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 ··· 5 6 7 ··· 20 21

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:

IHaveBrilloHair · 01/04/2018 18:21

It's because it's #makingmemories.

NotTheFordType · 01/04/2018 18:21

My H was a SAHD and did most of the cooking and couldn't drive, so when I moved in with him and DS (his) we used to all go together.

Jesus christ, it was so stressful. The whole way round the shop H would be barking "Stop touching things!" or "Stop talking!" at DS (5 yrs old then)

(Fuck knows why I married him, parenting was not his strongest skillset)

H had an operation which meant pretty much no physical activity for 6 weeks, so DS and I went to do the shop together. Fuck me it was blissful. I gave him tasks like "Can you choose me 6 apples" and "Can you find the shampoo daddy uses" and let him help me load the belt at the till and help me pack away.

He's 22 now and I still love going shopping with him

eternalopt · 01/04/2018 18:21

I try and avoid it, but I remember going as a family as a kid and I loved it! Remember being sent to get one thing or another, riding the trolley and helping decide the food choices.

I honestly couldn't give a flying f*ck how other families do it. It's entirely their choice.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 01/04/2018 18:22

I take them for lunch or breakfast and to choose any clothes or small toy, then I take them home, DH is there, and I do the food shopping without them whining or misbehaving.

crunchymint · 01/04/2018 18:22

As a kid I loved supermarket shopping. Not sure my parents liked taking me though.

Takeaweeseat · 01/04/2018 18:23

My DSs nursery used to take the DCs who's parents never took them shopping out to the local supermarket, because they had found that some of them genuinely didn't know what it was.
Its part of life, they need to learn how to find things on a list, check prices are within a budget, pay etc. Also that life isn't all play, and you have to do some stuff that you might not fancy so you'll have food later

At nursery age? I really don't think they need to know this at 2/3/4 years of age.

coconuttella · 01/04/2018 18:25

Each to their own, but I can hardly bear to do it myself (hence its done online and delivered), let alone as a full family.

And I love spending time with the family...
but doing fun stuff not trudging round supermarket aisles searching for frozen parsnips etc.

UterusUterusGhali · 01/04/2018 18:26

When you're coming back from somewhere via the shop? That's why I would be en mass in the shops.

Otherwise all the other reasons...

Sparklingbrook · 01/04/2018 18:26

I remember going to Bejam on a Thursday night with my Mum and Dad. Is that the making memories bit? Memories of not wanting to go?

Dad used to go to Sainsburys on his own on the way home from work once a week with all the food. I was deprived of that.

IHaveBrilloHair · 01/04/2018 18:27

Mynewname
Nothing wrong with taking nursery kids to the supermarket, but was it really to teach them about shopping and budgeting?
They are at nursery, were they meant to take notes so they could follow them when they are 18?
What nonsense.

coconuttella · 01/04/2018 18:27

It's because it's #makingmemories

Yes, ones I’d like to forget!

sendthecoffee · 01/04/2018 18:28

Because we live a fair distance from the supermarket and so we do it on the way back from doing something else.

NicoleSalski · 01/04/2018 18:28

Sad that there's even a thread about this...

My parents used to take my and my 3 siblings shopping. We all got to pick one thing each up to the value of £1 IF we had been good that week. It helps to teach children the value of money and they can see for their own eyes how much shopping costs. £100 is like a lottery win for a 7 year old. They also used to send us off by ourselves to grab stuff 'go and get mummy an onion please' (of course only once we were old enough). It's time spent together.

As I said, bizarre there is a thread in existence that is judging families for doing their shopping together. We always take SD with us...

Sparklingbrook · 01/04/2018 18:28

Supermarket shopping is not that difficult that you need a lesson in it. Is it?

longestlurkerever · 01/04/2018 18:28

@gnother the stroll comment was more directed towards the people who said the same applied to doing the school run together. Indo stroll to the supermarket sometimes though. Even if we go in the car the kids quite like it. I'm not saying it's birthday treat level excitement, but if I said "do you want to come to the supermarket with me?" 9 times out of 10 they'd say yes. Perhaps it's a damning indictment of their home life! But they like choosing what breakfast cereal they get and riding in the trolley, and listening to their tapes in the car, looking at the toy aisle and choosing something for their tea. They load the conveyor and chat to the checkout staff. Often we see dd2's nursery helper who works in Tescos too. And my kids are by no means angels, they were driving me up the wall this morning, but they do take pleasure out of the minutiae of life and it makes something like a boring supermarket trip more enjoyable rather than less if they are there.

Tiredmum100 · 01/04/2018 18:30

We do it occasionally. Usually depending on my shifts in work. If we go it's usually because it's Sunday and we've been swimming so call in on the way back home as we've got no food in. I admit it's not ideal but when you both work it's just the way it goes. I do try my best to avoid it though.

Lotsofplanetshaveanorth · 01/04/2018 18:30

Sparkling - see you say that - but then there are threads about people who can’t cook or budget - hence I am teaching my children the skills they will need

Eggzandbacon · 01/04/2018 18:31

I do know a family where this is the main activity they do with their children.
It’s not that they don’t have money/transport/time - it’s just what they do, they don’t like taking their kids places. They do the food shop on a Sunday and eat in the cafe there.
Also the dad is quite obsessed with them doing certain things ‘together’

RainbowGlitterFairy · 01/04/2018 18:31

DH and I don't drive, we sometimes take DD to do a big shop because she's too young to leave and it means there are 2 adults to carry the shopping home. Plus DD likes cooking so sometimes she likes to choose her own ingredients, which as far as I can tell mostly involves saying hmmmm and frowning at the carrots before choosing some that I assume were grown in unicorn tears by the price.

Narkle · 01/04/2018 18:31

It's all the hassle of getting to the supermarket, finding a parking space, making the kids wait while you sort out shopping bags etc, going round looking for things you need whilst the kids pester you for stuff you don't need, stopping them getting in the way of other shoppers, queuing up with bored kids, paying and packing, schlepping out to the car and putting the bags in, returning the trolley.

Jeez, if that is your experience, that is sad. I find parking space in less than a minute (at the back), we walk to the shop with DC being carried where need be, the bags are already sorted as all in one bag anyway, the DC know better than to pester, shopping at ALDI or LIDL means queues are short anyway and the rest is part of food shopping anyway?

In the meantime, we talk to our DC, have a good laugh, get them to help us fetch stuff/ put stuff in the trolley and are in and out of two shops within three quarters of an hour max total.

But then we teach them manners and have rules about pestering/ running around...

hereyougosuckmyassforensics · 01/04/2018 18:32

My husband and I go together sometimes, and when we do the kids come too. They're 7 month old twins, I push the pushchair and he pushes the trolley. Reason being I can only do so much shopping alone with the kids when he's at work and sometimes it's much easier to have another adult with me, and that means the kids have to come too. I don't see it as any kind of inconvenience, mainly because we run a very stress free life and don't get worked up about minor things like a supermarket shop. We're also very careful to be courteous to other shoppers, ie walking single file so as not to block up the aisle with our convoy.

SpringNowPlease2018 · 01/04/2018 18:32

With you op
My parents did this to us and I hate the supermarket even now!

billysboy · 01/04/2018 18:34

theres is still loads of them in my local tesco that dont use the scan as you shop wtf !
whole family moving it from the shelf to trolley , trolley to cashier ,cashier back to family who then repack into bags and back in trolley

I dont get it !

seabase · 01/04/2018 18:35

I used to go with my mum and dad .... therefore I do it .... I enjoy going shopping with the family it's enjoyable. I really can't understand why parents don't take their children shopping...

supersop60 · 01/04/2018 18:35

I cannot bear shopping by committee. I ask DP if there's anything he wants on the list (or vice versa). In and out. Easy.

Flip

1 2 ··· 5 6 7 ··· 20 21