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?

I wish everyone would stop using ‘single mum’ as a kind of feckless, can’t be helped narrative on here. We’re not to be pitied. We’re as capable as everyone else not to drag a vomiting child around a supermarket

But we don't know the situation...

@MigGirl you clearly don’t live where I do, if you can get a click and collect on the same day you are very lucky. Also maybe she didn’t have a car?

You would have left a vomiting child on their own in the car for 5-10 minutes? Are you joking. Anyone has the potential to choke on vomit and my child wouldn’t let me out of their sight when they are ill. This is a laugh surely.

i agree with other comments. A lot of assumptions made. Child could have possibly been travel sick and too young to leave in car during the shop…

Anyhow you could also be correct! If child had contagious illness taking to a food shop is not the good thing to do!!!

Those commenting saying you should have helped her, maybe you were weary of contracting it, I would have been too!

Those saying you’re bitching, maybe so, but at the same time you are pointing out that ill children should not be taken to public spaces if there are other options. It may give some a second thought before doing it themselves (whether that was indeed the case or not).

There has to be a lot of “perhaps” and speculation because we actually don’t know and neither does OP.

And yes, I think by helping the mum, people were intending to help the child too eg: letting her take dc back to the car/ outside to fresh air while they could have collected what she needed for her. Ergo, child no longer walking round supermarket carrying bowl.

Im not sure that helps the child any less than condemning his mother. If, per chance , she really hadn’t grasped it was not an ideal situation, the offer of help would likely have triggered the awareness.

I’d be very wary of contracting it, but speaking to the mother, buying her a few things and not making any physical contact while I hand over a small amount of shopping I bought is low risk. Letting a child walk around the shop where he might potentially infect a lot of people if he has another vomiting episode or spills his bucket is actually higher risk.

That said, it’s easy with hindsight. The reality is that I might have turned and walked out again. If faced with now though, having thought about it, that’s what I’d do.

I am reminded through this of an incident when my toddler vomited all over me while watching my other children in a swimming lesson. A lovely lady lent me her towels to clean up, despite the possible risks to herself and presumably her own children. I so much appreciated her help and am glad that some people are supremely humane towards others, even if it carries a risk to themselves.

This parent obviously had a shit day and here you are having a kick.
She might have had no one else to call on.
The child might have become sick in the car for the first time.
She might have needed absolute essentials that couldn’t wait- nappies, baby milk, washing liquid to launder mountains of sicky clothes and bedding.
Maybe she couldn’t get a delivery slot, couldn’t access internet to book anything online.
of course it’s not ideal but I’m guessing a person wouldn’t do that unless they had no other choice or it happened on route to the shops with no warning

Just no. There is no excuse for carrying vomit around a supermarket. It is disgusting, unhygenic and disrespectful to other customers and especially the staff.

There are lots of smaller shops and delivery services around according to OP’s later post so there was no excuse at all. If the child was old enough to carry his own bowl, he’s old enough to stand in a shop doorway for two mins while mum picks up the bare essentials.

@StormingNorman privilege at its best eh. What I find disgusting is your attitude and lack of compassion.

I personally find it disgusting that a dog can take a massive shit in the pavement right in front of me, it honestly makes me feel repulsed and ill. I'd like all owners to stay at home when their dog needs to poop, why should I have to put up with it? Sound reasonable?

I had NO ONE to help me when my child was little. Was single parent. If i needed anything i had to take her with me..ill or not. Only time if she was ill was to drs or food shopping. We dont all have support and at time i was on bare minimal money..if it was available i couldn't have afforded delivery cost..that was equivalent to a bag of food.

I agree. Also who the eff will leave poorly kid in doorway whilst you shop...theyd be judged for that also!! Leaving him on his own! ( Gasp )...
Bringing him in like that! ( Gasp)....cant win. So i would quickly take poorly child in..get essentials and scoot

The parent must have known the child was unwell before she went to the supermarket or else why was the child carrying a bowl that he had already vomited in.

And some people have no idea about what life can be like for others. Do you realise how many adults and children live with domestic violence? Have you considered that there might be a partner at home raging that the shopping hasn’t been done/dinner isn’t ready/there are sick kids getting in their way? Have you considered that she might have been going in to that specific supermarket because that was the one that her pharmacy was at? That she had no car or barely any money and literally no food in her cupboards? Has anyone considered the shame she might have felt? Did the mum of the poster not consider asking if she needed help? She could have told her to give her the list of what she needed so the mum could take the child outside whilst she got the food for her. What’s disgusting here is the lack of empathy/consideration/help offered and the self righteous judgement on this thread.

In the doorway?!

So everyone has to brush right past them to get in or out?

I think the absurdity of this suggestion of a viable alternative has fairly comprehensively made the point that it’s hard to think what else the woman could really have done.

Standing in the doorway is far worse: “ Welcome Shoppers!!”

Nobody knows the situation but to have a vomiting child is stressful on a good day.

My child has a medical condition which can cause him to vomit up to 80times a day for 3 days when he has an attack. I live alone with him and he has had this condition for 7 years. Its not contagious like D&V. Sometimes ive had no choice but to carry him with a sickbowl in tow to get to a chemist, grab him fresh bananas or a lucozade. He's had attacks just before boarding a plane so ive had to pick up a child heavier than me, present passports, carry a sickbag and my luggage to board a plane. Life is hard and not everybody has support. I would only leave him with my parents if he were unwell but they work fulltime and kids dont only get ill when you have people to rally around. Sorry that seeing that was difficult for you..

It's possible. But it's just as possible that the mum is scummy. A school mum I know really well, took her kids to a petting farm, set up in the town centre during half-term, whist two of her kids had just come down with chickenpox (as in the spots had begun to appear and were still blisters). No fucks given by her , as to the immune problems of those around.

She also sent her kids with vomiting bugs, which spread like wildfire.

It's unlikely that this mum was like this, but as everyone keeps saying, no one knows.

Yeah, we don’t know.

You should have given us the trolley contents OP: Calpol and apple juice? Or fags and beer?

You are not being unreasonable being concerned (or grossed out) over this.

You are being unreasonable in some of the assumptions you’ve made. I obviously don’t know what the mum did when she was in the supermarket but I’d like to think she just grabbed a couple of essentials as quickly as possible.
As for using a smaller shop, maybe she thought a supermarket was better as it was a bigger space.
Yes it’s gross, yes she should have avoided doing it if it all possible, no - nothing you’ve said makes her an unthinking monster who should be killed with fire

Tbf this could be me and my DD, she has intestinal failure and we carry sick bags etc around with us everywhere and she often throws up in all sorts of places.
I do however understand why someone would reuse their eye brows up at me 🙈

In the olden days DC could have waited with sick bowl in the car.
I would assume the Mum had no alternative.
Maybe Mum knew that her child was not contageous - sick due to chemo or car motion.

I would have left him sitting outside the shop door, close but not too close.

Left in the car to potentially choke on their vomit? Cause that's not neglectful parenting. Times have changed. We don't leave kids outside of shops and in cars. It's not safe!!

@Loubelle70 same here. We are in a situ where we don’t have family and friends nearby, we have a SEN child that won’t be left with anyone and I would just end up having to take them with me. It has happened that they have been ill a few times, OH was on a long work shift and I have had no choice because the home delivery didn’t have the explicit bread he would eat for toast. He wasn’t throwing up, he was poorly but I had no choice. This is the reality these days.

You'd have left them outside the door and alone?

Good grief!

Yes. If I had to stay home. I’d go mad….

my friends daughter had a brain tumour and sadly she died from it at 14. But before she died she often would go out, just to get a break from all 4 walls. When she had about 7 months left she looked normal. Walked normal. Saw normal. Heard normal….and if you last her you’d of had no idea. But at that time she was receiving high doses of radiation and chemotherapy that sadly wouldn’t end up helping. But had she of caught a sickness bug she’d of died…

so whilst she looked normal. She was dying and at 14 the last thing you want to do is stay at home, especially if you haven’t got long left to live

dor example make a wish foundation took them on holiday to Disneyland where they encountered a sickness bug which by a pure miracle didn’t get!

Sadly she died so it doesn’t matter anymore but I remember that you’d of never known she was unwell till the last 6 months when she went blind, Went almost deaf, lost the ability to move the right side of her face and body and lost control of all of her bowels etc

not everyone is obviously visually unwell