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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:
Vintagebeads · 01/04/2018 19:44

I hate food shopping anyway.We have one car and until recently a SAHM but i still always found a way to do it by myself. I have friends that do it as a family I don't get it.
Although one of the few times I brought DD as a toddler she went into a meltdown right as I was in the middle of queue with a full trolley. It was like a parting of the seas letting me go in front Grin

Louiselouie0890 · 01/04/2018 19:47

I've heard it all now. Family out shopping they must trust each other lol

Bringonspring · 01/04/2018 19:53

Oh we like it!! 2 DCs love it-both pre school so sensory overload. We are never more than 40mine in there though!

Thundercatshoooo · 01/04/2018 19:54

People enjoy IKEA 😬? We food shop together but we don't enjoy ikea. We shudder when we realise we need something from there, delivery is so expensive they make you go there!!! It's hell on earth!

scaryteacher · 01/04/2018 19:56

He didn't at 12/13 Sparkling, or wasn't bothered if they did break. At 22, he has got all this sorted. Took a while, hence the early training!! There are l o ads on here who moan that their mil didn't train their son properly....my Ds will be turned out properly trained if it kills me.

Fuckwheresitgone · 01/04/2018 19:56

Because OP they probably don't have a choice! I loath super market shopping and hate it even more with DC and dh in tow, unfortunately though, dh works long hours, and is normally away during the week, I work part time but 5 days a week (school hours). No way am I dragging DC supermarket shopping after school, when they are tired and hungry! So normally on a Saturday we do a supermarket shop on the away back from a day out. Ideally I park DC and dh in the cafe and whizz round, but it's still a miserable experience! But online shopping never seems to work, so we just have to get on with!

holyshitdude · 01/04/2018 20:03

My dp works away for 5-6 days a week, we do the shopping together with the dc because we don't get much time together as a family, each to their own.

anonymous2018 · 01/04/2018 20:11

We would have done this because we both hated doing it and it was more bearable to do it as a team :)

Also we tended to do it on the way home from somewhere we’d been at the weekend. We don’t have a big proper proper supermarket in our town so it would have been silly to go home then come back out.

popcorneveryminute · 01/04/2018 20:11

We all (me, DP, DS1 and DS2) go because DP doesn't drive and I have a back issue which means I can't lift the heavy shopping bags into/out of the trolley/car. But now I will bear in mind that there will be people like the OP having a good old judge at me dragging my kids around the supermarkets and feel suitably ashamed Confused

Dingdong1975 · 01/04/2018 20:18

The only time we all go is because we ran out of food in the house so we all eat out then shopping straight after or they want something quite specific that they need to go there personally. Otherwise we hate shopping.

coconuttella · 01/04/2018 20:31

we do the shopping together with the dc because we don't get much time together as a family,

If we didn’t get much time together as a family (unless there was logistically no other choice) the last thing I’d do is grocery shopping together! Each to their own I guess...

Original poster
turnipfarmers · 01/04/2018 20:35

You may not have teenage boys...it is worth training them early as they don't think that the eggs might break under the weight of 5kg of spuds for example.

Surely that is just common sense though?

As for judging, I don't judge people who take their children to supermarkets unless they are the ones who let children wear things like heelys or run up and down the aisles.

OP posts:
stubbornstains · 01/04/2018 20:41

I have to take the DC, as I'm a LP, and there is no way I'm wasting my precious child free time on a supermarket shop. Also, I like LIDL, and out local one is right next to the local park, so an ideal combined trip. DS1 is also actively helpful, he loves going to get certain items (at a sprint Hmm).

It's also useful revenge whenever he's had a particularly bad bout of claiming he "can't find" things, as I tell him he needs to sharpen his observational skills up, and pick something fiendishly difficult for an 8 year old to locate. The other day he'd been unable to find both a school jumper and trousers that were right in front of him, so I tasked him with finding the halloumi. Cue half an hour of him staring at the chiller cabinet in mute consternation. He got there in the end Grin.

Ski40 · 01/04/2018 20:41

I don't... I used to take my eldest daughter until my second child arrived, then switched to online shopping. It was pretty hardgoing trying to choose my groceries whilst controlling them both and none of us had a good time. I miss shopping in person, by myself, and will do it again once my youngest starts preschool.

Kokapetl · 01/04/2018 20:45

In our case it's because DH drives and I don't but he is really bad at shopping- always forgets something important from the list and buys something wired and useless like a cleaning product I hate or a vegetable that is horrible and such a pain to prepare that it just rots in the fridge.

He has to do a lot of work at home at the weekends so sometimes I'll walk about a mile and half to the supermarket with two small kids, do the shop then get a lift back. Means he can keep working but I don't have to carry the shopping back.

scaryteacher · 01/04/2018 20:47

Turnipfarmers The phrases teenage boy and common sense are not always synonymous ime!!!!!

MrsJonesAndMe · 01/04/2018 20:48

We might pop in on the way home from town for a few things, but I never do a big shop with the whole family unless I want to spend double the time and money!

CreamEggEnthusiast · 01/04/2018 20:49

Some people enjoy food shopping I think. If kids are off school I’ll take them with me as I have no choice but I would never go with DH. He’s worse than the kids and trails behind me with a face on like Kevin the teenager!

HeadingForSunshine · 01/04/2018 20:51

I often put eggs at the bottom. They are ztronger than you think and won't break if they are upright and held steady in a box. More likely to break if balanced on top of things. That's about all I remember from physics.

Ikea - I went once.

For a long time now I have had a two weekly order from Sainsburys. Beer, water, soft drinks, butter, cleaning and bathroom stuff, cereal, tea, coffee, milk, juice, tins, etc. I just buy meat, veg, treats, etc, personally.

I am minded to agree with the op. I once met a school dad going into the supermarket and he muttered at me "I can't trust my wife to biy what we need and budget". I thought it very sad on a variety of levels.

HeadingForSunshine · 01/04/2018 20:52

Yes, mine has been about twice in nesrly thirty years CreamEgg, having him there is like hell on earth. The children were delightful in comparison.

Turnocks34 · 01/04/2018 20:58

I sometimes go shopping alone. My OH sometimes goes shopping alone but we like to do it together generally. My sons sit quite well in the trolley and I like talking to them, and my OH as we go around.

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 01/04/2018 20:59

This baffles me too. The cynical side of me says that the husband is far too useless to cope with the kids own his own. I work in a hospital and some families practically break down if the mother has to stay in overnight, some men even ask us what we're going to do with helping out with the kids Hmm

It's the same with GP visits, when you see families of six in the waiting room. Why? Surely one parent can be trusted to relay what the doctor said back to the other parent?

I also don't believe for a second that anyone finds supermarket shopping with 3+ kids enjoyable.

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 01/04/2018 21:01

Some of these excuses people are thinking of are really clutching at straws -

"maybe they don't want their partner doing it alone" - unless they're married to a 4yo this is silly

"Only one can drive?" - then they should do the shopping

"So they can both get what they want to buy" - there's this thing called a list

Only on MN!

TentUpFirstBunkUpLater · 01/04/2018 21:04

When I was a child long time ago Mum and I used to go shopping on a Saturday as Dad was working.
I remember putting a 1/4 of tea (tea leaves) in the basket plus 1/2 butter and various other stuff including Princes sandwich paste, frozen peas, bacon, sausage, Brains faggots.
I learnt about shopping when I was very small, but these days its all magic delivery
I can still see Mum and me - and later Dad in the shops. It is a lovely memory.

TheGruffalosArse · 01/04/2018 21:07

It is annoying when you want to pick up a block of cheddar but the entire dairy fridge is blocked by a family of 6 squabbling over what kind of cheese to get.