But I must say… “can’t leave a child unattended” is such an ass reason. Like, just bring the kids along? It’s good education for the kids too.
If they’re a baby, well there are ways to carry a baby without using your hands. If you don’t have one, then fine, but I also tells me that you have no one to rely on to take care of a baby for an hour or even two when you need it, and it makes me wonder what your relationship is with those around you.
It’s not a common scenario nowadays, but I have a coworker with 4 incredibly young children all only a year or two apart in age. A bit harder to wrangle that many children who are that young.
Yea, but I’d imagine it’d be hard to even bring all 4 out by themselves, that even before you get into the supermarket, it’d probably already be tiring. So I’d imagine they’d usually be out with their partner when they have all 4 kids with them. And I’d imagine the oldest would be at least a 5 year old in that scenario, 4 if the parents try really hard and get really lucky, and that’s old enough to understand basic instructions and walk on their own. Tough luck if the eldest is playful, but, I mean, you know what you’re getting into knowing your eldest is playful, but still deciding that bringing 4 young kids alone to a supermarket is gonna work out safely in a car-centric place (yeah, I think having people to push large carts to a car implies that the place is build for cars, which are inherently a dangerous for kids).
And heck, I grew up in such a family, though to be fair, I grew up in Asia, where it isn’t uncommon to have extended family members all live in the same town, and help share the work of taking care of children. I understand that it simply isn’t the culture in Western countries, especially North America. But we can make friends, and have them help watch the kids while we go get groceries, or have them help us get groceries, and either way pay them back in some way, right?
My whole refute isn’t targeting any specific circumstance a person may have with how many or how naughty their children can be. The point is that the circumstance doesn’t matter. Regardless of the circumstance, if they can’t even consider the fact that they cannot take care of all those children on their own, but they have to bring the kids along anyways to a supermarket, and struggle to keep tabs on them all, then it tells me that
they don’t have a stong or reliable enough social circle to help them with children when they need it,
they have bad decision-making abilities,
they may not understand their own circumstances.
All these suggest to me that they lack the ability to be an adult who is well-equipped to take care of their children, and putting the cart back is simply the manifestation of all these deficiencies.
Exactly! I used to take one of my kids to Costco regularly. Just me and him. When he was too little to be left in the car while I returned the cart, I’d just take him with me when putting the cart back in the return area. It’s not that hard. People are just lazy. And the Shopping Cart Theory has a lot of merit to it.
It does get a little more complicated when you’re alone with three kids, but it’s not impossible. Put the kids in the car and walk the cart to the corral. If you’re in a parking lot where it isn’t safe to leave the kids alone in the car for 10 seconds, I’d recommend that you avoid shopping there.
Exactly. And depending on the kids, you could also make it a small, fun activity for them: help daddy/mommy/whatever you have your kids call you bring the cart to where it should be. It’d be no different from having the kids put their toys away, but just with something that may be beyond their strength, but you’re an adult, so just pull the cart from the side enough to help the kids move the cart and steer it to avoid hitting stuff.
If the kids are tired, have em just walk like 30s more? If you can’t even do that and your kid starts throwing a tantrum, then you have other problems with the kid and so you deal with it like you’re supposed to anyways. The kid isn’t going to just turn responsible without the parent doing something after all.
TIL this exists
But I must say… “can’t leave a child unattended” is such an ass reason. Like, just bring the kids along? It’s good education for the kids too. If they’re a baby, well there are ways to carry a baby without using your hands. If you don’t have one, then fine, but I also tells me that you have no one to rely on to take care of a baby for an hour or even two when you need it, and it makes me wonder what your relationship is with those around you.
It’s not a common scenario nowadays, but I have a coworker with 4 incredibly young children all only a year or two apart in age. A bit harder to wrangle that many children who are that young.
Yea, but I’d imagine it’d be hard to even bring all 4 out by themselves, that even before you get into the supermarket, it’d probably already be tiring. So I’d imagine they’d usually be out with their partner when they have all 4 kids with them. And I’d imagine the oldest would be at least a 5 year old in that scenario, 4 if the parents try really hard and get really lucky, and that’s old enough to understand basic instructions and walk on their own. Tough luck if the eldest is playful, but, I mean, you know what you’re getting into knowing your eldest is playful, but still deciding that bringing 4 young kids alone to a supermarket is gonna work out safely in a car-centric place (yeah, I think having people to push large carts to a car implies that the place is build for cars, which are inherently a dangerous for kids).
And heck, I grew up in such a family, though to be fair, I grew up in Asia, where it isn’t uncommon to have extended family members all live in the same town, and help share the work of taking care of children. I understand that it simply isn’t the culture in Western countries, especially North America. But we can make friends, and have them help watch the kids while we go get groceries, or have them help us get groceries, and either way pay them back in some way, right?
My whole refute isn’t targeting any specific circumstance a person may have with how many or how naughty their children can be. The point is that the circumstance doesn’t matter. Regardless of the circumstance, if they can’t even consider the fact that they cannot take care of all those children on their own, but they have to bring the kids along anyways to a supermarket, and struggle to keep tabs on them all, then it tells me that
All these suggest to me that they lack the ability to be an adult who is well-equipped to take care of their children, and putting the cart back is simply the manifestation of all these deficiencies.
Exactly! I used to take one of my kids to Costco regularly. Just me and him. When he was too little to be left in the car while I returned the cart, I’d just take him with me when putting the cart back in the return area. It’s not that hard. People are just lazy. And the Shopping Cart Theory has a lot of merit to it.
It does get a little more complicated when you’re alone with three kids, but it’s not impossible. Put the kids in the car and walk the cart to the corral. If you’re in a parking lot where it isn’t safe to leave the kids alone in the car for 10 seconds, I’d recommend that you avoid shopping there.
Exactly. And depending on the kids, you could also make it a small, fun activity for them: help daddy/mommy/whatever you have your kids call you bring the cart to where it should be. It’d be no different from having the kids put their toys away, but just with something that may be beyond their strength, but you’re an adult, so just pull the cart from the side enough to help the kids move the cart and steer it to avoid hitting stuff.
If the kids are tired, have em just walk like 30s more? If you can’t even do that and your kid starts throwing a tantrum, then you have other problems with the kid and so you deal with it like you’re supposed to anyways. The kid isn’t going to just turn responsible without the parent doing something after all.