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?

Perhaps she was going to the Pharmacy with the child ?
Or picking up their prescription?
Or getting otc remedies for them like Re hydration powders Calpol etc

Not sure why you're asking me that?

I've explained in a subsequent post that whilst it may be fine, it's not always feasible.

I’m not.
Vomit in a food shop is unacceptable.
You are deluded if you think otherwise.
I don’t believe we are actually having this conversation. I’ll save it until next time someone is called minging for wearing pair of jeans twice.

@cardibach ok, see you on that post!

I do agree with posters saying it was clearly not an optimal situation for the mum. As a parent I have had things happen that I would have frowned on before I knew what it was like to be responsible for unpredictable little people who can’t be left alone.

Obviously if it was a bug the child should not have been in public but the thing about children is they can contrive to vomit for lots of creative reasons from car sickness to food intolerances to ( like my cousin) crying so hard they vomit.

My general take with children is don’t judge unless it’s plainly life threatening or irresponsible- and she had brought him not left him alone ( which would have been both easier and more irresponsible) so she may have known it wasn’t contagious.

I understand it must have been deeply, deeply off-putting however !

You just don't know what's going on. People make the best choices that they can at the time.

I was that mum before my child was diagnosed with coeliac disease. Regular vomiting, but definitely not contagious and he was literally fine as soon as he'd been sick - well he wasn't, inside, but to all intents and purposes. We never knew when it would happen though and yes it did happen in shops etc. The alternative to taking a sick bowl everywhere was we would literally never have left the house.

You can still spread disease even if you are not overtly symptomatic think covid

Likely the poor lady had no other options. The quick delivery apps are significantly more expensive and usually have less choice on offer.

If you haven’t got a car why would it not be feasible.

I really don’t see why if you need stuff so desperately that you take your sick kid shopping
Apart from
Not having access to the internet maybe.

@4CandlesNotForkHandles click and collect needs to be booked in advance!

So take sick child home, then take them out again later to traipse to the shop or do the shopping on the way home?

Oh and also some children have ulcerative colitis which I think causes bouts of vomiting.

Children can be medically curious. My BIL had thick green snot for a year aged about 4 but no cold .

Someone here said some supermarkets accept orders on the day.
I know my Lidl do it if you order first thing in the morning
MN here said Asda can too.

Ps. At our local Lidl you don’t need a car. I have seen people take shopping away by hand.

Very likely not contagious if she took him out.

There's worse bugs and germ hanging round supermarkets, self service screen especially, than a bit of sick contained in a bowl

@4CandlesNotForkHandles I didn't say it wasn't on the day......

I said in advance!

You think you can do a click and collect and turn up 15 mins later and it's all done?

OP has said there is a Co-op on the same street.

Co-op deliver for free within an hour when you spend £15 online. It's a service I use quite often due to chronic illness and being on a budget as they have reasonable costs, good offers, an excellent reward scheme with money off vouchers and I've never had trouble getting a delivery, usually with 25 minutes. Never had anything missing or substitutes either and that includes OTC medications.

You're determined to make excuses, I know, so now I will get all of the £15 is extortionate, she's penniless etc reasoning. But we don't know that she was penniless, credit cardless, overdraftless,
friendless, family-less, partnerless or why she ignored all of the other shops and petrol stations on the stretch that the OP
mentions so it's all a guessing game.

But it's my opinion there was at least 95% chance there was another option rather than dragging an ill child round a supermarket with a sick bowl, carrying their own vomit.

I am compassionate. But mainly for the child.

Gastroenteritis is horribly contagious. Which is very common in small children.
Im not convinced someone who takes their kid to the supermarket whilst ill would be that concerned about the illness being contagious to others.

It’s like people sneezing and coughing with colds on public transport. They know they are ill and contagious but can’t be bothered to use a tissue or sleeve.

Theres a lot of people out there who just don’t care about others anymore.

Apologies I wasn’t aware the child was on their way home after being picked up because they were ill.

Who cares about contagion?

Why drag a sick child out, puking his way into his bowl round Tesco or wherever? Infectious or not, that's not kind parenting?

@SoOutingWhoCares sorry where did OP
say there was a co-op on the same street?

She mentions co-op on her third post but not more than "all the soars and co-ops" which doesn't indicated that the co-op is that near?

But maybe I've missed the fact that co-op was on the same street?

It's also two hours not one.

Co-op don't deliver everywhere. I know when you have something it's easy to assume it's ubiquitous, but it's not.

Plus you have to pay online presumably and £15 may be too much?

They weren’t 4 candles, there is nothing in the post of any detail.
Think pp has their own scenario

My post at 18:49

"i was thinking of my experience of click and collect. Wouldn't be able to do it without a car (nearest supermarket that offers it would be at least 2 buses, and even then there's only a few each day). Plus minimum order charges (although I guess the £30 minimum would probably only fill one carrier bag with food prices as they are)."

Been there done that if you need something and you have no other option you do it and hope they don't puke

I've re-read and you're right there are several nearby by but not on the exact same road.

My nearest Co-ops (3 of them) are all between 2 and 4 miles away. They all deliver to me. They all offer ONE hour slots, not two and in reality I've never had to wait more than 40 minutes.

I don't live in a city, or a big town, OPs scenario sounds much more cosmopolitan than mine. I've elderly family who live rurally in Scotland who use the same service. I know because they can't use the internet so it falls to me to put the order through online while they tell me (in England) what they need over the phone.

I still think it's a good option that could work for many, many people.

Obviously just not the highly unusual woman in the OP. And you.

What if he had motion sickness from the car? What if he had a coughing fit from swallowing spit down the wrong way? What if he saw something that made him gag?

There's hundreds of reasons why he may have been sick and not all of them may have meant he was unwell.

Everyone is just negatively judging this woman when they have absolutely no idea what the circumstances were.