How do you handle a screaming two year old in the grocery store?
My two year old has hit the terrible twos full force! He threw the biggest fit in the grocery store. I immediately left the store with him, but my groceries as well.....any other ideas?
I think tht you did what I would have done in these uncertain chukd stealing times. What I did 30 years ago was leave her in the aisle that she was in and go to another part of the store--like the next aisle and kept a close eye on her. She soon calmed down when she knew that mommy meant what she said.
Knowing what is likely to trigger a tantrum (in the store) and avoiding it can help. For example, if you know you'll be pushing him in the carriage past that candy rack on the way out; give him something to be busy with just before you get to the rack. If having someone in front of you in line means you'll be standing by the candy rack longer than a two-year-old can (before wanting something), hang back until the person ahead leaves room for you to push him past the candy rack very quickly). (Explain to anyone behind you what you're doing. Standing a couple of feet farther back temporarily isn't going to slow anyone down.) If it isn't the candy rack that's likely to get him going, it may be the cereal aisle (with pictures on boxes that appeal to kids). Think of which foods might "get him going" and keep the carriage near less appealing stuff.
Generally, try to give him something that will keep him entertained and engrossed through the whole trip. He'll be happy for most of the time, which may help him be a little better with a minor frustration on the trip. Give him something like Cheerios (small, time-consuming, food pieces) to add to whatever toy/entertainment/book you give him. Something he doesn't have all the time can seem more interesting and fun than his "usual, old, favorite, truck".
Try to make the trip a really positive, "special time", with him. Talk to him, tell him where you'll be going next and what "we'll be doing next". Two-year-olds don't like surprises.
Other than that, talk (in a friendly way) to him before going into the store. Tell him the plans and what will and won't be bought/done. Give him a choice of what snack/little treat he may like to get, and mention it throughout the trip (so he has something to look forward to).
While he's still happy (beforehand) tell him that "the people in the store can't have people screaming and crying because the workers can't concentrate on their work." He may/may not understand, but eventually he will.
Some of these ideas may help, but if he ends up having a tantrum, leave your cart at the desk and do what you did - bring him outside "until he's ready to go in "and start over".
My son is also 2. Now that the other 3 kids are back in school it is usually just me and him making our shopping trips. I started leaving him walk through the store with me and involving him in getting the items off the shelf and putting them in the cart. We also count cans of soup, etc. as we place it in. Alot of times he will follow right behind me counting everything. He can now count to 11 without missing any numbers and I think counting in the store helped him learn this quickly. When we get to the checkout he helps put the items up on the counter and also gives the cashier our coupons, this keeps him occupied and away from the candy that is staring him in the face. It does take us a little bit longer to get through the store, but the tantrums and screaming stopped. He feels important and some sense of control by helping me shop.
Somtimes its hard to be patience sometimes we get so irritated and easily upset trust me i know how embarresing it is but your two yr old is the love of your life am i right>it was probley a good idea that you left but next time mabe take a extra 3 bucks and get him somthing so he can play with through out the time you are shopping..kids usually whine because they dont have nothing to play with and there annoyed..or they just want somthing.
by Annie 8 years ago
Your 32 year old son is sleeping with his mother , how do you handle this situation?
by ozmadelrose 13 years ago
What is a reasonable time for a 5 year old who is going to school to be in bed at night?
by Donna Janelle 14 years ago
Where do you find coupons online to use at the grocery store?
by rutley 13 years ago
If you smell something really bad in line at the grocery store, do you comment or just ignore it?
by toomuchmint 13 years ago
Do you buy mint or dandelion greens in a grocery store? Why?
by Cassandra Goduti 13 years ago
Which grocery store do you feel is cheaper - Big Y or Stop and Shop?State why you feel this is true.
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |