Shopping with children is always an interesting experience. There are a couple of things to remember when you are shopping. First, the “Big Box” stores may have everything we need at one stop but those stores are so over stimulating that even the calmest child can be overwhelmed. Second, the store displays are meant to distract you so it is very difficult to stay focused on what you need at the store and what the children are doing while you are being distracted by a visual sales pitch in every aisle. <>
Everyone needs to learn to deal with the stimulation and the distractions. You probably take a list with you – that helps you stay focused. And you probably have learned to ignore the visual displays and not buy every attractive item in the store. So, let’s teach your children to do that. The important thing to remember when you are teaching a new skill is to practice the skill first. So take your children on a several practice shopping trips.
PRACTICE SHOPPING:
1. Sit down with your children and go over a list of behaviors that you want to see in the store. Stress the “do’s” not the “don’t’s.” Trust me they know the “don’ts.”
<>2. Go to the store and practice the behaviors. Don’t buy anything. Just walk through the store, push the cart or ride in the cart, talk about what you are going to eat for dinner and then leave. Practice not looking at the displays. Repeat the “do” rules. “Eyes need to look where you are walking.” “Stop and look at me when you need to talk.” Go for 10 minutes. No longer. Do that about three times.3. On the fourth trip to the store take a list of three items that you are going to buy. Go in buy those three items and leave.
Remember – no one, not even you, can break the rules and start wandering around the store or picking up a fourth item. Just get what is on the list and leave.
This will build trust. When children see you picking up extra items or buying things impulsively, they are going to ask you to buy them something. If they see that you only get what is on the list – they will know that the list is what guides the shopping. It will be such a relief for them to know that the shopping will be done when all the items are found and that you will not be walking around the store deciding what you need.
Good Luck.
