My child swears!

it's theft

great lesson to be teaching your kid

Yes it is theft ! As long as you have not paid for an item and either use it or eat it, it is considered theft - especially when buying produce.

Example: you put some grapes in your chart and start eating along while you
continue to shop. By the time you reach the check-out, the grapes will weigh
much less, thus you will pay less while you've eaten the bulk of it. This is
theft, even on a small scale and what you're teaching your children is that it's
okay to steal small things. Guess what, maybe they progress from there....
since nothing has happened to you for the small theft items.

Caveat.

There have been less than a handful of times in my life where I've been at the grocery store, and opened a package to eat something. At those times I had gone too long without eating, and was having a sugar low where my hands started shaking, and I felt ill. If I had a kid with me, and they were over-hungry, and I mean hungry were putting off eating could cause distress, I'd grab something with protein, like nuts, or cheese snacks, to curb a meltdown.
Of course that item would be purchased, since it could be scanned, and if asked, the explanation makes sense.

Just to eat something picked off the shelf? Naw.

I know. Next time I go to the store, I'll pick up some thick paper plates, a box of plastic forks, a package of napkins, a can of sardines, box of club crackers and a bottle of lemon juice, and just have me a snack. I mean, I'm gonna pay for it.


Joe Namath shows how not to do it...

This reminds me of the George Carlin routine where he talks about spying things of interest in other people's grocery carts and taking them and putting them in his own cart. His reasoning - you haven't paid for it yet, it's not yours! I must say, there have been times when I was tempted. "Oh, that looks like a good piece of meat. I think I'll have it for dinner!" Can you imagine?

Anyway, back to kids and balls. I think one of my jobs as a parent is to make sure my kids know how to behave in public. Bouncing a ball around the store wouldn't make the cut. OTOH, I've put many an empty or half empty package/wrapper through the checkout. Not so with weighed goods unless they're pre-weighed and priced out at the counter (such as deli items). I've also given back too much change, argued with a clerk who was trying to under charge me, and gone over to the customer service desk with my kids in tow when the self-checkout contraption charged me $4.99 for an item that should have been $9.99.

Kids learn by example. Their job is to test the limits. The parents job is to reign them back once the limits are met/exceeded. We can differ on where the limit line is drawn but kids should also learn that Mom and Dad's limits may be more liberal than those they'll come in contact with in the real world.

Swearing.... hmmm... I once worked with someone who used the word "****" in some variation in almost every statement he uttered. He got dinged for "swearing" on his performance appraisal. He was appalled and said, "What are they ******* talking about? I don't ******* swear!!!". He was a good French Catholic boy. I never once heard him say, "Jesus Christ!" or "God Damn". That, to him, was swearing.

The point you cannot seem to see is that Chai wasn't being intolerant of a kid being a kid, she was pointing out inappropriate behaviour.

This is not a kid being a kid situation - I'd say she was being intolerant if the same thing happened in a playground - She was in a store. A store is not an appropriate place to be playing with a ball.

Haven't you ever seen the Brady Bunch? Even this most tolerant of children family show knew - "Mom always said don't play ball in the house!"

Love that episode.

David Soul? Is this the same David Soul that was Hutch on Starsky and Hutch?

Now I loved that show when I was a kid.

I disagree on that - I regularly let my kid eat stuff while in the grocery store - which I always purchase. I don't do it with stuff that needs to be weighed. I'll pick up a drink while at the store and have them drink it or a cookie or something.

Much better at keeping them quiet. Which would you rather have a screaming kid or a pleasantly happy one, munching on a cookie?

Most toy stores have items out that kids can play with - they are set up that way knowing kids aren't going to want to just look at the toys. So this should be a non-issue in a toy store.

I've never had that problem myself. Money, credit cards are always in my purse.

But I go to a grocery store where I scan items as I picked them up...so not that I do this with produce (as they need to be washed), but I would get a bag of grapes, weigh them and print out the price tag and scan it and then into my bag. Then milk, scan it and put it into my bag. When I am done - I scan the scanner at the register and my card, pay and go.

Yeah, the same.

Seriously, I wasn't a big Bobby Sherman fan, (nothing against him though) but looking at him today, I admire him.

I remember hearing years back that he decided to become a EMT, and apparantly he's still doing that.
I scanned forward quickly in the Rosie O'Donnell clip and stopped where he happened to be talking about teaching CPR, had helped a few women give birth before they could get to the hosptial, etc.

I think that's really cool, and super smart of him.

I mean, he had this singing/acting thing going on, but decided to leave while still on top. I respect that. From the way he looked in that interview, he seemed to be doing well, was dressed well and looked really healthy. It seems like he had a good head on his shoulders and had common sense.
Maybe he thought back then that he made some good money, he could be financially secure, and decided to follow his dream.
Sure, a lot of entertainers would say "this is my dream", but you know, I think most people have a few dreams going on, and sometimes it's time to realize you've accomplished one, and start pursuing another.

Have you ever seen a celebrity who at one point was really popular, and years later, they're still working in the field, but they are now (being facetious here) are only able to get gigs at 5 year olds birthday parties? You know what I mean, you see someone who was on top, and now they're on the panel of "What's my Line"

Wow, you have a cart that you scan items as you shop?
That is so cool.

What do you do if for some reason you can't scan an item? Do you have to give someone your scanned list, then the items unscanned and they get added up?

Still a big time saver.

Cool idea - scanning carts. I wonder if they can scan the coupons too. That would be great.

I know when I use the self serve checkout at the store, you can scan coupons. I'd guess you could do that with a portable scanner.

At the self serve counter, you're supposed to have 20 items or fewer. I like the idea of being able to do a big purchase.

Here's a 2 minute video on how at least on of the systems work ehbeth.

http://touch.schematic.com/2010/01/stop-shop-scan-it/
Sometimes I have thought how things go slowly sometimes because you must take the item out of the cart, put it on the belt, have to bag it (or have someone bag it) and put it right back where it came from, your cart.

I would open up a few bags and stand them in my cart. Then I could put various catagories together myself. Cold products, meats, more delicate items (no more watermelons on top of bananas!) cleaning products, etc.

When you are checking out - you can hit the "Help" button and some one (after about eons of time) comes over to help you. Not many items that can't be scanned though.

Yes - upon checkout you can also scan your coupons.

Well, sorry but I don't think that giving my kid something to eat while still in the store is stealing, provided we pay for it before leaving the store.

This happens all the time.

One time, she was so whiny and hungry (my fault) I bought her yogurt and a pack of spoons so she could eat while I shopped. I paid for the yogurt and the spoons and kept my kid from screaming her head off. What's wrong with that?

I am very careful to always remind her that we have to keep the wrapper/package handy so that we can pay for it.

I see nothing wrong with this.

Eating produce, on the other hand, is another matter. You pay by volume/weight and taking food out diminishes the cost. Then you are stealing. I feel the same way about "sampling" produce before buying.

Phew - then I am not stealing - for a minute there I thought I was going to have to report myself.

Which store does this? Sounds interesting.