How do you deal with kids and tantrums in the supermarket?

Question

While watching my 6 kids we had to go to the supermarket. They were horrable!!!! The oldest two girl (ages 10 and 9, the 10yr. old is actally my live in niece) were yelling for DVDs and the other 3 boys (ages 8, 6 and 3) were yelling and screeming for toy and candy. At one point my 3 yr. old threw himself in the floor kicking and screeming everybody was looking I wanted to die!!!!!! My wife swears that the 3 yr.old is the only one that acts like that with her. Thank god my youngest is to young to act like this she is 3 wks. How do you deal with this behavior?

Answer 1

You leave them at home or with a sitter. NOt possible then you dicipline them. You do not buy them anything because they are spoiled brats. You do not tolerate their behavior. You sternly warn them that if they misbehave in the grocery store this time that they will be grounded when they get home. Tell them they will lose privaleges they have before hand. If the younger boy who is three sees his older siblings setting an example he may stay in line or he may not. If my three year old did that I would grab him throw him in the cart and ignore him completely. Then I would get a sitter for him alone next time. The ideal situation is to let your ten year old watch after him better and keep him happy..its all about team work and it sounds like there isnt any there.

Answer 2

Pack everyone out to the car, immediately. I know that two times carrying my crying 3 year old to the car to sit and let hubby finish shopping while we sat with nothing to do stopped it right quick. I also used this tactic when my now 9 year old was 2 and threw a fit in a restaurant about wanting dessert when she did not eat her meal. She has never done that since.
If you stay in the store with them and keep shopping with them, they see that as acceptance of their behaviors.
Remember to not spank or give other attention to the behavior, yelling or lecturing is also attention they get by acting that way. I just went straight to the car and did not say a word after the short explaination that they were not allowed to act like that, and they were being sat down where they can not bother the other shoppers/eating people.
PS- you want to stop these bad behaviors before your 3 week old is big enough to copy them :) Guranteed even the bestest child has that one fit in public at some point.

Answer 3

The ages of my kids are 3 and 1. Whenever possible I try to leave at least one of them home with my husband. My three year old will "make a grocery list" with me before we leave. When we get to the store, he loves to help find the items we talked about on the list. He feels as if he is helping. When we get to the checkout line, he thinks the candy is dog food. I am not big on lying to children but this has really helped a lot. The cashiers and other parents just laugh. I also have fruit snacks handy and give them to the kids as I am checking out.

With my 1 year old, I always have a couple of little toys that he only gets to play with when we are out and about. Good luck and I hope this helps.

Answer 4

What I do is I leave. Then in the car I explain why we left. I let them know what the expectations are when we are in public and in a store. I also tell them that when we get home, they all can either go to their room or have a time out(depending on the age) to think about the way the acted. If we go again and it happens again, they will lose privileges. Usually I will remind them how they are supposed to act before we go in and what will happen if they don't.

Answer 5

Bring the kids back to the car and tell them that they won't get to go to the store with you any more if they behave like that. Every time one of them throws a fit, take them back to the car. Eventually they will get the point, and when they do behave, once in a while you can get them a piece of candy to reward good behavior.
And spanking might be an option there too.
Good luck to you

Answer 6

I only had two daughters less than 2 years apart in age, but when they started that I would calmly take the grocery cart up to the checkout, ask the cashier to watch it for me, take both girls outside to either the parking lot or my car, and scold them within an inch of their life!! To me the key is to isolate them where they don't have an audience to perform for, and then you can look them in the eye and explain the consequences of that type of behavior to them. Then, I would go back and finish my shopping.

Answer 7

This is what I do, explain in the car to all of the children how you expect each of them to behave, explain that we are not shopping for candy, toys or movies, only for food for the house. Explain that if any of them does not act how you explained for them to, that they will get one warning and then you will all leave. You have to stick to it though! Even if you have an entire card full of groceries, pick them all up and walk out to the car and go home.

Answer 8

I made my son sit at the side of the Aisle and waited for him to stop. All the time I told him he looked stupid and I was letting everybody see how much of a baby he was. It doesn't take too many times of doing it before they stop (As long as you never give into their demands when they act like that)

Answer 9

I remember my son at 3 yrs of age doing the same thing. It took three times but each time that he started his tantrum my husband or I would take him out to the car while one of us finished the shopping. We would stay with him until he was in control of himself. Like I said we did it three times and he finally learned that hanging out in the car wasn't fun.

Answer 10

Set behavior expectations with your kids before you go to the store. If your kids are throwing tantrums in the store my suggestion is leave asap. My mom would leave her shopping cart and leave if we threw fits, its not pleasent for other customers. Also, reward kids for good behavior.