Remove the TEN-YEAR-OLD from the carriage, please

[Shalom]

"don't tell me how to manage MY kid!"

No, I'm telling you how to use MY cart.

What kind of idiocy is that, anyway? When I was a kid, I'd never have even dreamed about riding UNDER the cart. Inside, yeah, but I was happier pushing the damn thing than riding in it.

Re: the tweenagers in strollers: This is a real-life embodyment of an old joke (translated from Yiddish) about the stereotypical overprotective mother, pushing her kid in a wheelchair. Friend meets her and says "Oy, nebech! Can't he walk?" Mother answers, "Of course he can walk, but isn't it wonderful? HE DOESN'T HAVE TO!"

Never thought I'd live to see that one in reality.

[XCashier]

Ugh, that too. And quite often, the cart runs over the kids fingers.

Or their long hair gets tangled in the wheels.

I did see an older kid, probably about ten, climbing into one of our store carts. I suggested to the parents that he not do that. He leaned the wrong way and the cart flipped over, spilling him onto the hard floor. He wasn't hurt, luckily, just scared enough to know not to do that again. And dad told the kid, "well, the lady did tell you!"

I stopped putting my son in the cart when he was about 3, as he was far too big to fit in the seat. He always walked along beside me after that, keeping his hands away from the shelves (because I told him that glass jars and bottles could break and cut him). It's called parenting. We adults are not the center of the universe, nor do we get our way all the time. Why should the children? The sooner they learn, the better.

[thatcrazyredhead]

Question: do those kids have a disability?

If not, then that makes more sense.

Not that I could tell. Even if they did, shouldn't they be in a wheelchair (that they would fit in) rather than a stroller (that they're much too big for)?

[raudf]

The only reason my 10 year old was in the basket of the buggy was when he was sick, I'd just taken him to the doc, had to pick up his meds and couldn't leave him in the car because it was too hot. All I was getting on that trip was his meds and some jello for him to eat. Now? He walks, period. If I have to haul my sick carcass around the store, he can too!

Otherwise, I don't care whether another person's kid rides in the buggy or not, as long as it's not my buggy. I don't know their story, so I try not to judge any more.

[MadMike]

I was overruled, and spent a truly miserable day in the Happiest Place on Earth. I actually noticed tons of infants who were having equality horrible days. Bonus for them is they won't remember any of it.

I won a trip to Disney World, back when my son was still a baby, and I was with his so-called mother. We thought about taking him along, but we realized, like you said, that he wouldn't remember any of it. So her parents kept him for us, and we went by ourselves.

While we were waiting in line at one of the rides, I saw quite a few mothers carrying babies. The babies were tired and cranky, and the mothers looked quite frazzled. We knew then that we had made the right choice.

[Monterey Jack]

Or riding underneath the cart, which always infuriates me. It's not only common sense, but it's also store policy (and even illustrated on the carts themselves )

Wait, scratch that...there isn't any specific warning to not allow kids to ride under the carts. Plenty to not allow kids above a certain age/weight to ride inside, but none to tell parents to keep kids out from under them. Talk about a lawsuit waiting to happen...

[wolfie]

Wait, scratch that...there isn't any specific warning to not allow kids to ride under the carts. Plenty to not allow kids above a certain age/weight to ride inside, but none to tell parents to keep kids out from under them. Talk about a lawsuit waiting to happen...

Rather than try to do an exhaustive list (where some idiot would find a location not on the list, their kid gets hurt, and they sue), why not have a specific instruction "Children are not to ride in the cart EXCEPT in the provided seating area"?

[Deserted]

Wait, scratch that...there isn't any specific warning to not allow kids to ride under the carts. Plenty to not allow kids above a certain age/weight to ride inside, but none to tell parents to keep kids out from under them. Talk about a lawsuit waiting to happen...

I used to sometimes take my nephews (who were 6-8 at the time) along on grocery runs, and I'd often allow them to ride in the bottom shelf thing of a shopping cart for short periods of time (handful of seconds) because they really got a kick out of it -- but I'm willing to admit that, had they been hurt, it would have (probably) been my fault, not the store's or anyone else's.

[Kit-Ginevra]

If the store is empty and there is no one else around,I have been known on occasion to run along with the trolley and then launch into the air with a wild Wheee! down the aisle...

[pudddykat]

I have an autistic nephew who turned 9 in October. For trips to Costco he gets to ride in his own cart that someone pushes and we push a second cart for the groceries. Now that his grandparents (they are raising him and his older sister) have respite care they don't have to bring him so often. He has his noise filtering head phones on and plays on his iPad. Those carts are huge and it makes the trip easier for everyone. He walks fine otherwise and as long as he wears his headphones in noisy places he does well. He's a goofy cuddly kid and is learning and improving under his grandparents loving hands.

[emax4]

Id be tempted to look at the kid in the stroller and say, "my, youre an elephant toddler, arent you..."

[mathnerd]

A friend of mine probably got some weird looks when her son was a toddler. My friend is 5'11" and the shortest member of her family. Her husband, also the shortest member of his family, is 6'5". When their son was two, he was the same height as my oldest child, who was 7 years old (and in the 50th percentile for height, so neither short nor tall.). Yes, my friend still used a stroller for her two year old, even though he looked like he was closer to 7 or 8.

[Monterey Jack]

For Christ's sake...I saw a kid in a cart today, she must have been TWELVE, her legs folded under her Indian-style just to fit. If I had been pushed around in a shopping cart at that age, and had anyone I knew from school seen me, I would have been MERCILESSLY teased and tormented about it for months. What are these parents THINKING?!

[MoonCat]

The ones I wonder about are the ones who are pushing a stroller filled with shopping bags and carrying their kid. Unclear on the concept?

[Deevil]

The ones I wonder about are the ones who are pushing a stroller filled with shopping bags and carrying their kid. Unclear on the concept?

That one I can understand. If a toddler is insistent on "Up! Up! UP!!!!", it's easier for everybody in earshot to carry the kiddo instead of leaving him/her in the stroller. And since toddlers can be both squirmy and heavy, putting the bags in the stroller is a wise idea.