How can you spend time in a town centre with a toddler??

[GoldenHaze]

Two, painful, frustrating hours in town today, with DD (two years, five months).

Forgot one of the three things I went for.

Hellish.

How do people do it??

Was she in the pram? as if yes then i take snacks, books and small little (animals) toys that fits in her hand.

yes it is hard and i always put a reminder on my phone of what i need to get as without it...my head is a blare! my dd2 is 2 yrs 2m.

Oh, she won't sit in the pushchair any more. There are two many things to run around the touch etc, etc, etc.

Hellish!

Sorry, I meant "and touch".

I'm very impressed biglips that your DD will sit still. You're lucky! My DD has refused the pushchair for about a year now. Very frustrating!

It's impossible! Online shopping as much as possible. It's handy you can pick so much up in supermarkets now. Otherwise yes make a list and do man shopping!

(1) Backpack carrier
(2) Spotting list (prize for completing it).
(3) Hold mummy's hand because mummy is worried about getting lost
(4) Funny faces in shop mirrors
(5) Lots of breaks in coffee shops to eat biscuits (take wax crayons and some paper to occupy her).
(6) £2 and a spree in the charity shop.

It gets better honestly. :)

Bertie, I do lots of online shopping these days. Thank god for amazon!

whomoved thanks for the tips.

We always end up having to go to a cafe and I find it frustrating, not enjoyable. If I was alone, today's shopping would've taken about 30 mins, but it took over 2 hours and I still didn't get what I went for. I didn't want a cup of bloody coffee, but there's no choice sometimes with a toddler, is there??

I must spend a small fortune in cafes!

I hardly took ds into town at all between 18 months and 3ish. What was the point? To go to a cafe? he would be out of the door before I'd so much as sat down. Shops? He would be out of the door before I'd looked at a skirt. Supermarkets were OK if I clamped him into a trolley. I think we sometimes did rapid raids on the library, the walk in and out was bearable. Shoe trips - only for winter shoes - very rapid in and out again. Only one errand per trip.

I did supermarket shopping for food, measured him and took the measurements into clothes shops, any other shopping I did in the 30 seconds I had on the way home from work. We ate a lot of rice as there was a Chinese supermarket which was the only food shop between work and home.

With my 4 year old grandaughter I always have a plan of what we will do. First she gets aride on one of those machines, then we do the main shop, then we go for a coffee/snack finaly we go in a toy shop for a look around and if she has been good a small reward. But I have the advantage of being retired so have the time. Not so easy if you have hard deadlines to meet.

I am always very envious of parents whose toddlers sit in the buggy whilst they wander through shops at a reasonable pace. I usually aim for 30 mins before the wingeing and struggling starts. I zoom through town like a woman possessed hurling the baby jogger rounds corners like an F1 driver.

Reins?

Go in the morning - set expectations, explain where you're going and what you'll be doing. Plan where you need to go then break up the trip into small sections - with getting what you need followed by small reward. So we might go to one shop, then go and see the fish in a shop window, shop, pit stop at a coffee shop, shop then lunch out or home. If they do well we choose a small treat. Take a list on bright coloured paper and let child carry it and cross off the items as you get them. Shopping centres are much easier than towns to do this as everything's a bit closer together!

At the supermarket I get my son to scan when we shop. He won't sit in the pram either but loves his buggy board (shopping can go in the front so I don't have to carry it)

JeanBG that sounds lovely and you're right about a plan, but I don't think my son would have coped with that at toddler age - or perhaps I just wouldn't have Once he reached 3-4 he was a completely different proposition. At toddler stage he was in perpetual motion and so was I!

you need to write a list and plan the quickest route through the town centre to buy the things on said list and get back to car/bus stop.

I have a break half way through, in the summer its lunch outside (sandwiches I have taken with me) somewhere where she can let off a bit off steam. In winter its a cafe where she can have a cake.

DD is just three and knows we do not do rides, so is past the stage of asking.

In and out as fast as possible.

flip your head about it, and go more often.

tell yourself you're going to town to teach the kid how to behave around shops and roads and other folk, and to entertain kid with the endless parade of fascinating, oh i don't know, sticks, reflections, tat on display etc etc.

i always made mine think it was all about them.

shopping was additional and usually i got my secret agenda all done and they thought the trip was about them, especially the bits where they got to help choose, hand to cahsier etc. spare 50p for the ride on toy, chose your cafes wisely and have a daydream about the last/next time you get to be an adult on your own and do adult things.

it's a terribly dull time for both parties otherwise, and frustrating and irritating and . but honestly, having gone all pollyanna about it twice over i've had two well behaved kids after a very short while.

Reins help with my two-year-old. I tie her into supermarket trolleys with them, then amuse her with toys, shop goods, snacks, as we fly round. Otherwise she just climbs out.

However clothes shopping is currently a nightmare and a complete no-go. Unless she's asleep.

Not mornings, afternoons.
Go to the park and playground first (2-3 hours there is far cheaper than 2 hours in cafe) and tire her out. Bring a buggy and arrange the longest walk possible from park to town centre.

She'll get back in the buggy for you & let you shop in peace, I'll bet.

We go to the library in our city centre a lot just for a break from shops. The kids bit is nicely contained and there are magazines for me to read while my kids pull every dvd off shelves etc. We do tidy up afterward ourselves which they really enjoy too. Cheaper than a cafe and no tutting from other people. Or much less anyway. Also do you drive or bus? I don't drive and catch buses every single day but the kids still enjoy it. If i really need to bribe my big boy i offer a short tram ride. Boring for me but he loves it.

Like meeryberry said raise your expectations of them and make errands into a mutual activity rather than thinking of needing the kids in some sort of holding pattern while you get on. DS1 (3.2, but from about 2) loves shopping-I 'help' him carry the basket or push the trolley, he puts things in, then pays with my card (he's memorised the numbers). He teaches DS2 (1.7, often in pushchair) what things are called and what to do, and when DS2 (good walker) is about on his own he now likes doing the same things, wants to push crossing light buttons, pay etc. Sometimes they have a panic or act daft, but probably less than at home, if I'm honest (more distraction). Last week after soft play I offered them park or a wander round shops and DS1 chose shops!

But then I've done this for a long time (since DS was walking holding hands) and am a working parent who devotes the two weekdays with the kids to childcare/domestic stuff and so has no concerns over time at that point, and needs to combine rather than stretch out both sets of jobs. When I was at home it drove me slightly mad, needed time to do something adult properly, not at snail's pace empathising with a toddler. My sympathies.

regular babychinos at Costa Coffee - 50p - everyone's a winner