Grocery Shopping with Young Children & Staying Sane, Part One
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more details, please see our disclosure policy.
Want to save this post?
Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox. Plus, I'll send you time- and money-saving tips every week!
– A post from LifeasMOM contributor, Lauren –
Once you become a mother, there are a few things that become more of a challenge. I firmly believe that grocery shopping is at the top of that list!
Shopping with little people is not for the faint of heart. It takes a strategy and then it takes the energy to implement that strategy!
I have four little people: almost 6 years old, almost 4 years old, 22 months and 11 weeks. I didn’t even realize until Baby #3 that if I developed a shopping routine that we used every time we were out, shopping would become far more manageable.
While it is much easier to go shopping alone, that is usually not an option for me. In my opinion, the trick to a manageable shopping trip is all in the prep work.
Here are some things that you can do to make shopping with children run a little smoother.
Make sure your children know what type of behavior you expect.
This is by far the most important ‘rule’ in grocery shopping with little ones. If your children don’t know what kind of behavior you expect, your trip will be chaotic.
While this varies from mom to mom, this is what I expect from my crowd: first time obedience – no exceptions, stay near me and the cart always, no asking for items off the shelves, no horsing around or running in the store.
Since these are the expectations I have every time we set foot in a store, I am slowly not having to repeat them as often. My children have proven to me that the more consistent I am with expectations, the better their behavior.
Pack snacks and drinks – lots of them.
For my bigger kids, I make sure they have a filling snack while in the car riding to the store. When my children are younger and still ride in the cart, I let them eat their snacks while at the store. I just force myself to get over the germ-factor and allow them to eat while they ride.
When my children are hungry they are whiny and cranky – just like me! It is vital that we are all well-fed prior to our trip.
Plan your trip around nap time.
I still have several nappers, so I always schedule my store trips around naptime. It is a disaster waiting to happen if I try to grocery shop with over-tired children.
If you are going to multiple stores, map your route.
If I have to go several places, I map my route ahead of time, planning the most important stops first. In the event that I have to abandon our whole plan, I want the essential errands to be completed.
So assume I need to go the grocery store, drop books off at the library and get gas in the car. I make a mental plan to get gas first and then go to the store. In the event that my children are grumpy and need to go home, I can just drop the books off another day.
Make your grocery list as detailed as possible.
The more detailed your grocery list, the less you have to think about it. While grocery shopping with coupons is not rocket science by any means, it does take some concentration. When making my list, I always mark a “C” beside an item so I can remember to pull out my coupon when I put it in my cart.
If you know your grocery store very well, you could arrange your list by aisle. Arranging your list by section is also an option: canned goods, produce, meat, etc. Having an organized, detailed list makes shopping go faster and prevents distractions.
I am a firm believer in having my plan in place before we ever get in the car to go grocery shopping. I am not a fan of shopping in the first place, so I want it to be as painless as possible. By putting some thought into my list and into the process itself, shopping trips with my children can be successful and even enjoyable!
How do you make shopping with your children easier?
How do you prepare yourself and your children for a manageable shopping trip?
– 
Lauren Hill is the ‘Mama’ behind Mama’s Laundry Talk and loves all things laundry. However, she does not love the grocery store (with or without her children) and wants to make it as painless as possible.
Come back tomorrow for Part Two of Grocery Shopping with Young Children!
We try whenever possible to go shopping as a family. I’ve got two kids (2.5 and 5 months) and when I bring my husband along it’s a grand adventure. He can help wrangle the toddler when she gets bored and we get to spend some family time together. It’s not ideal, but we both work so time together as a family is at a premium on the weekends!
These are all good tips. Also, when my kids are big enough to read I have them get the product off the shelf and tell them how many.I have taken 8 kids shopping at one point. I am down to 3 at home. All are old enough now so, I send 2 down an aisle to get items in that aisle and meet them in the next aisle with the 3 or youngest child getting items in that aisle.
It has been so many years that when I go shopping by myself and have to “touch” each item it seems strange.
I almost always have all three kids (4, 22 months, 4 months) with me when I shop. I definitely agree with setting expectations in advance.
I’ve also learned (the hard way) that we need to use the restroom when we first get to the store, not wait until my four year old realizes he has to go half way through. It’s much less stressful than running across the store with three (because he always is the furthest from the restrooms when he has to go).
The true lifesaver at this stage is my baby carriers. I put my 22 month old (25 pound) dd on my back, and my 4 month old on my front. Usually they are both asleep by half way through, and it feels like I only have one child with me. It draws attention (and comments), but it is so much easier than the alternatives.
@Xan,
Smart mama! It has taken me a long time to not fret about what others are saying to us/about us in the store. You’ve gotta do what works, right?!
-Lauren
This is great, Lauren! We always have a chat in the car right before we go into the store. We go over rules and expectations and consequences to not following them. And literally as we are walking into the store I give them one more reminder.
I also try and get my 6 year old involved in the shopping. She can help pick fruits and veggies and my 3 year old is allowed to carry one item while shopping.
I agree completely that it is important to set boundaries and to communicate your expectations, especially since you really don’t want them riding in grocery carts. Even with one of those cart covers (a truly useful invention), grocery carts are absolutely filthy. My son, when he was 10 months old (and before the covers were even invented), contracted chicken pox. No one else in our family had it, it had been over a month since he had been to the doctor’s office, and he hadn’t been anywhere else with me (it was a cold January). I remain convinced he got it from a shopping cart.
My girls like to “help” me find grocery items or to pick out fruit or veggies. I do not reward them with goodies for good behavior, but the promise of a fun movie in the car on the way home goes a long way to encourage good behavior.
@Stacey,
I don’t typically reward or bribe with goodies for good behavior either. Although there are the rare exceptions. 😉
It all goes back to them knowing what type of behavior I expect.
And the carts? Oh yes – gross. Love HandiWipes for that very reason!
-Lauren
I like to play games with my kids and seize those teachable moments. It sometimes takes a little longer, but if they are engaged and interacting with me, they don’t act out. Here are some ideas I have for waiting in line:
http://memorymakingmomma.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-math-madness-waiting-in-line-part.html
I shop with my stroller. My now toddler is comfortable and contained. He sits far far better than he does in a shopping cart. I put a basket on top and heavy things go in the basket.
We are car less so we walk there and back with the stroller so we get the added bonus of no transitions and car seat straps.
Can’t wait to read part 2! 🙂
I am expecting baby #3 in just a few weeks, and grocery shopping alone is a rare luxury, since my husband travels for work and we don’t have many babysitters here. So I just grit my teeth and get it done. 😉
I like shopping at several stores to get the deals or go where I know the lowest price is (Aldi first, then other stores) but this sometimes isn’t possible because it means more stops and more unloading/loading the kids and purchases. So when I have a small baby, I just shop more at Walmart because they have everything in one place, even though I dislike Walmart shopping. But it saves my sanity and the kids are less grumpy, so we all win. 🙂
Lovely post, Lauren.. Thankfully, I just have the one toddler till now(!) and have found taking snacks, drinks and making my trip as planned as possible really helps ease a trip to the supermarket!
Yes! Agree with all of this – great tips. I’ve found that I can happily manage grocery shopping with one child if I’ve done all of the above. It is actually a fun and pleasant experience. Add another child into the mix, and it definitely gets trickier, but doable. The part about setting expectations for behavior becomes much more important then. Thanks for these tips!