to wonder why parents give their children food in supermarkets when it is not yet paid for?

[purplepeony]

Do you?

is your child so hungry that you have to grab a frnech stick, break bits off and feed it to them then present the empty packet at the checkout?

Are mums so disorganised that they cannot feed teir child before they shop?

Are they keen to feed (ha!) the "I want it now" mentality?

It really annoys me when I see this going on, asit means kids grow up not being able to wait one second from asking to being given.

Theft can only be proved if there is an intent to permanently deprive the owner of the goods (or value if shoplifting).

That is why security guards have to wait until you leave the store before they aprehend you if you are suspected of theft.

Am I allowed to do it if I regularly starve the DCs at home, to balance out the 'want it now' problem?

FGS.

RainRainGoAway, I too am interested in the ethics of things that have been scanned but not yet paid for on Waitrose scan your own thingy. Where does that fall on the OPs perfect mother scale of bad behaviour?

Having said that I don't have children and have resorted to opening a bottle of coke and taking a couple of sips before paying for it once when my blood sugar dropped suddenly and I was about to pass out.

I don't agree with giving your children food that hasn't been paid for every time you go shopping though. I always take a cup for my nieces/nephews with their juice in it and a sandwich or something in my bag.

Aaahh this old MN chestnut.

I don't feed children in the supermarket, never have, never will.

I couldn't give a toss what anyone else does, especially as I don't own a damn supermarket!

Ban this evil filthy habit

"This is the generation of brats who will grow up thinking they can have anything they want anytime they want it. And that screaming works."

Actually, Bellsandsmells because I have some respect for my DC and their physical needs they tend to (rather astonishingly, I know) manage to emulate respect for others and their needs.

And they do not think they 'can have anything they want anytime they want it' because they know that everything has to be paid for, and if it can't be paid for, then it cannot be had. But using their genuine thirst/or discomfort to enforce a lesson in discipline doesn't appeal to me. Although as I said, by some strange flux of nature, they appear to be blissfully unaffected with brattiness. Wonder why that is?

I do it because it makes me look big and clever.

Hully you have made a very good point about delayed gratification, it is ^learnt'.

Therefore a child has opportunity to acquire this skill, much like potty training (or lack of training in our case) when it is cognitively ready to do so...I don't believe at the age of two, my son is ready for this yet. He probably does not possess the neural pathways required.

My other son, however, at 6, has the capacity to wait - and does so perfectly well.
I also wait unless I fear passing out or physical illness (like Fab mentioned below, being pregnant and in danger of throwing up if food not administered immediately)

I don't agree with giving your children food that hasn't been paid for every time you go shopping though. I always take a cup for my nieces/nephews with their juice in it and a sandwich or something in my bag.

Didn't you just say that?

what ghostsareloud said. That is why you can get in trouble for eating loose fruit, etc - as there is no way of weighing it once eaten, hence the "intention of permanantly depriving the owner" is proved. If I want to give DS fruit in the supermarket, I pick up a pre-packed bag, and take one out - that way, there is still a barcode.

My mum did it with me 30 years ago. I don't really understand what is wrong with it. Even after 14 pages. It's like people who make their children wait to go to the toilet. Completley about respecting their physical needs, in the way that we expect our own to be respected.

I don't steal stuff EVER

No, would never do that! It's not yours till paid for.

Once in the supermarket while pregnant, and with a toddler in tow, I got that have-to-eat-now-or-I-will-faint feeling, but even in a pregnancy emergency it's really not that hard to abandon trolley, go back to snack section, buy some chocolate, eat it then go back for trolley.

As for keeping them occupied in order to stop them grabbing off the shelves, not, still not acceptable, if you know you can't control them bring a teddy or something along for them to play with.

YABU. I regularly do this with DS (not quite 2) as it makes shopping so much less stressful. Only thing he gets is a banana from a price marked pack - so it gets paid for.

I feed my kids all the time.
More importantly I, yes ME, I do it. I eat what I want when I want. Today I drank a bottle of sprite and 3 chicken drumsticks from the tesco deli hot counter.
Paid when I got to the till. like I do almost every time.
SO, op WHAT YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT.

Eater, and proud of it. go shove it and worry about something important.

I am 26 and remember having a drink in the supermarket when I was little and my mum would pay for the empty carton. So it's not just this generation.

'if you know you can't control them bring a teddy or something along for them to play with.'

Have you ever tried shoving a boring old teddy at a very stroppy toddler who is stiff as a board, screaming, and won't go in the buggy?
Have you? HAVE you?

Plus I never give mine grapes. Or bananas or anything else remotely healthy, it does not cut it somehow.

It has to be either cake, crispits [sic] or chocolate buttons.

Sorry...but at least they have bar codes.

Seriously what is the big fat deal?

Ha ha ha ha ha!!

Not that hard to abandon your trolley, lift the toddler and baby out of the trollet, cart them to the snack section, wait in a long queue to pay for the snack, and then go and try and find the trolley and hope that by some miracle it hasn't been unloaded by staff?? Where do you do your shopping, because it ain't like that in my heaving hypermarket!

What do you do in restaurants then - when you eat before you pay? How does your conscience reconcile that one?

I agree with hully

is there a reason you're repeating me TisTheSeasonToBeHully?

my parents/grandparents etc never gave me anything until after it was paid for but then we didn't really shop in supermarkets when I was small.

I would've done that PlanetEarth except the trolley was keeping me upright and there isn't a snack section where you can go pay separately in my supermarket and the queues at the checkouts were huge

As it obviously doesn't bother the supermarkets I can't for the life of me think why people who it has sod all to do with get all worked up about it.

As someone said earlier, any opportunity to pull a cats bum mouth...

What I don't understand is this, all the people saying that they give their child something to occupy them to stop them screaming all the way round - isn't this what you'd try to avoid doing in a tantrum situation???

And yes, I am in my (very late!) 30s and no, was never allowed to do this as a child. And yes, I have very recent experience of young children (my own!) and no, they have never done it. And no, I do not consider myself to be a perfect parent and am quite frankly bemused at the vitriol this subject provokes on MN! (I remember the grapes thread too!)

But AuntMaggie - PlanetEarth maintains it's not that hard. Really, your excuse just doesn't cut it.