Taking a sick child to a supermarket carrying a bowl to be sick in

[Auburngal]

My mum saw this at the supermarket. Child was about 6 at a guess. He looked sick and was carrying a bowl with some sick in it.

Supermarkets are open longer, have food couriers (Just Eat etc) and supermarkets' own food couriers - Sainsburys ChopChop, Tesco Express Whoosh and now supermarkets offer later day deliveries. Plus the mum could have messaged a friend, relative etc to pick up some food items to tie her over til child is well enough. I know the food couriers charge a lot more. We had a customer a few days ago on the food courier service we have ordering one loaf of bread costing 80p in the store and cost them £4.10!

I'm sure the mum wasn't all alone - no contact with anyone who could help. Plus there are local FB groups - Spotted.... I bet someone would respond to her pleas.

Fellow shoppers and my mum were horrified with sight. Not sure if anyone said anything to the mum. My mum was worried that people could pick up the bug the boy was carrying. Mum doesn't know if he touched anything in the store.

Would you drag your DC if they were throwing up in a supermarket?

No but I don’t know that you can assume she had sn alternative.

The fact its inconceivable to you that some people literally have no one to call on and don't have the £3 delivery charge spare baffles me.

Maybe the child bacame unwell while they where out? Maybe (like me) she lives in an area without the express delivery options, or can't afford them? I don't have kids but I don't have any family who live close enough to help at short notice, and my friends are scattered across the country so wouldn't be able to help either.

Put it this way - do you really think she'd be out with her small unwell child if she had any other choice?

You can do a "click and collect" for free, and sick child could stay in the car.

You can't book click and collect for the same day, and you can only use them if you actually have a car.

'm sure the mum wasn't all alone - no contact with anyone who could help. Plu

Why are you so sure?

My DD gets carsick sometimes and is sick on arrival. Doesn't mean they have a sickness bug necessarily.

Damn. No way you do that!

I do find it inconceivable that someone would have no one to call on. (Conceivable, that they might not have liked to ask, but I would have thought this the lesser evil than taking out a vomiting child)

The child is 6, so presumably at school - so there are parents of other children in their class.
If the mum has a job she has colleagues. If she's a SAHM she will have people she meets in the day.
Unless they live in an isolated location, there will be neighbours.
There are FB groups (as suggested in OP).

Why do you need us to all help you kick the mum when she's down OP?

Can't you and your own mum manage to bitch about her without help?

This.

I wouldn’t like it but you have made a lot of assumptions.

Your mum or another onlooker could have offered to help with the shopping while the mum dealt with the child outside but didn’t which says more about them in my eyes.

It's obviously not a good idea - I suppose it is possible that she'd just picked up the child from school and was on her way home, collecting supplies as she went.

Some people really do not have other options though - most do, but not everyone.

It amuses me how we have gone from demanding perfectly well people have to wear masks to thinking it is acceptable for a very obviously sick person to be in the same supermarket a few years later.

If the mother came by car she should have left him in there. If they got a bus that is very unfair on other passengers. If they walked then it wasn't fair on the child.

Carrying a bucket of sick around a supermarket? I find this hard to believe.

I'm with you OP, surely there's very little that couldn't wait 24 hours until the child was feeling a bit better?

I know how rotten I feel when I have a sickness bug, the supermarket is the last place I'd want to be!

I mean, that sounds awful for the poor child but I cannot imagine any mother would choose to do that if there was any way around it

Lots of subconscious privilege showing itself on this thread. Some people have no reliable help with childcare at short notice, nor extra pounds to spend nor a car to sit in.

No one said it is acceptable.

Unavoidable is a different concept entirely.

It doesn't matter whether it's bug or travel sickness. It still isn't OK to take a child round a supermarket when they are literally carrying a bowl of sick with them.

I do appreciate that they may have nobody to call on for help but I also think that, if you really HAVE to take a vomiting kid out of the house, you would leave them in the car (or sitting outside if no car) for two minutes while you grabbed the bare essentials like a loaf of bread and some milk, rather than actually taking them into a supermarket, carrying a bowl full of their recent stomach contents.

Maybe the child has a health condition? I have gastro issues which results in me throwing up completely randomly, I don't walk around with a bowl but am an adult and controlling it better but open your mind a tad.

I would assume the circumstances were pretty desperate for her.

There's no way she got up, realised her kid was throwing up everywhere and thought, "you know what would be fun.... supermarket".

Clearly it's a very unusual experience so I'm not sure why you need to ask, as though it's a daily occourance.

What makes you sure they had a car???

Nobody is going to drag a sick kid out unless they had absolutely no choice OP.

You wouldn’t do it unless you had no other option. There a many reasons why there is no other option or why this option is the best for her now.

It’s telling that you assume the worst about her decision making abilities without knowing anything about the situation whatsoever.

We have been told that if we have S&D, we need to stay away from work for 48 hours after the last attack.

Common sense says all people should stay away from the public for that amount of time. How many people don't think that and feel chirpy 24 hours later and still are carrying the bug with them?

I'm sure I picked up the 3 bouts of S&D I had working at the supermarket for 17 years from customers.