lessons but they are teens now and know how to do it.

I’m also a bit baffled by those who appear to think that in order to teach their children to shop they need to take them grocery every week, for years....surely they don’t need many 100s of lessons!

By all means family can go together if they all enjoy it (or even if they don’t any there’s no alternative) but to justify it as necessary to ensure children can cope with shopping is a bit stange.

PasstheStarmix · 04/04/2018 08:27

That has conjured up images of wayward bewildered teenagers wandering around supermarket aisles ‘where am I? What is this place?’

LittleLionMansMummy · 04/04/2018 08:40

Yanbu op. This too perplexes me when I see frazzled looking, stressed out parents accompanied by bored, mischief-making children traipsing up and down the aisles in my local Tesco. It certainly doesn't look much like fun. I took 16mo (teething) dd on Monday, leaving 7yo ds with dh at home and that was enough for me.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 04/04/2018 09:02

I only do it if DH is out for the day. I stick DS2 in the trolley, DD usually holds on for support because she's tired. Or I just let her look at toys.

TheClitterati · 04/04/2018 09:06

A lot of the couples I've noticed shopping, one person is asking permission on items and the other says yay or nay. So for lots of couples I'd say it's a control thing.

I know one couple who shop together and this is absolutely the case for them.

formerbabe · 04/04/2018 09:11

I've been with mrformer for over a decade. Not once have we done the weekly shop together...bit old fashioned but he wouldn't have a clue what we need. He also can't bear browsing for anything so literally would grab the stuff and pay whereas I like to walk round and see what looks nice or is on special offer.

BossWitch · 04/04/2018 09:18

We mostly do online shopping but if we need to go to the supermarket at a weekend we will often go together. Dh and I are happily co-dependent and like spending time together, and dd loves shops!

Batteriesallgone · 04/04/2018 09:30

I think the tide is turning against huge supermarkets anyway. The future is in delivered food - butchers, veg, fishmonger etc all delivering separately - and small delis. I know people like to think of the U.K. as a green and pleasant land but the reality is our housing and population is much denser than it was (blocks of flats etc), making delivery services more and more viable.

Batteriesallgone · 04/04/2018 09:34

The real skills we need to teach our kids are online price checking, shopping around, verifying ‘special offers’ by reference to other websites and previous pricing etc.

Geekmama · 04/04/2018 10:17

I go shopping with my DH and DS who is 7, the reason we go together is that I can't Drive and it's good for my DS to Realise that not everything is fun and we have to do things sometimes because they need to be done. I would like to add that I mostly do a big monthly shop online and we tend to take our DS to the smaller top up shopping trips.

bonbonours · 04/04/2018 12:41

I agree, I usually shop on my own, I'm so sad it's a bit of a treat to have the time to myself. Dh and the kids just end up making me buy stuff we don't need when they come. My girls aged 9 and 11 love it but I only let them come occasionally as it's quicker and cheaper without them.

Having said that when I do take them I try to teach them a bit eg when comparing prices, look at the price per 100g not just per pack.

TheClitterati · 05/04/2018 21:56

I've just joined a local group called the Food Association. You order online or via an Ap and the farmers bring fruit/vege/dairy/meat etc to central point and I collect. Will use it regularly. All products from 30 mile radius of my town.

I believe they operate nationwide?

GlomOfNit · 07/04/2018 14:33

Um ... lots of reasons spring to mind.

Because not everyone loathes supermarket shopping (I like it)

Because it's something you pop round on the way to or back from something else you've just done as a family.

Because you and your partner need to make a joint decision about what you buy, perhaps with a special meal in mind?

Because you like being with your family sometimes and not all supermarket trips with children in tow have to be purgatorial?

Because you have a child with LD and it IS a 'learning experience' (not sure what gives the second poster the right to decide what is and isn't a learning opportunity for someone else's child Hmm ) to go round the fecking supermarket and get them to look for stuff, verbalise, put it in the trolley and in other ways learn to do ordinary Stuff.

Wouldn't it be odd if we all liked the same things, though?

PasstheStarmix · 07/04/2018 15:21

I love taking my 1 year old to the supermarket, he loves to sit in the trolley and looks around and he’s very well behaved and a lot better behaved than some adults I’ve seen. I don’t know why it bothers people so much to see children in public places and think it’s quite sad they care.