Going to the grocery store with children can seem quite daunting to some people. When you have one or two, you may not be hesitant to take them along. When you have several littles, it can seem like that is the worst idea you could ever have! Or many people may take the opportunity to do something alone – sort of like a vacation, right? :) Take what you can get, momma!

I actually take all of my children to the store with me weekly. Their current ages are 10, 7, 6, 4, and 1 years old. We go weekly because we actually don’t have enough room to store more than one week’s worth of groceries comfortably, plus much of what we eat is fresh foods like produce so we need to restock often. Some weeks are easier there than others, but we go weekly anyway.

One thing to note is that for my family, we do not keep the kids quiet with screens or snacks. We work hard to teach them to act appropriately in public without needing these. I focus on socialization in real-life settings, grocery store included. I know this is not a choice for everyone, but we prefer for our kids to learn to act appropriately in everyday life situations from even a young age. Also, with the food issues we deal with in our family, we do not eat snacks but during set times to make sure they are safe snacks and not leaving food in public places that may affect other families. This list does not include either one in helping you through the store for those reasons.

All of that to say, I have learned a few helpful steps to make this weekly trip easier for us. It may not all work for you and your family, but here are my best tips to making this errand as stress-free and doable as possible, without losing your mind. (If you already have, then don’t worry about these. Haha!)

Top 5 Tips On Grocery Shopping with Young Kids:

1. Pick the right time of day – If your child normally takes a nap at 1 pm, don’t head to the store at noon. You need to choose a time when they are fed, not too sleepy, and typically act well. Mine have times that are easier to run errands than others, so that’s when we go. If it gets too late, they are more likely to whine, be everywhere, and be more distracting than anything as we try to get through the store. Keep in mind when the store itself may be busier than normal as well. The day before Thanksgiving is a very challenging day to go to the store with a larger crew you need to keep up with.
2. Be Prepared – I spend at least 30 minutes to an hour preparing my list to go to the store most weeks. Sometimes I wing it and just go without a written list, but usually I create a list of what we need exactly. I might remember something at the store that I need that I did not write down, but my mind is not on remembering what I need while I’m there. I’m focused on not losing any children in the process or having to purchase half the store because of little hands. I need my mind to be able to focus on the little people, not what I need, so I spend time preparing beforehand. The less thinking in the store, the better.
3. Involve the children in shopping – Children love to help when they are young. It makes them feel important (which they are!). They can grab items you point out and place them in the buggy. Have them read the list to you if they are old enough. The littler ones can hold the list if they are sitting in the seat in the buggy and “help” you read it. (As a side note on that, do keep up with where they have put that list in case they toss it halfway through the store, by the way, or you may end up having to remember all you need despite your planning. Been there, done that!) Let them count out how many pears or apples you need, pick the best bananas, smell the cantaloupe to make sure it’s good, etc. If they are up for it, have them lead you around the store and grab the items you need. Grab a map of the store if you can get one and have them follow you throughout the store as you go. There are a lot of options on involving them!
4. Look up items you are not sure about beforehand – If there is something you want to look for to see if they carry it or what the ingredients are, look it up beforehand. One of the benefits of the last year is that so much is online now. You can usually look up complete inventories of stores and see where it is located in the store and what the ingredients are. Do make sure to check ingredients in the store on the actual package in case there is a mistake in updating the online list, but you can do this research before you go so you don’t have to try to figure it out with the little ones in tow. This follows back to tip #2 in not making you think too much while you’re there.
5. Reward good behavior, and almost good behavior – This is kind of like bribery, but I’m not above that. It’s a rewards system. If my kids are good, they get to watch a show on TV when we get home and get the groceries put away. If they are mostly good, they still get to. One key thing to remember is that they are still learning. They are not going to walk into a grocery store and act perfectly as expected for 1-1.5 hours the first time. It’s new! They’re learning. It’s a process. Reward their attempts and progress, not expecting perfection because that’ll never happen. My kids go every week and have pretty much all of their lives, but they still need correction often throughout the store. It doesn’t have to be the same reward we use. Allow a special snack that day, time with a certain toy they don’t get to play with often, picking a movie for movie night, etc. You choose what works for you and your children! To make this work, though, you MUST follow through on not giving the reward if they really do not even seem to be trying. There have been weeks that mine did not get rewarded for their actions in the store. It’s hard to do, but you must withhold the reward if they don’t earn it. Explain that they have another opportunity the next time you go to try again and you’ll do your best to help them get there. This usually makes mine feel better and know that we will work together to have another chance the next week at it, without giving them what they want that they didn’t earn.

Other tips we work on or follow:

I have other rules that we learn as well through the store, but they are just to help make it easier on me:

• Hold onto me or the buggy in the parking lot. I need to make sure they stop when I stop and move when I move. The last thing I want is an accident because I wasn’t looking well enough at how far they were from me.
• Be flexible on when you go. If you know that today will not be a day that you think they or you could handle the store, wait. Don’t feel like you have to go on a certain day because that’s the day you normally go.
• Wear the littlest one if you can and place a runner or one who is more likely to run off in the buggy seat. Our grocery store has buggies with 2 seats so I can put 2 in the buggy, which is fabulous. My 4 year old would make sense to sit in the buggy next to my 1 year old, but he actually does great at staying with me. My 6 year old actually has gotten separated from me for a minute and I’m constantly looking for him so he gets the option to sit in the buggy when we go. If my 4 year old gets tired, they switch, but I do as much as I can with the runner in the contained seat.
• If anyone is feeling ill, that’s a sign you need to make other plans. Not only could it impact other people there, it will make for a more difficult trip through the store. Do curbside pickup or arrange to go without the kids that time.
• Those who talk too much about our personal lives are encouraged to hand out tracts instead. There was a time when my oldest would share so much about our family to strangers in line with us at the store. I would half-jokingly tell them that after 5 minutes they would know everything about our family they could. I decided to grab some tracts from our church and asked her to instead hand those out and invite them to church. It helped to keep her from telling all about our personal lives to perfect strangers and allowed us an outreach opportunity. Now she carries tracts with her almost every time because it’s her choice. She hasn’t as much lately (because people are not as receptive to receive items from strangers in the store right now because of health concerns), but she was handing them out to those with young kids to try to invite them to church.
• This one is not so much at the store, but to make it easier when we get home – everyone must carry in at least one item. The older ones carry in all they can until it’s all inside. The younger ones carry small bags or even individual items inside to help. Those who can help also help put the items up where they belong. It makes it much easier to get everything put away instead of me making a million trips and wearing myself out more putting it all up.

Do you take your kids to the store with you? If so, do you have any tricks, tips, or certain things you do to help make it easier? I’d love to hear them! It may be something we choose to implement!