It was easy for me to remain calm and not feel hassled while shopping with my kids when I learnt some cool Love and Logic tips. Here they are, I am happy to share them with you.
My favorite to use with older kids was:
When asked “can I have that?”
I would respond “ Sure, with your own money”. This would shut them up pretty quickly. It reduced the begging for things by 80 %…….what a relief! I found their constant asking very irritating and energy draining. Note this is a way of saying NO with a YES, clever positive communication!
Off course we can use this only IF they have money, and mine were good as saving birthday and Christmas money as well as working summer jobs.
Another favorite when they asked for one treat in the grocery and then another and another,
I would say “sure you can have that as long as you put the first one back, you choose” (there was usually a cost limit off course).
What about little children touching? Most shops we take little children into have items that are safe for a toddler to hold. Why not have them hold items for us? At groceries they can dump them into the cart, or just carry them? This actually makes them feel important. A deep psychological need every human has!
Back to the touching, it is good for little ones to learn not to touch, but let’s keep our expectations reasonable. It is not fair to put them into enormously tempting situations when they have not yet developed will power. Just think how many years it has taken you to develop your own will power, far less a 30 month old!
Discussions regarding appropriate behavior can also be helpful prior to the outing and so too role playing.
Happy shopping with the kids and don’t forget to commend them for their nice behavior. Let’s catch them doing things right and noticing, rather than constantly just noticing and correcting the undesirable behavior.
I’d love to hear of your tricks and tips for happy shopping with your kids. Feel free to share.
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