Eating in the supermarket

[tallulah]

As an aside from my other thread about children misbehaving in shops- the other thing that wound me up yesterday is this trend for letting children eat in the supermarket. The child in the trolley at the next till had a bag of grapes she'd been eating. She must have had 1/2 lb, so that's about 50p? Would her mother have thought it OK to give her, say, a twix, or a Begian Bun without paying for it?

I don't agree with this on 3 counts

1. people shouldn't be eating in any shop & teaching a child that they can is not a good idea
2. this is theft & if everyone did it then the supermarkets losses would be passed on to everyone
3. children also should be taught that you can't have something until it's paid for.

Before you all jump on me and say it's better than having them screaming, I have got 4 myself & I have been through this. Mine quickly learned that no screaming inside meant they could get to eat a treat outside when we'd finished.

Chinchilla, That's me in ASDA letting my kids eat all the food!!! Also mine are the kids playing dodgems with the kiddy trolleys, ripping the comics etc etc :0

This thread is priceless, almost on a par with GF! I do give my kids food to eat on the way round, and yes I pay at the end like we all do, they sometimes have 3 or 4 grapes too! Sorry. However as my kids have now got older, I can explain that they get one thing to choose and have to wait until we are out and have paid for it. They are now 4 and 2 (the 2 yr old copies the 4 yr old, so that's OK) but I have had some of the best/worst tantrums in supermarkets. My older girl ended up lying on the floor outside ASDA where I dumped her for nearly 10 mins when she was 2 ( I really couldn't control her at this stage, and I had a newborn with me).

This is such a non subject, but very funny

I'm just waiting for the supermarkets to come up with either a trolley you can use with a buggy or a park with locks for one. We don't all drive you know! Actually I do, but our local Tesco's is only 5 minutes away so I don't take the car unless I'm taking home large and heavey items (like potatoes). In the meantime I'm forced to balnce a heavey basket on my arm, while manouvering the buggy around while feeding the sluglet dried fruit from one of the little bags I have in every pocket of every one of my jackets. I have permanent bruises on my arm from the damn things!

LOL at some of these posts!! I have to say, either supermarket feeders are very brave or I'm very repressed - and I suspect it's the latter. My mother dinned it into us as children that you "do NOT eat in public unless you are in a restaurant" and I have to say, her brainwashing was very effective. That, combined with the threat that a policeman would cart me off if ever I stole anything, meant I never considered giving any of my children food in a supermarket nor in their prams - I can hear my mother's dulcet tones now! I can't even eat a bar of chocolate when I'm out unless I'm about to faint and even then I'm consumed with guilt, in case Big Mother is watching me.

I would never feed my children something I wasn't paying for, but I do regulary give them a bit of bread - like the end of a baguette or a roll out of a packet. But anything else has to be paid for before it is eaten. I always take cups of juice with me, and maybe I shoudl be more organised and sort out food as well, but it is so easy to do it in the shop and I always pay for when they eat, so I can't see what the problem would be.

Oh come on... do any of you mums of grape eaters know how much profit the supermarkets make out of you. Its extortionate. And considering the £1,000s we all spend per year in Sainsbury's they can afford a few grapes to satisfy a bored pre-schooler. In fact they should do more to help us exhausted mums!!

Only just caught up with this thread - it's great. I'm a bit like Ghosty, living in a rural area it's a real treat to get out & go to a supermarket - how sad is that!! My DS always eats as we go round - much better than having a tantram - of course it's something with packaging you can 'scan' at the till - although he may have had the odd grape or two (unwashed).

Talking about stealing - in our nearest Tesco there are 'free' nappies - presumably for emergancies - I have seen parents taking handfulls & stuffing them into their bags - that to me is stealing.

Totally agree that eating in a non-food shop is not on.

I was in Tescos today and I spotted a 3 year old finishing off a WHOLE STEM OF GRAPES! My how I chuckled to myself as I frog marched him off to the security office. Lock him up and throw away the key, that's the only answer.

My dp works in one the afore mentioned hugely profitable supermarkets and when I told him about this thread he thought it was hilarious! The staff would much rather have calm children in the shop at the cost of a few grapes! PLUS if the children are calm, you'll spend more time in the shop and spend more money.

So it benefits the profits rather than damages them!

And another thing. This particular supermarket chain keeps announcing record profits.... 3 years running and only gave it's staff a 2.8% pay rise when the maximum is 5%!!! Work THAT one out...... b**tards!!

A few f*cking grapes, so what!! CALM!

And if those pesky children hadn't eaten all those grapes, the staff would have got a bigger payrise! They should spray the grapes with a strong sedative to knock the children out after one bite that would sort it.

I think I might keep this identity actually. I'm quite fond of it already.

Good point TheOldDragon!! No more grapes for ds..... I've been converted.... theiving gypsies that you all are!! It's because of people like you 'grape-robbers' that we have a huge overdraft and a bankloan!! Humph.

Who are you TheOldDragon????

you should put sellotape over your kids mouths in supermarkets,there also should be a big cage in every supermarket to lock the kids in

Our Tescos does have a lockable cage. I think you're meant to put your (paid for) shopping in there whilst you have a coffee in the cafe but hey, if it keeps the little monsters out of trouble...

As to who I am, I'm not telling (phthrrrrrup). I'm off to Clarkes to take some misbehaving children to task by supergluing their trousers to the seats.

don`t forget the sello tape olddragon,i think i know who you are

Whymummy - who is she????

Good idea. Or what about trollies with built-in strait jackets? edgarcat, nobody on floor 8 of the multi storeys round here ever has a golden retriever in their mouth.
I've got a peg bag which hangs on the line but still have to hold spare pegs in my teeth. I like my pegs to match on each item of washing so the non-matching ones have to be stored somewhere.
Have to go to Tesco for dog food later. Can't wait. Will be looking out for all the mumsnetters whose kids are eating all the profits.

edgarcat or doormat???

Message withdrawn

Hi, I am new to mumsnet and this is the first thing I have read on here and I have to say that it is hysterical. I have to take a 3 year old and a 1 year old shopping with me every week. Dh can't do it because he works long hours. I shop in Asda and as you go through the door they have a stand with tubs of muffins/mini doughnuts. I pick up one of these and my kids munch them on the way round. They are prepriced so I don't have a problem with it. It saves them fighting in the trolley and I get to shop in semi-peace. My kids don't eat in clothes shops because they don't see anything there that they would like to eat.

Look forward to reading more threads like this one, it has made my day.

welcome cerp

Hahahahaha! (evil cackle).

It's funny though, I always imagined that it would be easy to spot who people were when using a different name. I thought the style would be glaringly obvious.

Hi, I am new to mumsnet and this is the first thing I have read on here and I have to say that it is hysterical. I have to take a 3 year old and a 1 year old shopping with me every week. Dh can't do it because he works long hours. I shop in Asda and as you go through the door they have a stand with tubs of muffins/mini doughnuts. I pick up one of these and my kids munch them on the way round. They are prepriced so I don't have a problem with it. It saves them fighting in the trolley and I get to shop in semi-peace. My kids don't eat in clothes shops because they don't see anything there that they would like to eat.

Look forward to reading more threads like this one, it has made my day.

Oh dear I always stuff my face all the way round
Waitrose. Am I a revolting monster? The reason being that I can only bring myself to go shopping when I have had no food in the house for 2 days and am ready to eat own arm.