18 month old in public

[penguintattoo]

My daughter is 18 month old, and I can not get her to sit in the shopping cart/stroller to save my life. I've tried toys, snacks, playing silly games, it doesn't matter, I'm lucky if she sits more than 10-15 minutes. If I let her walk she won't just stay by my side and hold my hand she wants to run around a grab everything. If I'm holding her hand she flops to the ground. I'm at a loss of what to do, I can't just avoid shopping until she is older. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

[MommaBirdie]

You could tie a ribbon to the cart and ask her to hold the ribbon.
My DD won't stay near unless I give her a distraction like that.

[milomama]

Would she help you push the cart?  I had a lot of trouble with DS for a few months, where he hated sitting in the cart and shopping was a struggle.  Then one day he didn't want to go in the cart and I didn't fight with him and he decided he would happily push the cart with me.  I was so surprised, as I had totally expected him to run from me or lose interest.  He's 26 months now, and I can't quite remember when he first did this, but it's been months and he still does it.  Maybe if you can engage her in "helping" more it could help?

[penguintattoo]

I haven't tried letting her push the cart, but its worth a try. She usually wants to pull everything off the shelves though. She is a super sweet kid when we are at home or at peoples houses, but we get to the store and its a whole new person. If we don't let her get out and walk and touch everything she screams the most horrible screams. Which usually ends up with us hurrying up so we can leave.

[Peony]

I bribe my toddler so I can grocery shop. With the first two I saved shopping for when DH was around so he could toddler wrangle while I got what we needed but we have very limited time now. DS will happily push the cart for a few aisles and then he is done and wants to run around pulling items off the shelf and that is when I swing by the bakery and grab one of the free cookies. It is a novel item so he usually will sit long enough and eat the cookie while I ran around and finish. Check out is always interesting because by then he is DONE so I usually end up with him under one arm kicking while I frantically throw things up and get out of there. Looking doesn't happen, I go in with a list, hit only those rows and on a very good day I might actually get most of what I need, other days, well I just hope that I got enough for dinner!

[DCMama01]

My 18 mo old DD is a busybody too so I just get her to help. She puts the produce into the bags for me and/or I hand things to her to place in the cart behind her. She loves it. And yes, I have to be careful to keep her from getting too close to the shelves or there will be extras in my cart. We've been doing this for a few months now and it works for a good 15-20 mins. After that, its bribe time combined with about 5 mins of walking around for her but then back in the cart. Those 5 mins are always interesting. If I don't keep her preoccupied "Can you hand me that, the sugar?" then she's taking off to explore. I have learned to be efficient.lol

[lifeguard]

We went through a rough several months where grocery shopping (or any shopping) was awful. I dreaded. I did try to go at night when dh was home when I could but mostly I just tried to hit the store when it was less busy (so we would disrupt less people) & just followed him really closely & repeatedly showed him how to act in public (not running, not yelling, not pulling things off shelves) & encouraging him to help.

Now, at 2.5 ds is for the most part great in stores & usually helpful so it was worth those earlier months.

[whynot]

I use a baby carrier with my son who's the same age (and 30 pounds). He loves shopping this way, he helps a lot with choosing fruits and veggies and putting them into our cart, and I can navigate very quickly through the more "delicate" ailes (also because I can leave the cart and go back to it as needed which sometimes makes things quicker). He loves the attention he gets from other shoppers and seeing the shelves from high above so it's a fun experience. He does try to grab things so you have to be careful but you quickly remember not to forget! I usually draw his attention to that's already in our cart so that he's not playing with what's on the shelves. I can't imagine shopping with him otherwise, he's very curious and active and full of uncontrollable energy! Since I basically only use the carrier for groceries (about once a week), he's actually been enjoying it.

[crunchy_mommy]

Usually we start out with DS in the Ergo or the cart seat (depending which he asks for) and then when he gets tired of that, he helps push the cart and helps me choose bananas or whatever. Then he might go back in the cart/Ergo and have a drink or a snack (though usually we are done by that point, we shop quickly). For us, the key is to have multiple options for each trip, because he would get bored with any single option if he had to do it for the whole errand. I also try to take a few minutes to let him do what he wants and I just follow to make sure he doesn't destroy anything.

I know you said she wants to pull everything off the shelves, but that is exactly what she sees you doing, so she may just be mimicking you. So if you can show her how to shop properly, it might help with that impulse a bit? I mean, she'll still be a toddler, they don't have a ton of self-control, but it might help (or at least help you to reframe the behavior as copying you, not being destructive!!)
Edited by crunchy_mommy - 6/6/11 at 6:39am

[Asiago]

I wear my 19 month old son also when out and about. A hip carry in a sling works well for him currently.  He's happy, I'm happy, it's works out well while shopping.

[penguintattoo]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 


I know you said she wants to pull everything off the shelves, but that is exactly what she sees you doing, so she may just be mimicking you. So if you can show her how to shop properly, it might help with that impulse a bit? I mean, she'll still be a toddler, they don't have a ton of self-control, but it might help (or at least help you to reframe the behavior as copying you, not being destructive!!)

I never even thought of that, but your probably right! She wants to do everything I'm doing at all times, so that makes perfect sense!

I would try the ergo but I'm 22 weeks pregnant so not really an option at this point. I think I'm going to try snacks and letting her help push the cart, if it gets really bad I can always wait until my husband is around and they can stay home together.

[schlafmanko]

My daughter's 19 months, and I make sure that the first section we go down has something she can pick out herself and carry around.  Usually it's the fruit section, and I buy a duplicate of whatever she picks out.  That way if she wants to eat the fruit she's carrying, I can just have the cashier ring up the other fruit twice.  Other than that, I approach it as a scavenger hunt.  You can have your LO look for the color of box you want, the type of item, or we occasionally do a simple version of warmer / colder.  Whenever I find something I want to buy, I have LO put it in the cart for me.  We also stop and talk about the pictures on boxes.  It takes longer, but actually it's pretty fun.

[newmamalizzy]

Our grocery store has special humongous carts for kids that have a car type thing in the front that they can sit in.  Does your store have those?  (Not sure 18 months is quite old enough, but they do have seat belts...)