Please tell me this really is not a pet peeve.

[MoniqueU]

Let me clarify this. She is not annoyed by crazy families where the kids are running all over. She is annoyed and the fact that there is a family shopping together. Big or small, well behaved or not, the fact that they are shopping together just annoys her to no end.

Kristine

Ok then she is weird. I get annoyed when there are 2 parents or 2 adults pretty much any public place where the kids are let out of control. I have 3 mind you and had to go out and get stuff with all 3 of them at times when DH was working and stuff came up. But if I could at all avoid it I would.

 

[Becky2005]

I haven't read through everything but how in the world do you go clothes shopping for the kids if you don't bring them all along?

I'm assuming she's talking about grocery shopping though since I can't fathom how anyone would be upset about a whole family out clothes shopping or something like that.

I'm going to be dragging all 4 of my kids to the shoe store in a couple days. There is absolutely no way to buy shoes without them trying them on.

It is the grocery store -- of course, 1/2 our grocery stores seem to be attached to department stores -- so back to school shopping is fun. Your co-worker would have a heart attack in some place like that. It is over-run with families.

 

[MichelleVW]

I can't stand it either.....I don't understand why people need to bring their whole fam damily to the grocery store.....

I hate grocery shopping anyway especially if I have to fight my way though all the people...

 

[NMAmy]

My DD is 13 and you have to hear her complain when we go shopping -- I'm bored, do we really need to buy anything else, I'm hungry, when are we going home, I don't want new clothes -- can't we just leave?

These kinds of comments are much more likely to come from ME when I go to the mall with my teenage dd. I hate shopping.

 

[Christine]

It's not so much a pet peeve of mine as a sheer astonishment when I am out and there is a family with whining screaning running all over kids and both mom and dad are there and one of them didnt have the sense to stay home with them. I also can't recall the last time my DH kids and i were in a mall or store together? My dh and son are torture to get into stores.

This is EXACTLY how I feel.

I don't give a hoot if a family of 8 is shopping together (mall or grocery store) and they are having a nice time.


What I don't like is being in the store with a family who has two absolutely WAILING toddlers and the mom and dad are trying to shop. It happens in the mall too. Let's face it--most very young childre HATE shopping and hate being in a boring store for 10 minutes. I think if you have really little children and you know their attention span is good for only a few minutes, one parent should elect to stay home with kids while the other shops. It's just courtesy. But I see many families who decide that "being together" trumps being considerate and polite. Either that or one of those parents can't bear to be alone in the house with those kids!!!

I wouldn't really call this a "pet peeve" but it is something that bugs me. But not in the sense of the general "in families shop together it bugs me." It's more about taking small children shopping.

The one thing I do dislike is when large groups shop together in the mall, then tend to walk 5 abreast and block the flow of traffic.

 

[mjkacmom]

It does bother me at the grocery store. However, our local store is OLD - narrow aisles, very long, lots of seniors... If I see a mom, dad, and kids, I wonder why dad couldn't have just stayed home with them. However, I've been guilty of taking all of my kids to Costco or Target, just to get out of the house, when my twins were little (I loved that I could put both of them in the cart).

 

[alexandria674]

I can understand if the children were not well-behaved at the stores. I went to the store today and there was a rather large family complete with running kids. It is very hard to buy steak when there is a four year old poking the packages. I said "Excuse me" in a polite tone to get the steak and the parents looked at me like I was a villian, granted they must have been stressed out but that is not my problem, my problem is trying to find a piece of meat that doesn't have depressions created by little Billy.

Now, well-behaved kids at a store is a nice thing to see and a refreshing change from the screaming urchins with their parents threatening bodily harm to them. I can understand if the girl doesn't like an unruly group, but it is kind of weird that she doesn't like ALL of the families at the shops.

 

[Robinrs]

My son and I have a joke about this ... I see an entire family on their way to a shopping center and I always say "the whole fam damily"....

It seems to be a cultural thing here. I rarely see Americans travel with their entire family unless I'm at a fan area or an amusement park. Certain cultures in my neighborhood take everyone from Granny to the newborn child to Kroger!!!

And I'm ashamed to say... it kind of me.

 

[Carpenters]

Wow, I probably drove people crazy for years and didn't realize it. I always grocery shopped with my 3 kids while my husband was at work until the boys were old enough to stay home by themselves. I found it much easier to go during the day as opposed to trying to fight the crowds after work when my husband got home, when I could have left the kids with him. To anyone who didn't like seeing me with my kids in there, I really have to laugh and say to get over it. What a thing to get bugged about!

 

[disney_mommy]

Let me clarify this. She is not annoyed by crazy families where the kids are running all over. She is annoyed and the fact that there is a family shopping together. Big or small, well behaved or not, the fact that they are shopping together just annoys her to no end.

Kristine

How sad for her to have such a narrow viewpoint. How sad for her future family, to have to stay at home while mom goes shoppng because they would annoy her.

She must be a very unhappy person, to have something so small annoy her so much.

 

[Wishing on a star]

I agree with the OP....
This girl is self centered and oversensitive, and maybe a bit nuts to let STUPID things bother her. Tell her to seek therapy!!!

Okay, on to the general topic....
Once a week my DH and I do our 'weekly' shopping TOGETHER.... We are like the poster who says, if we eat together, then we can shop together... We each may want to select different things. Also, just the physical act of doing all of shopping, with loads of heavy bottled water and drinks, etc.. etc... would literally be a true challenge for me.

And, to get a babysitter to run to WalMart and the Grocery... Ummmm YEAH RIGHT.

I am sorry, but I see that this thread has already become a huge forum for the resident parent-bashers and child haters.

Ohhh, seeing children at WalMart or Publix. (or, children, actually IN a toy store... GASP!!!)
Ohhhh the HORROR!!!!!

 

[HM]

This reminds me of one of those "wife swap" shows. The only thing that one family did together, was go grocery shopping together (mom dad and teen and preteen I think). That was what the Dad considered "quality time" with the family. The rest of the time he was working at home or away and never had his bluetooth out of his ear. It was so sad.

 

[kingcrab]

sounds like a person who may wish she has kids and family to do things with, and wont admit it to herself, so she is bitter. Pretty sad.

For my family, my wife, daughter, and I go grocery shopping every week together. I enjoy grocery shopping, I do all the menu planning and cooking, and look forward to picking out the ingredients. We like to bring our daughter, even though we could leave her with our live in babysitter, because we enjoy her company, and the weekends are when we get to spend the most time with her.

 

[ckay87]

Wow, I probably drove people crazy for years and didn't realize it. I always grocery shopped with my 3 kids while my husband was at work until the boys were old enough to stay home by themselves. I found it much easier to go during the day as opposed to trying to fight the crowds after work when my husband got home, when I could have left the kids with him. To anyone who didn't like seeing me with my kids in there, I really have to laugh and say to get over it. What a thing to get bugged about!

That is not the whole family, though.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Let me clarify this. She is not annoyed by crazy families where the kids are running all over. She is annoyed and the fact that there is a family shopping together. Big or small, well behaved or not, the fact that they are shopping together just annoys her to no end.

Kristine

Maybe she is just annoyed because nobody likes her enough to go anywhere with her.

 

[MichelleVW]

I agree with the OP....
This girl is self centered and oversensitive, and maybe a bit nuts to let STUPID things bother her. Tell her to seek therapy!!!

Okay, on to the general topic....
Once a week my DH and I do our 'weekly' shopping TOGETHER.... We are like the poster who says, if we eat together, then we can shop together... We each may want to select different things. Also, just the physical act of doing all of shopping, with loads of heavy bottled water and drinks, etc.. etc... would literally be a true challenge for me.

And, to get a babysitter to run to WalMart and the Grocery... Ummmm YEAH RIGHT.

I am sorry, but I see that this thread has already become a huge forum for the resident parent-bashers and child haters.

Ohhh, seeing children at WalMart or Pubix. (or, children, actually IN a toy store... GASP!!!)
Ohhhh the HORROR!!!!!

I don't hate children...I have two of my own...BUT I really hate grocery shopping and when I have to navigate around a billion people because the whole fam damily had to grocery shop together I get annoyed.

 

[lovemygoofy]

I don't hate children but I do understand what a pain it is to navigate through an isle of children standing in the way and grabbing fingers from carts and moms who are just looking at the salad dressings instead of seeing if the kids are in the way.

I'm used to it though and just have learned to accept it. Heck it's the grocery store or well commissary in my case and everyone has to eat. Of course, being that it's the army sometimes the parents don't have choices about bringing kids or not. I will have to say the most interesting mom I saw shopping had two carts. One for her groceries and one that had her four kids in it. They were sitting there all grouped together I didn't know whether to laugh or feel bad for them.

 

[mickeyboat]

When the kids were really little, I usually grocery-shopped on my lunch hour without them, by myself. Now that they are older, and DH has taken over the responsibility of most of the cooking, we all go together. DH and I plan meals and the kids pick out their snacks and juices, etc.

Sorry if we are offending any of you!

 

[puffkin]

I have a 3 year old and I try to avoid shopping with him at all costs. Also shopping by myself REALLY REALLY helps the budget! Especially at the grocery store, I hate navigating around all the families....behaved or not. It doesn't bother me so much at other stores or the mall, but at the grocery store I will admit that it does drive me crazy too.

 

[connorlevismom]

How sad for her to have such a narrow viewpoint. How sad for her future family, to have to stay at home while mom goes shoppng because they would annoy her.

She must be a very unhappy person, to have something so small annoy her so much.

To say she is an unhappy person is a understatement.

Kristine