I remember one time when I had to take kids grocery shopping with me. I was working at a group home. It was my job to purchase a big haul of groceries. There weren’t enough staff members on duty to leave all of the kids at the house. Therefore, I took three of them with me to the grocery store.
Grocery Shopping With Kids Isn’t Easy
It was a disaster. They were running all over the place. They were whooping, hollering, and causing chaos. Therefore, I got stressed out. Looking back, I handled it all wrong. I could have given them specific tasks to do. This would have helped me, and it would have kept them busy at the same time. We could have played a game or engaged in a conversation.
Instead, I tried to focus on getting in and out quickly. Moreover, I was trying to stick to both a list and a budget. Furthermore, I had to go to a large busy grocery store that I hated. I would do everything differently if I could. At the time, I didn’t know how. Therefore, I just said that I wouldn’t take kids grocery shopping anymore. But now I see that there are pros and cons to grocery shopping with kids.
Benefits of Taking Kids Grocery Shopping
If you have kids that are old enough to help you, then it can actually simplify your life to take kids grocery shopping. For example, you can give a child they’re own small list of items to buy. Send them around the store (if it’s age-appropriate to do so) to collect those items. This allows them to learn grocery shopping skills. Furthermore, they can take pride in helping.
Even if your children can’t shop on their own in the store, they can get involved. Let them hold the coupons. When two similar items are the same price, give them the choice about which to get. As you go along, you can impart knowledge about how to shop for groceries, how to save money at the grocery store, and what it means that your family makes the food choices that they do.
In other words, if you take it in stride, then it can be a great bonding experience. When you take kids grocery shopping, you’re involving them in a key component of the household. Furthermore, if you enjoy shopping with your kids, then a normally dull chore can be a fun experience.
Finally, you might save money if you take the kids along with you. After all, you don’t have to pay for a babysitter if they are with you. Plus you won’t end up buying things that they don’t like and therefore that get thrown away.
Not-So-Great Things About Taking Kids Grocery Shopping
That said, it’s not always easy to take kids grocery shopping. More often than not, the trip takes longer when you have more people involved. In some cases, a helpful child might speed things up by getting items for you. If you need to get through the store in a rush, then it might stress you out to bring the kids.
Furthermore, they often ask for items that aren’t on your grocery list. This can cause you to engage in impulse buying and break your budget. What’s the point of using coupons and saving money on groceries only to splurge on an item the kids are demanding? On the other hand, you could say no, but then you have to endure the complaining that goes along with that.
Besides their requests, you might just feel distracted. If you’re watching the kids, then you aren’t focused on the task at hand. Therefore you might miss out on good deals. Alternatively, you may forget to get something you intended to buy. Of course, you can learn to shop well when you take kids grocery shopping. It just might not happen the first time out.
Do you take your kids grocery shopping? Why or why not?
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