1. Before you go to the store let your kids know where they are going and what you expect from them while you are there.
2. Keep some snacks in your purse or bag just in case they get restless or hungry.
3. Ask you children to help you while you are at the store. Sit down and make a grocery list with them and tell them what they can help you with, pick out 4 apples, or if your children are old enough ask them help you match your coupons to your items. A lot of times we open up the ad and we cut out the pictures of the items we are buying and put them on index cards. I assign index cards for my children and then they each have their items they are in charge of to find when we are at the store.
4. I plan my trips around when I know my children will be the best behaved. If I took them during nap time and they caused a scene that would be all on me.
5. Keep your children close by. To do this I just keep my children engaged and involved in what I am already doing. I talk to them and tell them exactly what I am doing; I am checking the prices, the nutrition facts, or how many are in each box, can you help me?
6. Ask your children questions. I like to turn our shopping trips into a learning experience. I ask my children about the foods we are purchasing. For example; Where do eggs come from? What color apples do you see? Find the small, medium and large bags of sugar.
7. At checkout I have them count the items as they go up on the conveyor belt. If they were older I would have them guess to see what the total might be. Because we are using coupons this would be a great learning experience to show the value of a dollar and how we work hard and there are ways to stretch our dollars =) Let them see the total before and after coupons. Let them know that your work to clip coupons paid off.
Now, we also know that there are weeks that you should NEVER bring children. Especially on weeks when there are sales that you have to count how many items you have or total up your items cost to get the sale prices. If there is a week when I know I will need concentration I leave them behind. Do you have any tips that makes shopping with kids easier?
2 comments:
I have started doing pretty much all my shopping at Smith's Marketplace because they have the kid sized shopping carts. As we pick up the items we need they divide them between their carts as they deem fit. Check out is also fun for them becaus they can reach inside their own baskets and put them up on the belt, walk forward and put the bagged items back in the carts! Their absolute fav is when we are done and they get to put the carts in the cart return in the parking lot!
I agree that carts make a big difference--we like Macey's where my two-year-old can "drive" the car cart.
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