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?

Who knows why she did it, but not everyone can afford a car.

Perhaps the child in question get sick a lot, either for gastro, travel or other reason. Mum may carry a bowl as a habit for this reason.

my daughter has migraines that come on suddenly followed by vomiting. The gap between the migraine forming and the vomiting can be less that 5 minutes. She is still too young to properly understand them, we are still trying to find triggers (some we know, others we don’t). Rather than carry a bowl I carry sick bags in my bag.

If my daughter gets a migraine I take her home as quickly as possible but often we have to get past a lot of people who are likely thinking the worst of me. I’ve often carried her out majestically vomiting and crying her eyes out. People must think I’m awful for dragging her out poorly but a few minutes beforehand she was perfectly fine. My daughter isn’t old enough for a lot of migraine medications and the paediatricians are still finding solutions.

no one is saying that the women definitely didn’t have a choice, no one can say for sure if she doesn’t have support or doesn’t have the money for click and collect. What should happen is she be given the benefit of the doubt and a little compassion

Was she buying, lambrini, diorilite or both?
I can believe there are people that would do a shopping not caring about the state of the kids, but I also believe that the likelihood of that woman being one of them is very small. I'm more inclined to think that she didn't have other choice and was a quick shopping for bland food, medicine or very essential stuff.

She could be there buying medicine for her sick child.

You'd never get away with leaving a child outside the supermarket these days, people would call it a safeguarding risk and some busybody would interfere. Obviously fine in the 90s when there was no taboo about leaving kids in cars.

I carried a sick bowl everywhere when I was pregnant - I had hyperemesis, and couldn't have left the house otherwise.

It sucked for people who had to witness me throwing up mid-sprint for the loo, but not half as much as it sucked for me.

I agree.

I do think there's a tendency in AIBU to disagree with the OP. If someone posted "my child is vomiting, can I take them to the supermarket with a sick bowl" the answers would be a resounding no!

I agree with the OP and think it's disgusting and selfish.

I was a single parent for years when my children were small. People were always kind and helpful but no one wants someone else's child when that child has a sickness bug.

No one would have to look after the sick child.

Plenty of people (such as me) would more more than willing to nip to the shop/chemist or lend some of their own food/calpol/pads to Mum.

That's grim. Bodily fluids in an open bowl being held by a sick child. Near food too?

If there was NO other option I'd try asking the store manager very nicely if they could take my short shopping list and get someone to pick up my emergency food/ medicine while I sat somewhere quietly. Then pay at the end.

No I’m not the person with the sick child. That ridiculous.

But no one should assume that any other person has a support network of any kind because that assumption is wrong.

I've had to do this on the school run. Sometimes there's just no choice, they have to go with you if you have to go out.

What? So because I'm seriously ill, I should just never leave the house, lest someone want to bring their vomiting child around a supermarket? I should just hide away at home and never go out in public? Do you have any idea of the mental health repercussions that can have? Not being to see people, being told to hide away?

I'm so sorry that my health is 'that compromised'. I didn't ask for it, and I sincerely apologise for 'imposing' it on anyone. That was a really vicious way to phrase it by the way.

Also, a parent with a child who has a stomach bug might have to stay at home for a few days. Yet you think I should have to stay at home forever so as not to impose myself on society? Thanks, that makes me feel even more shite about myself.

Yabu as you know sweet fa about it

Not to look after their child. To lend them some food to tide them over, or to go to the shop for them. People did this all the time when we had lockdown. Most decent people would in these circumstances.

I’m sorry, but to those suggesting leaving a 6 year old in the car, or outside the shop, are you mad?!

I’d never leave my 6 year old in that vulnerable position - do people really do that?

This is a second hand story, passed from OPs Mother and then onto her. I’m taking this with a huge fistful of salt, but if a Mother HAD to take her child with her to get a few bits, then that clearly was her only bloody option!

Why are some so surprised that some Mothers really don’t have options every single time a crisis pops up. Some Mums are literally left at a lose because friends/family are working, not able to answer their phones etc. Yes, people do typically have some sort of support, but not every single time. It’s incredibly ignorant to think that.

It’s not fun being out with a sick kid and knowing everyone around you is judging! If I saw a Mum walking in store with a sick kid, actively vomiting, I’d be tempted to offer to pick up the few bits for her. What I wouldn’t do is judge her, tell my daughter, so she can jump on MN and others could further judge her.

But again, I’m not too sure how true OP’s post is. The boy probably just sneezed!

Haven’t RTFT. No, I don’t think this is OK at all and I feel very sorry for the child.

Even if they were out of food, the Mum shouldn’t have done this. Most of us have neighbors and if there was nothing for tea, she could’ve asked a neighbor for a tin of beans, for example. Before anyone says that they don’t speak to/don’t know any of their neighbors, that’s a problem in itself.

@Ladyluckinred A supermarket shop isn’t an emergency. Picking up an urgent prescription or taking someone to A&E is an emergency.

You wouldn't be asking for anyone to look after your sick child. You'd be asking them to lend you some food basics or pop to the shop.
Most kind and helpful people would do that.

Can only assume she was desperate poor thing as no one would be wanting to take a sick kid in a supermarket. I remember when my toddler vomited when I was mid shop once down herself and me (no indication before) and I was mortified. I abandoned and went home.

I know that @LyingWitchInTheWardrobe thinks we (disabled people) are not full individuals with the right to be out in public, but actually we are and can come out if we want to! As it happens I personally am too unwell, but that doesn't mean I can't speak up for other people with disabilities who would be affected by individuals like the mother in question taking her germ-ridden child out.

Fwiw, I would not be so angry about someone whose child got taken ill all of a sudden. - obviously kids are unpredictable and shit happens. The presence of the sick bowl indicates this was a choice by the mum.

It’s not fun being out with a sick kid and knowing everyone around you is judging! If I saw a Mum walking in store with a sick kid, actively vomiting, I’d be tempted to offer to pick up the few bits for her.

Yes, exactly. People would bend over backwards to pick up a few bits for a mum with a sick kid. So, unless the mum lives in a complete social vacuum, there will be a neighbour or a colleague or a school parent that will help them out. She doesn't need to know them particularly well (or even at all, based on your example).

@WimbyAce That's not the situation in the post. They had a sick bowl with them going into the shop. It was a conscious choice, not a child suddenly vomiting out of nowhere.