Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a law-abiding, civil, normal, kind, contributing member of society who happens to never have experienced any "serious consequences" as a result of my clearly abject ways.

You have just admitted you are not law-abiding, so I am included to think you are deluded in thinking those other things about yourself.

whoops, inclined to think...

Anonymous wrote:I am a law-abiding, civil, normal, kind, contributing member of society who happens to never have experienced any "serious consequences" as a result of my clearly abject ways.

You have just admitted you are not law-abiding, so I am included to think you are deluded in thinking those other things about yourself.

There is also a small likelihood that the same person who would slip her 1.5 yr old DD raisins 1-by-1 to make it through a long store checkout line without a fit outlaws grocery store eating by age 3, thus leaving her small child with memories of a mother who absolutely never would allow a child to eat in the store. Not that I know any such person or people...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a major rule-follower. I don't believe in speeding. I think electronic intellectual property theft is theft. I don't jaywalk.

I have NO problem with this. It is not stealing or illegal. It does not teach my children that it is okay to steal.

While I see your point, young kids aren't going to make the connection that you pay for it later. They're just going to see every aisle as their personal buffet.

Up until now we've been teaching that if they want something, they have to buy it first. They get it. The only snacks they get in the grocery store are the samples. They can last 30-60 minutes without food.

You're right. At 18 months my son did not understand that I was paying for the food later. He didn't really get the concept of money at all until he was about 2 and a half.

If he had ever gone to the grocery store unaccompanied, he might have committed a horrible error. Furthermore, if he'd gone to Barnes and Nobles he probably would have come home with a pocket full of trains.

However, I'm such a helicopter mom that I never actually sent him to the store by himself under the age of 3. Which means I was there to safely guide his eating and paying choices.

Anonymous wrote:Do you let them wear clothes before paying for them? .

Actually, I do. At the store where I buy most of my kid's shoes they often ask "would he like to wear them home?" and I say "yes" and he wears them right up to the counter (where I pay for them).

He's also tried on a hat or a pair of sunglasses, decided he liked it and worn it all around the store. Then I take it off, long enough to give it to the salesperson to ring up, and then he wears it home.

If I'm planning on paying for something, and it's a container that can be easily rung up once opened then I don't see the problem in handing your kid a cracker.

I do the same thing myself if I'm running an errand after work, and I'm tired/hungry/thirsty I might open a bottle of tea or take a string cheese out of the bag to eat while I shop. I've never had a check out person blink an eye.

What in hell is the matter with all of you that you can't got 30 minutes without eating? Or that your children have no concept of delayed gratification?

Really?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So letting a toddler eat a cracker in the grocery store is "tacky," but walking around your neighborhood drinking on Halloween while accompanying your small children is perfectly acceptable?

Okay. Carry on, DCUM hall monitors.

Finally, the Halloween drinkers and the grocery-store eaters collide!

And they are all gross!

Anonymous wrote:I will admit that I am somewhat amazed at the tone of this thread. I am on the parent advisory board at DC's private school and I frequently deal with folks who do not want to follow the rules or believe that the rules should not apply to them. What amazes me is that this mentality seems to reflect how folks lead their lives. This thread reinforces that. First and foremost, people will do whatever is most convienent for them personally.

Many people in this country are selfish assholes who ignore the rules when it's convenient for them. They are masters of rationalizing their bad behavior. If you call them on it, you are "high and mighty" or "uptight" or whatever they can come up with to try to make themselves feel better about being assholes. Ironically, they will adamantly chastise others who break rules in cases where the rules benefit them. It's all "me! me! me!", all the time. Their kids will carry on the odious tradition, I'm sure.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a major rule-follower. I don't believe in speeding. I think electronic intellectual property theft is theft. I don't jaywalk.

I have NO problem with this. It is not stealing or illegal. It does not teach my children that it is okay to steal.

While I see your point, young kids aren't going to make the connection that you pay for it later. They're just going to see every aisle as their personal buffet.

Up until now we've been teaching that if they want something, they have to buy it first. They get it. The only snacks they get in the grocery store are the samples. They can last 30-60 minutes without food.

Anonymous wrote:I've often wondered why you see opened packages around the store..now I know who opens them. I don't believe all of you pay for your grocery shopping pilfering. Much easier to just open a package, give your child one and put it back on the shelf - likely this happens more often then taking the package to the cash. It seems the predominant reason is not that you want the food but that you want to give your child something to eat while in the store.

Why would you jump to this conclusion? Obviously there are some immoral people in this world that don't pay for stuff and are shoplifters. They exist. That's not what this thread's about. It's about parents trying to grocery shop in a pain-free way.

I've often wondered why you see opened packages around the store..now I know who opens them. I don't believe all of you pay for your grocery shopping pilfering. Much easier to just open a package, give your child one and put it back on the shelf - likely this happens more often then taking the package to the cash. It seems the predominant reason is not that you want the food but that you want to give your child something to eat while in the store.

Anonymous wrote:I thought you all were crazy, but here is a "pregnant mom arrested at safeway for eating a sandwich." CPS actually took her daughter overnight for this...

http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2011/11/01/pregnant-mom-arrested-at-safeway-for-5-sandwich-speaks-out/

She learned a lesson and she won't ever do this again, will she?

Anonymous wrote:I thought you all were crazy, but here is a "pregnant mom arrested at safeway for eating a sandwich." CPS actually took her daughter overnight for this...

http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2011/11/01/pregnant-mom-arrested-at-safeway-for-5-sandwich-speaks-out/

Other people have mentioned Safeway being bad about stuff like this, but this story is not as most people are describing it on this thread. We are saying that if you eat something in the store and pay for it, then it's ok. These people ate food in the store, and they did not pay for it. That is different, and everyone I think agrees that is stealing. I think the unfortunate part is that it seems like these people "meant" to pay for the sandwiches and inadvertently, they did not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought you all were crazy, but here is a "pregnant mom arrested at safeway for eating a sandwich." CPS actually took her daughter overnight for this...

http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2011/11/01/pregnant-mom-arrested-at-safeway-for-5-sandwich-speaks-out/

Duuuuude - the entire thread is a spin-off from that story. Keep up.

And FWIW, Safeway has publicly apologized for overly harsh treatment in that case, so not sure it helps anyone's cause to hold it up as an example.

HAha! Whoops! Didn't know!

Anonymous wrote:I thought you all were crazy, but here is a "pregnant mom arrested at safeway for eating a sandwich." CPS actually took her daughter overnight for this...

http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2011/11/01/pregnant-mom-arrested-at-safeway-for-5-sandwich-speaks-out/

Duuuuude - the entire thread is a spin-off from that story. Keep up.

And FWIW, Safeway has publicly apologized for overly harsh treatment in that case, so not sure it helps anyone's cause to hold it up as an example.