Shopping with many Children

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Do you have many children?

I have five. All nine and under.
Do you often find yourself in a store with said many children?

When you are in said store with said many children are you also juggling lists, budgets, and the safety of all that are in your care?

Here are five tips to make shopping with many little ones easier –

  1. Make a detailed list and make it in the order that you will travel through your store. This will make it eaiser to avoid back tracking for missed items at the bottom of your list.
  2. Feed the children and yourself before you go shopping and avoid going right before nap time.
  3. Contain as many children as possible. Bring along a baby carrier for the youngest, put the toddler in the seat of the cart and have everyone else keep at least one hand on the cart. It is good discipline and keeps everyone safe.
  4. Allow the children that are walking to help grab things off of the shelf and hand them to you. This will keep them engaged and will also save your back while you are carrying the baby.
  5. This last one is one that my children love and it has just revolutionized our shopping trips! I divide the item on my list onto index cards for each child. I keep in mind their reading ability, where the item is on shelves, and the weight of the item. I try to use item that the older ones can read themselves and I put things that I know I won’t forget onto the younger ones lists in case they get dropped or torn. This helps the children feel a part, keeps them focused on something and out of trouble and helps build their vocabulary as well. Plus, with my older girls I’m already starting to show them how to break down prices to unit price as to compare different brands and sizes to make the wisest choice. Yes, this adds time to my trip and, no, I don’t do it every time, but I really enjoy it when we take the time to do this.

How do you handle shopping with little ones? Do you have a trick that you use to make the day more fun and not just a chore?

    6 Responses to “Shopping with many Children”

    1. Marianne @ Abundant Life

      Lots of great ideas here. I have older kids that can watch the younger kids now so often leave them at home. Your idea makes me want to bring some of the littles just to have them help!

    2. Large Family Small World

      I use most of those too, but that last one is new! I think I’ll give it a try.

      When I know we will be out for quite a while I make sure that I bring healthy snacks. This helps stretch our “good time” during errand day. Yes, we run all of our errands once a week. It is a long day, but then we get to stay home all the other days!

      While bringing the little ones with me may be harder (now that I do have some older kids that could babysit for a bit) those little ones would miss out on some great training time so I continue to take them with me and will for as long as I have littles.

    3. Brooke

      We have a list of threes simple rules that I remind my 3 of as we are walking into the store. This seems to help know how to behave!
      1. Listen to Mom.
      2. Stay close enough to touch the cart.
      3. Don’t ask for anything.

      Once in a while they do ask for something, but usually with the expectation that I will say no, so when I do say no they don’t ask again! Sometimes they remind me of something I need when they ask! LOL!