The "I want that" phase

[Jaffakake]

We noticed in Tesco today, we've hit the "I want" whingy stage. Ds is 2.6 and generally lovely. Today I made the mistake of looking at Easter tat on the way in to do the weekly shop, we moved on, without complete meltdown, on the basis of distraction, bribe of food & promises of tat if he behaved. He behaved & received promised tat.

I was just wondering if any of you lovely mums (& dads) have any good tips for managing a supermarket shop now we're in that phase.

(Obs I'll try and avoid the tat aisle from now on!)

Dd (3) is allowed to choose one small treat each shop (we shop once a week) to be eaten at the end whilst I pack the shopping. This generally works well, she knows the form now and for me it's a fair pay-off for dragging her round a big supermarket shop. Occasionally she has chosen a comic/small toy instead of food. She will sometimes still ask for stuff, I just explain why we're not getting it - or will get it if there's no good reason not to - eg today she suggested buying a melon and a different type of cereal to usual and we did as they were good ideas! Sounds like your ds would respond to reason well too.

Because I'm harsh skint I've always had the rule that if you ask you definitely won't get, but if you don't ask then occasionally there will be a surprise. It's usually every 3/4 times but it just depends (and it's really only so frequent because youngest is just 2, so he needs more evidence of it happening ), and it's only ever something small (chocolate bar, lego minifig)

This is SO hard, and of course you get to "please may I have" instead of "I want", but it still doesn't mean she can have everything, even when she asks so nicely. I've found the best thing to do is to say very clearly before shopping, we need to get this, this and this, and that's all. We're not buying any treats today. DD went through a phase of wanting a magazine every time we went to Sainsbury's. I do online shopping now!

I tell mine frankly and not always honestly that they can't have things because we don't have enough money. For some reason this seems to work! Most of the time, anyway