Major pet peeve, just me?

[DaisyChain505]

It really bugs me when I see whole families doing the weekly food shop in supermarkets.

The aisle are jam packed with whole families doing the food shop. Why is it necessary for both parents and the kids to all be there to do it?

They take up more space, the kids are ultimately in other shoppers way as they don’t have any spacial or situational awareness and are just wondering around aimlessly and it must be a more stressful trip for the parents compared to if one parent stayed home with the kids and the other went and did the food shop solo.

One of the things I miss about not being able to visit supermarkets is a quick check of the yellow tickets. You don’t get them online 😥

I didn’t say it was a good idea. I just said that they didn’t mean that AI would just order you the same thing every week. You can do that now.

Apologies, I meant you could search for the dinner party shopping list already so AI isn't an improvement

There's a child in my son's class who's parents seem to do everything together... school drop offs, pick ups, parties, play dates. It baffles me! Why the need to be together all the time? Don't they have jobs or other things to do? They look nice and normal otherwise and have a couple of kids but always en masse

I didn't drive, the supermarket was 15 miles away down country roads and a motorway, If using public transport it was even longer involving 2 buses a train and a mile walk. Try doing that with a big shop. And yes he was a useless bastard and that is why i divorced him nearly 20 years ago.

Yes it's annoying but they might have a reason.

What really pisses me off is people that have no common sense when choosing to stop their trolley. Sorry to say but fellow women are the worst for this.

We do it as a family every weekend through this rainy season in order to tick the box of "getting out of the house". We're skint right now so the only other place is the library. DD does the scan and shop scanner and we all enjoy ourselves. This is the first dry weekend in months so we're going to parks instead and doing an online shop.

Yes 😂 In the seats

Im with you op. Bloody performative parents too, where darling hyacinth is reading out the food labels or picking every single item up and touching everything

Id rather take time off work and shop during school hours (or at midnight)

What annoys me MORE than that is the constant bloody threads about it.

Yes, in the time I’ve been on MN I reckon I’ve read 50+ threads on the same subject.

I'm popped into a supermarket on my way home from meeting a friend today. I was unaware I had a neon "I'm retired" sign on my head and sincerely apologise for being unaware that I was breaking my curfew.

Im quite impressed when I see that. Mine were a pain when shopping, particularly when they were younger.

I go at 9.30am on a Sunday morning. Only bearable time for Aldi!

It would be bearable at our Aldi at that time on a Sunday morning as it doesn’t open until 10.30am 😁

We're retired and I make no apology for the fact that we mostly go together.
Never on Saturdays or Sundays unless we miscalculate what we need.
I can't remember going enmasse when the kids were little unless we were away on holiday but I see no reason why we shouldn't have done that if we wanted to.

But could also do her shop on a Saturday if she wanted as it’s nobodies business 🤷‍♀️

I sat in a meeting once where the parent of a young child with complex needs was saying how difficult her child was in the supermarket. He attended a specialist setting every morning.
When I suggested that it would be less stressful for both of them if she shopped whilst he was in nursery (rather than afterwards when he was tired and hungry) she said “ but he needs to learn how to shop”.
I said maybe when he’s a teenager but he’s 3 he isn’t ready to learn. Sadly he may never have been.

I don't have young kids, and I do actually go shopping alone, but I HATE doing the big shop alone. I shop in Aldi, it stresses me out when I have lots of shopping as I'm still unloading when they're ready to scan, then they basically throw the shopping at you, then you have to pack. Wanting another set of hands isn't "pathetic". I have to shop alone for our household for various reasons, but honestly, if it was possible for DP to come then I would want him to - even if that meant bringing a child!

I taught/discovered my then 2yo knew his numbers when I was in the supermarket with him.He was pre-verbal, I had a list and was chatting to him as you do and said " we need flour,I think thats aisle 5". He ran off to aisle 5 after looking at the numbers on the aisles and waited there for me. I thought it was a fluke so tested him. Got them all right. I'm not saying that the many , many hours he spent in the supermarket with me taught him numbers but it sure did help.
Same with spelling and reading and colours. "Get me the red tin please"
Fruit and veg "find me 3 corncobs please?" Always in eyesight and now knows what corncobs look like. Continue with every f&v item over the seasons and your child will know more about food than many people.
A supermarket is a great place to learn. Obviously the behaviour of the child is important..
Although I'm with the pp that the occasional trolley slide when nobody is around is pretty much a mandatory childhood experience.
Also I wouldn't go near the shops on a Saturday morning, but Sundays or late afternoon are fine. Or during the day on weekdays if you aren't working.

But you don't know anything about them! For example today we took my MIL for lunch for Mothers' Day as she's away on holiday next weekend. The restaurant is about 25 minutes from our house and happened to near a Sainsbury's where I'd ordered clothes to Click & Collect for my 4 year old. So we went to pick them up. While there we bought tonight's dinner, snacks for movie night with my teens, a birthday cake for my daughter, some booze and some homeware. So a trolley load, could be mistaken for a weekly shop, but it wasn't. There are 6 of us and we shop online mostly with multiple shops per week. Rest assured, I couldn't care less whether you or anyone else finds it annoying that there are 5 of us in the supermarket for the 1/10 times I have to do that. But good luck managing your 'pet peeve'. Maybe get a hobby!

My MIL gets her hair done mid morning on a Saturday and always has done. She never worked and it's been 35 years since her youngest was a child, about 30 years since the last child left home. She lived all that time in a suburb with her own car, didn't have much hobbies or friends, no family, so absolutely not a busy woman. I remember her also getting her eye test on a Saturday afternoon. These appointments annoyed me disproportionately for years, especially when I was a FT working mother and had to book weeks in advance for everything.

Always at least a couple a week I'd say.

🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

But I'm saying maybe it's not a question of time, maybe it's how they prefer to structure their week. If you've spent a lifetime doing chores on Saturdays, maybe some want to keep that rhythm. Or maybe it's too quiet in the week and they like being part of the Saturday bustle. Like when you go on holiday off-season and it's weirdly quiet. 🤣

My late dad did go on Saturdays, but he was waiting outside at stupid o'clock for it to open in order to avoid the crowds! You could do that?

You obviously have the opportunity to do that yourself. What about if you dont drive?what about if you cant afford a taxi. Ive often seen whole families carrying their shopping home, or off the bus. One person cannot do that.
It is also a life skill that kids needs to learn. As a foster carer we ensure that our kids understand pricing, where to find things, how to make / follow a shopping list etc because otherwise HOW.do they learn?
Can I suggest so others do not inconvenience you, that YOU choose a quieter time oe 8pm when there aren't loads of.families there ! You'll be much happier!