Tell me about kids and supermarkets and I spontaneously think of the durex commercial with the dad and his boy screaming over a bag of candies.
I’ve already shared some of my personal experiences, but let’s talk some more about how to deal with you toddler once you are at the supermarket. So here are some tricks I use:
- Say no without saying “No”: Over time I’ve developed a couple of tactics that help me convince my toddlers not to buy the precious stuff they hold in their hands without getting into a tantrum. What about “Hmm, the mister of the shop put this bag of chips there, he will be very sad if we take it away and it’s not good to make him sad” or “these cookies are like the chocolate things we already have at home, just that those are much better, remember how much you liked them yesterday?”. Or else try “this is no good, if we eat it our bellies will hurt”, “this is only for big people”, …
Of course when they try to take healthy stuff, there is no need to find any excuse 🙂
- Be prepared to say “Yes” sometimes, at least once: I mostly let them choose one thing by themselves, at best a product I wanted to buy anyway. Typically that would be some cookies for them to take to school for the breaks.
- Put something in their hands: If you want to avoid them running all around the shop, it helps to put them something in their hands. Ideally a shopping cart, but you can also give them a bag, a basket, …
- Give them choices, let them decide: You can consider it an alternative way to saying “no”. If they come once again with some stuff they’d like to buy I’d explain them that they already got their cookies and they cannot have both. So they have to choose and pick which one they want. You give them the power to decide, which is usually sufficient to keep things under control.
- Influence the choice if needed: Let’s say their cookies are in the trolley and they come with some bag of candy and look at me with their begging eyes. I’d explain them that they have to choose between the cookies or the candies. But I’d also remind them that the teacher from school does not allow candy in the class, so if they pick the candy, they will not get anything to school for the cookie break. I assure you I never had to take any candy so far 🙂
- Get them involved: You want to avoid them getting bored, but besides that, toddlers just love it if they can help you out and feel part of the club. So I tell them what I am looking for next and ask them to help me find it, I get them a little trolley and put my shopping’s in there, I have them help me put things on the band at the till and in the bags and boxes afterwards, … Give your toddler tasks all along your shopping trip and enjoy the great “teamwork”
- Make it a game: This is the getting them involved at the higher level. Make the shopping an interesting game for the kids and enjoy the fun together with them.
These 7 tricks have had a great impact on my personal shopping experiences, but of course you might need to adjust according to your personal situation and the character of your toddlers. Do you have any special tricks you used successfully with your kids?
Pingback: | Outnumbered