AIBU to object to an older child sitting directly in a food trolley?

[KidsDoBetter]

Local m&s food hall. An older lady (presumably) grandma - is wheeling around one of the small size metal shopping trolleys. Inside it is a girl about 8 cross-legged (she takes up most of the space obvs) wearing a pair of crocs. The soles of which are filthy (as indeed would be mine). Chatting away and delighted with herself. It was lovely she was enjoying being with her granny. No signs of disability (later saw them in car park).

As they stood beside me I did say “that looks like fun but you do know people put their food in there and you’ve got your shoes in it”. Grandma tutted and said “forget about it” in a slight non-sequitur . But it’s gross right. This was not a baby / toddler seat trolley. Nor was the child any younger than 7 max …

I agree that it is much more common. I wonder if that is partly because retail workers experience so much more aggression and rudeness from customers now than they used to. That is bound to make them less likely to approach customers and remind them of the rules.
And as soon as the sight of a child in a trolley (without being properly strapped in) becomes common, then the rules forbidding it start to seem like a technicality. More and more parents think it's fine and normal.

Kid and Granny were probably having fun together. Stop being such a germphobic misery guts and mind your own business.

Her age is relevant exactly why?

Wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.

I always assume that trolleys are dirty and that there is no way of knowing when they were last washed or if someone’s rubbed their bare arse on it, so I wouldn’t put any food in it that wasn’t in some way wrapped.

I know it's not the point but how is saying 'forget about it' a non-sequitor?

Perhaps the OP thinks that bacteria hadn't yet been discovered when this older woman was parenting the 8-year-old's mother/father.

I’ve seen kids curled up in shopping trolleys and thought it was very cute. All trolleys are pretty gross, I don’t think a kid and a pair of shoes are going to make much of a difference. It may also be a way to keep a child from becoming overwhelmed in that situation. It’s also kinda fun and it’s not harming anyone. In the US some shops have trolleys with kid sized chairs on them which is such a great idea.

Oh I know those are pretty ineffective for little escape artists. No, I meant using your own harness. We had to find a way.

I absolutely hate seeing this but I wouldn't have bothered saying anything

It might be more acceptable in Asda rather than M&S.

TBH I'm less bothered about kids IN trolleys than about them running round unsupervised with those thrice damned mini versions which M&S seem to think are fun

Fun for the kids perhaps, but not for those who get rammed

The trolleys are not sterile!
They are stored outside and exposed to all weather conditions, so it is impossible to know what they may have been exposed to.
It was also inappropriate for you to make that comment to her. It was not your place to do so.

As others have said, a child with shoes on is the least of your problems when it comes to trolleys and hygiene. You need to wash your food, if not packed. Unpacked bread I normally don’t buy for hygiene reasons, and if I do, I don’t put it in the trolley.

Do you really think supermarket trolleys are sterile and clean. ? the trolley and groceries will be contaminated with dirt, food debris, bacteria, animal faeces etc through the supply chain already. Same as the kids shoes.
it’s Illogical to think a trolley is clean and suddenly contaminated by the presence of a kid sitting in it.

Fucking ridiculous. Mind your own business.

Isn’t it funny the stuff that winds people up? And how angry people are? If I had seen a granny and an 8 year old girl shopping on a summers day in M&S I would have smiled.

Crocs are piss easy to keep clean, I put my kids crocs in the washing machine all the time, they’re plastic with very little grip on the bottom, there’s no where for pigeon / dog / fox shit to even stick, it’s not like a pair of trainers. Just run them under the tap and they’re clean again.

Just have a day off.

I hate to see kids in the main part of trolleys, mainly from safety aspect. But the hygiene aspect can work both ways if they are touching it where rats have been

I couldn’t get bothered about this. Shopping trolley are generally manky. Imagine how many hands have been all over the handles.

I would have told you to stuff off and get a grip. How dare you passive aggressively say that to a child.
I would love for my life to be so simple that I could worry about the cleanliness of the trolleys.
i have 3 kids, 2 of them are autistic and run away. They are too big for prams. I often have them in trolleys. The alternative is they run around the store screaming and then other people get angry I cannot “controll” my kids.
take some hygiene wipes with you and wipe down and trolley and consider yourself lucky you are not so desperate that letting a kid ride in a trolley is the only thing that saves your sanity.

Gross. Trolleys are germy anyway, I always anti bac mine before using but never seen anyone else do the same.

Trollies are just fundamentally disgusting. At our M&S they’re kept next to the multi-storey, near the bins, seagulls and bird poo regularly, foxes and badgers have the bins out all over/around them. There’s a homeless man with a very large dog and I’ve walked past a few times when there has been obvious dog shit on the trolley wheels. Fairly certain an 8 year olds clothed bottom and her crocs are the last things to worry about.

But you shouldn't sit him in the body of the trolley.

Omg I never thought about this happening 😢 That's so horrible. How can it tip over when the child's weight at the bottom of a trolley presumably evenly balances it? Did the child stand up?

For children too big to sit in the child seat who are disabled in whatever way there are wheelchair trolley so no need to stick them in the trolley which is dirty and dangerous

You do realise people go to the toilet, dont wash their hands and then push the trolley which is then touched by your hands? I would guess that the trolley handle is far more ridden with actual germs and bacteria than the inside of it 🤣