Shopping with children doesn't have to be a nightmare

For the mum of 7-year-old Nino, it feels as if she has been intercepted as a marathon runner just before the finish line: The trolley is full, Nino is happy, the till has been reached. Now just pay quickly, then ... At this moment, Nino discovers the chewing gum, jelly babies and chocolate bars on the shelf at the checkout, which is positioned at children's eye level. Parents know what's coming next: I want this, I want that - resistance is futile. Because of the persuasive power they can develop over their parents, children are also referred to by advertisers as the «buying engines of the family».
If parents want to retain control over what and how much ends up in the shopping trolley, strategies are needed. First and foremost, clear rules that are communicated to the child. And these must be defended, even if it gets loud at the checkout. If you remain firm, the child will learn to accept the rules.
It also helps if you involve your children in the «shopping» mission: Let them look for certain foods, select them in predetermined quantities or scan them at the self-checkout. By giving children the opportunity to actively help, they feel that they are being taken seriously. They also get to know the range of food on offer and develop an additional relationship with food.

Bans do not help

It does not make sense to ban entire food groups such as sweets. This is because bans make things seem even more desirable and increase the craving for them. In addition, eating bans during puberty can have a negative effect on eating behaviour. It is better to learn how to deal with tempting products than to impose bans that cannot be adhered to.
It is also of little help to make food palatable to children by labelling it as «healthy». Children want to be able to immediately understand why their parents are buying a product. If you explain to a child why they should buy a courgette by saying that the vegetable is healthy, this is a consequence that is not directly noticeable and therefore not of interest to the child. However, if you say: «We need the courgette for the gratin that you like so much», this evokes positive memories and the decision in favour of the product becomes understandable for the child.

With all senses

The weekly market is particularly suitable for shopping with children. Here, shopping becomes a sensory experience: seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting - food can be experienced with all the senses. The vegetables are usually lying unprocessed in the display: the carrots with green cabbage, the potatoes still full of soil. Children see green and yellow bananas and learn that the colour says something about their ripeness. They learn to associate a red apple with sweetness and a green apple with sourness. Any pictures of the farm where the produce comes from create a link to its origin: my carrots grew in this field, the milk for my cheese comes from these cows.
At the weekly market, children can overhear conversations about cultivation, production or specialities of the current season - or, if your child is old enough, you can involve them directly in such conversations. And markets also smell different depending on the season - in spring and summer, for example, like parsley or strawberries, at Christmas like cinnamon and cloves. Friendly or enterprising vendors will offer your child a wheel of sausage or a cheese - so even the palate gets its money's worth when shopping.
No question: there are days when all the precautions and good intentions don't help: children have their moods and their daily form. If they are in a bad mood, the only thing that helps is to stay calm and try to see the whole thing with a sense of humour.
If it becomes apparent in the morning that this could be one of the more stressful days, it is worth spontaneously enlisting the help of available caregivers and planning the shopping trip alone so that you can spend less stressful time in the shopping centre and more relaxed time in the playground.

Tips for relaxed shopping

- Set clear rules, for example: only eat outside the shop, don't choose sweets from the shelf by the till
- Allow enough time
- Take your children shopping when they are full and well-rested
- Avoid rush hours
- Write the shopping list together, involve the child in the weekly menu planning
- Let children help decide: give them two products to choose from, let the child decide and put the product in the trolley

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