I went shopping and a bought a … gin and tonic to recover…
Going Shopping:
An exercise in modern warfare
If your child is between the ages of 0 – 16, you may find a trip to the supermarket a trying experience. If your partner comes with you depending on the type of person they are, they may only serve to exacerbate the situation. So, you must treat any trip to a supermarket as if you are marching off to war. For any war you must be prepared.
Friendly Fire
If your child is a baby particularly between the ages of 0 and 6 months it is much easier at this stage. You are firmly in control.
With babies this young you may find you are subjected to delay by a score of grannies fawning over you precious babes. If this is the case then go with it. They may dispense with some friendly banter or pearls of wisdom.
However, they may laden you with criticism, such as “that child should be wearing…” hat/gloves/shoes/socks (delete as appropriate). The fact is they were wearing the specified item upon leaving the house but these items have a habit of wiggling off by course or by baby force. It may be impossible to get some babies to wear a hat or gloves. They can be strong-minded wilful little things at that age. And so can old people.
If you get the “In MY day…” speech and it is: a) patronising b) insulting c) well meaning but irritating, then the best thing to do is ignore them. If your baby/toddler is crying on the bus and passengers over 60 begin to huff and puff like an old council house boiler then just don’t care. Remember! They don’t pay bus fare and you do.
This is the modern way now and it’s a better way. Their generation put babies down on their fronts, left children in gardens to exercise their lungs and allowed children to suck on lead soldiers. They don’t understand the changes these days, as they are not informed.
The Battle Field
With toddlers the Shopping Hassle Scale creeps up a notch with their advancing development. They will strike a light for independence. They recognise the Thomas the tank engine toys and want them. They don’t want to sit in the pram or trolley. They want to do what they want.
Try to see the shop from their point of view. It’s loud, busy, bright, full of products designed to capture the attention and you have most evilly clipped them into a seat. They paddy and play up so you get them out. They seize their chance to get away and inevitability beckons. They end up going berserk at a loud volume, scream, cry and make a spectacle of you. Products/people may or may not be damaged in the process.
Strategic Plans of Attack
If this scenario is sounding familiar then worry not because you are not alone. Check out some Chopsy tips to see if you can make a trip to the shops stress free and an opportunity for learning and fun instead of an exercise in anger management.
Equipment:
As well as your normal mum bag make sure you take along a drink, some snacks such as chopped fruit, raisins or something appropriate to age. Do not take sweets or chocolate. E numbers should not be added to the mix.
The shopping list. You have everything you need ingrained on the brain. A sudden explosive act of illness or bad temperedness will erase this from your mind. Write it down and cross it off as you go.
Try to involve your child in what you are doing so don’t do a big shop in a rush during peak hours. Easily said from up here in Ivory Towers. Pass non-delicate items to your child to drop into the trolley. Praise them for doing well. Talk to them about what you are doing and say what you are passing them and even what colour it is.
Take a toy that is popular with your child but be wary about their favourite ones. Allowing the beloved teddy bear to go out will leave you with grey hair making sure they have not lobbed it away. Ones that attach to the trolley are great. Chopsy Baby highly recommends the Cart Tunes Jungle Jam Trolley Cover.
Be firm with yourself. Don’t give in to demands, if you do you are making a great big rod for your back. Be firm and don’t let your child learn how to manipulate you.
If they do throw a tantrum so what? What does it matter really? Just ignore other people. They have their own problems and they are no more superhuman than you are. Use whichever method to deal with the tantrum you would do at home. Kids have to learn that you need to do the shopping and if it is a big shop then tough. They have to lump it like you do.
If they want to roll around the isles screaming then just calmly tell them you are not interested and walk away. Do make sure you can see them at all times out the corner of your eye. If they think they are really going to be left on their own, more often then not they will trot after you.
Jolly them out of it somehow. Everyone’s watching getting an eyeful of it so give them one. Lie down and roll around on the floor with them, then tell them how ridiculous they look.
Finally just try to understand that if you were hauled off from your favourite activity or TV programme to go somewhere you didn’t want to, where you were suddenly bombarded with interesting things and events that you weren’t allowed to participate in realise how tedious and unfair it all is.
Cart Tunes Jungle Jam Trolley Cover
Made by Infantino, this toy is absolutely perfect for the stressful supermarket trip. It’s a lightweight fabric toy with bright, fun, musical jungle animals giving the incarcerated toddler plenty to push, pull and teeth on.
It fits onto the trolley handle easily with adjustable Velcro straps. As well as taking it shopping it is adaptable to other situations. You can basically roll it out for playing with on the living room floor, wrap around the front pushchair bar should you have one, or wrap it around safe handles or rods.
The toy also covers up grubby shopping trolley handles because let’s face it. You never know who’s been touching it and what they have been touching! People are dirty. As well as providing a protection cover against the germs on the trolley, the fabric is also protected by Microban Active Hygiene Protection providing hygienic handles all round.
The best thing about the toy is that you won’t spend ages looking over your shoulder for missing in action toys because they are attached right in front of you. If attention and patience from your toddler is wandering off and you can see the first wriggles of discontent then you can bring them back round by wiggling and jiggling the animals.
We found it a fun and very handy device to take shopping. There are potentially 3-4 toys in one including a teether, so it can cut down on the baggage of taking a variety of different separate toys.
For age 6 months and above a very important weapon in your supermarket shopping arsenal.
£9.99
www.thebabycatalogue.com