Whole families going food shopping

[Shiningstarr]

Just came back from food shopping, there were a couple of young families in there, one in particular, the mum was pushing the trolley, her two young children walking near her and the dad was following with a pram and carrying another toddler.

Surely it would be easier for just mum to go and do the food shop, or just dad? Why bring all those children plus pram? I can't think of anything worse. Both mum and dad looked stressed.

Dh and I shop together most the time with our toddler at the weekend.

There’s no online shopping available where we live (not uk), and usually we go to main town together (45 mins away), see friends, pop to other shops, maybe have lunch out, take Ds to park or something, then shop on the way back.

Yep!

Nothing new.

So they can carry it back home is the obvious reason.
My DC’s nursery used to do trips to the supermarket with children -just very small groups, twos or threes.

I'm genuinely interested in the reasoning behind it. I don't see what's wrong with that. It's not like I asked the family what the hell they were doing.

I'm interested in hearing people's views on it.

Part of everyday life, exactly! One of the only sensible posts on here. Heaven forbid that large families should take up space.

I can think of multiple reasons why a family might want/need to go shopping together. It doesn't take a lot of imagination. A lot of unpleasantly indignant, judgemental folk here today...

Plus, pram is useful for carrying stuff too.

So they can carry it back home??? These families all came by car. I know, as I was behind them as we pushed trollies to the car park.

I also think children should get used to having to do boring things. Food shop, Homebase, car show room. They can’t turn 18 and magically know how life works

Maybe next week they should invite both sets of grandparents along too.

So children under 3? As that's the age these children were.

We sometimes all go together.

Sometimes it's because we're on our way back from somewhere else.

If we are all there we can contribute to knowing what we need and meal planning.

I think it's valuable for the DC's to know how much things cost.

Not everyone can drive and it shouldn't just be the driver choosing what to buy.

I prefer a collaborative approach.

I think it’s important for children to be involved in life -not just that you click at a screen and food magically appears a day later. My DC always came with me when small, and now they are older they do the shopping themselves - wheeled shopping trolley in tow.

Why does it matter who is in the supermarket? A million and 1 reasons more than 1 person is doing the shop all are valid.

It's a big responsibility to buy for everyone on your own. During covid I went alone and the amount of stuff I got that DP thought was a waste of money or substitutions that he wouldn't have got. I don't like it at all.

We go and he buys his stuff and I buy mine, then we get the together stuff.

It's good for children to join in with everyday life. They should know about going shopping to choose and buy food. As they get older they can help work out the best value etc. Otherwise you end up with teenagers who think food magically appears in cupboards and on the table!

To be honest we split the difference and get an online delivery for most things and then pop into shops for top ups. My 3-yr old loves helping.

Oh I never get this. If two parents, one stay home, outside or in the car. Surely so much quicker to do the shop. Completely different for one parent families of course. I don’t even get couples who shop together - I hate shopping with my husband, I just ask him what he wants before hand.

It gets the kids out of the house and is part of teaching them about doing basic errands that aren't fun. Plus often it's done in tandem with other activities where everyone is in the car.

I get annoyance about large groups blocking space in an inconsiderate way, but I do think people on here have a tendency to assume all families default to doing things separately so the kids are never doing anything "boring". This isn't how all families operate.

Omg really? Can you honestly say you enjoy that experience? Do you shop in Waitrose by any chance?

The only families I see appear severely stressed out.

I miss covid shopping - one person per trolley, fewer kids, people gave other people a bit of space and far fewer people in store. Added bonus the random groups of people who bump into someone they know and then block a key aisle for ten minutes nattering weren’t there either.

Many, many reasons.

We do this because only DH has a driving licence. Yes I could send him to do the shopping on his own but I like to look around the supermarket and pick things, it drove me mad during the first lockdown when only he went.

I tried writing him detailed lists but he thought I was mad and refused to do stuff like smell the tomatoes. He is perfectly capable of doing a shop, but we are different people and think differently.

Where we live there is no online grocery shopping.

It's weird, isn't it?!

Of course. Actually finding, counting and seeing the items in a shop is really valuable for children, and others. Going food shopping is an important part of normal life. I think it’s much more weird to do it remotely all online. Anyway, the supermarkets I generally use don’t do online.

What has where they shop got to do with it?