Rearing considerate children

[lell01]

Hi, just a quick complaint regarding parents who allow their children to cycle on bikes and scooters in shops. I recently experienced this in the Munster Road branch of Budgeons, Fulham where 2 mothers with several small children were allowing them to cycle around the shop on scooters and bikes!! I was totally shocked that they had no idea they were teaching their children to be inconsiderate and that the shop allowed this. I do not understand why anyone would reproduce only to raise another rude and inconsiderate adult. I really wish I had said something but was, as are most people in London, silent and seething at their total lack of regard for anyone but themselves. When I had small children shopping was exactly that and not a fun day out.

I think Jo Frost (Supernanny) is a wonderful example of the very best advise on how to raise and discipline children, combining fairness, firmness and compassion, which should be started from as soon as a child toddling.

Are you her agent?

Isn't it strange how someone who won't speak to a parent in person to comment on her children's behaviour is perfectly happy to come onto a forum and tell us all what we should do?

If you want to deal with what you see as a problem, then speak to the person involved at the time. Don't come on here to harangue parents in general about one specific incident. And don't tell us that the answer to all parenting problems is to follow an "expert" either.

i think scooting in shops is bloody rude

My children are considerate. I've never followed one bit of Jo Frost's advice ever!

I think it's bloody rude too, although I'm not so keen on Jo Frost.

(I'm also currently freaked out that someone has an almost identical username to me on this thread, and has spelled it the way that I intended to).

Like you MrsWobble I have considerate children who do not cycle in shops. And like you I have no interest in the advice of Jo Frost.

Like you MrsWobble I have considerate children who do not cycle in shops. And like you I have no interest in the advice of Jo Frost.

(oops)

Hey BooBooB - one E - doo !!
I am a bit freaked out too!
I am serial lurker and limited / boring commenter on MN for about a year... shall I change my name, if you are very attached to yours?!

I'm sure you're not boring, and you have very fine taste.

I've had my name for four years now and would feel a tad weird changing it...

However, if you're attached to it, we can just put massive disclaimers on threads we're both on.

no worries - I will change!

You are a gentleman and a scholar, sir.

I thank you.

Jo Frost always does EXACTLY the same thing, so I can only assume that the endless running series are so that we can all enjoy a good gawp at lots of families who are so much worse than our own.

And I don't think that using extrinsic educational methods ('the reason you do this is not for it's own sake but because Mummy says so / because you will go on naughty step') is the best way tongive children a feel for other people's needs, which forms the basis of consideration.

But I think scooting and cycling in shops is bad.

DS wouldn't do it. I wouldn't have to tell him not to, he just knows it would be inconsiderate.

So, is this an advert for Supernnny, a complaint about Budgens in Fulham, or a way of getting at the 2 mothers you saw there????

Spill, lell!

I love Supernanny. Am I allowed to say that?

At the end of her last series, the changes in the families were incredible. ALL of them
were much happier after THE PARENTS had been given a kick up the a**e. The little girl who wouldn't eat had gone form a sunken eyed waif to a healthy looking little girl.
How can that be bad?

And cycling, heelies and scooters in shops is really bad!

I love the Boobooslightlydifferentspelling ladies.

I am going to join their club.

Watch out for Booboobeedooo, I'm coming atcha

On supernanny, I can't watch her - you would think that some one who has to say "unacceptable" a lot in the course of her job would actually be able to say it properly!!

One of my neighbours used to produce her show, and apparently she won't be corrected and insists her pronunciation is correct.

The woman has rock-hard self-belief, clearly.

I love Super Nanny cos it makes me feel like such a good parent!! Honestly, the last series, all those parents having issues with sleep, rewards, computer games, etc etc etc. I can say, hand on heart, that I have never been affected by any of the problems featured on those programmes. And its quite nice to get the odd moment of smugness . And I find myself shocked at the blind way in which some people parent, it's surely not rocket science to work out what will happen if you let your kid eat huge amounts of junkfood all day every day? I think the nice thing about Jo is she helps parents get a grip not just on their kids but on themselves, makes them realise that they are in need of help too, even if its just a self-esteem boost.

Oh and cycling/scooting/heeling in shops is just plain dangerous. Staff know that but they're usually too afraid to do anything in case the kid attacks them or the stupid parent causes a scene. I have no problems with telling kids off in shops if what they're doing can directly cause an accident

...and dont get me started on kids standing in supermarket trollies! Aaaargh. If their parents had seen the video I saw of a kid's head splatting on the hard floor, they wouldnt do it again

I never let ds scoot or ride a bike in shops either. It gets left outside if we are shopping. I just think it is dangerous and even if it isn't dangerous ds would probably end up knocking some display down by accident anyway !

Well here in French supermarkets the children generally seem to be under reasonable control - even those hurtling around with the little kiddie-sized shopping trollies. What you really have to watch out for is the mad superfast shop assistants on rollerskates - dc have been close to being flattened on numerous occasions. I am now training them to push little kiddie trollies in front of kamikaze roller-skating shop assistants.