Running The gift shop gauntlet!!

It all sounds exhausting, perhaps leave visits to places with gifts shops until the child is a little older, after all if it is spoiling the day what is the point. If days out are infrequent then surely a small purchase at the shop is part of the fun, give her a couple of pounds.

Chardy

Give her a fiver and tell her she can buy what she wants

My thoughts too!

Or start giving her pocket money so that she can bring some with her to spend - that is, if she wants to part with her own money.

pester good word grannyactivist

Pestering results in deaf ears! and definitely No Touching!

NotSpaghetti

sodapop and others, this parent obviously IS saying "no" and doing so again and again.

I know it took months to get "no" through to one of mine if in a toy shop. It's not always that a very firm "no" is easily swallowed!
I was pretty firm with my five but one of them was a "one-off"!

I've got four and like you I had one who could be a pain in. I have six GC, two never ask for anything, 3 will ask but they are little and learning no means no. One is spoilt, her mother's fault not the child. Her father objects but her mother seems to encourage her rather than try to teach her.

So I think their personality plays a part and their upbringing plays a part.

When we went out for the day, we would usually give the children a small enhancement to their pockey money. Then if they wanted anything from the gift shop they had to buy it from their 'own' money.

It was surprisingly how soon they became quite discriminating and often decided to ignore the gift shop and keep the money for something else.

Give this child her week's pocket money and a couple of pounds extra and let her decide how to spend it.

If she throws a trembler - and I had one of those - I would just walk away from her and leave her to it. She has told me - as an adult - that once she realised no one would take any notice of her if she had a tantrum and I would be neither embarrassed or impressed, they became a bit pointless, so she stopped having them.

this parent obviously is saying no

Just wonder where all the hundreds of cuddly toys came from then?

As Calendargirl has noted, hundreds of soft toys have come from somewhere?.

Thank you for your replies. My DD has, on several occasions, including last Saturday, picked my DGD up and carried her out of the dreaded gift shops. The toys are an accumulation of nearly 6 years of gifts. Not all from days out! The worst gift shops are the ones that can't be avoided, which I think should be banned!! We are having her for a sleepover on Saturday so I think I will get some toy money and play shop. I am not sure how much she understands about what things actually cost and then suggest to my DD that DGD is responsible for what she spends, but some of these places are so busy! We are also working on the "one in, one out" policy with new soft toys.

Lizbethann55 Sounds as if you are doing your best.Some children are just hard work. She's young to understand money. My GCs have loads of cuddly toys as well. Just an advance warning the next thing is stationary. A girl can never have enough rubbers, pencil sharpeners etc. etc. Good luck

What is it with children and gift shops? I used to take parties of young school children to the zoo, to the aquarium, to museums, to castles etc etc and all they could talk about was what to buy in the gift shop at the end of the visit!

The worst gift shops are the ones that can't be avoided, which I think should be banned!!
Oh, I do like a gift shop

Pencils, fridge magnets, books, local honey.
No cuddly toys though but the occasional dinosaur!

Josianne

What is it with children and gift shops? I used to take parties of young school children to the zoo, to the aquarium, to museums, to castles etc etc and all they could talk about was what to buy in the gift shop at the end of the visit!

and trying to keep track of them as they scooted around

Actually, Josianne, DH and I thought when we retired that we could go to places of interest out of school holiday time - but wherever we went there was a school trip; here, overseas, they seemed to know that the Callistemons were going somewhere and arrived en masse.

Why should gift shops be banned, other people will like to buy a memento of their visit. Life does not revolve round children

sodapop

Why should gift shops be banned, other people will like to buy a memento of their visit. Life does not revolve round children

But they don't have to make the exit through the shop. People could reasonably be given a choice.

Yes agreed theworriedwell

Josianne

What is it with children and gift shops? I used to take parties of young school children to the zoo, to the aquarium, to museums, to castles etc etc and all they could talk about was what to buy in the gift shop at the end of the visit!

‘Twas ever thus !

But does it really matter ?
Either let children buy something or don’t…..

Sorry, not really addressed to you as such Josianne!

I agree that children having their own cash to spend is the way to go.
We have three children and used to give them £5 each a day on holidays to spend on whatever they wanted: toys, ice cream, the arcade.
If they wanted a more expensive toy they had to wait for the next day's £5.
It focussed their minds as to how much they really wanted something.

My "toy shop obsessed" child was no bother in the "gift shop". It was just one particular toy shop.
?

You're very generous, V3ra!

I'm amazed at how many of you don't like the gift shop! I just love them.

All the knick knacks, Tiny packs of playing cards. Thimbles. Tiny plates. Books. Cute keyrings. Pretty purses. Notebooks and pencils.

We all love them.

Did somebody mention local honey I te gift shop?
My employer demanded local honey from Sandringham and I had no fight left to say no in the gift shop.
Only saw the £13.99 price tag after paying! It is not only the kids!!

Since they were really quite young my children were given a small amount of pocket money at the beginning of each week and had three jars labelled spend, save, give. It didn’t matter how much, but they were expected to put something in each of the jars, then on Friday they could spend whatever was in that jar, money in the save jar was used for specific purposes (usually to augment their holiday money) and the children could give money to whatever ‘cause’ they chose. This gave them all a good grounding in managing their finances, but also in developing an understanding that they had enough to share.

And yes, they did sometimes choose to spend their money in gift shops. ?

And one of my children is now an accountant! ?

Callistemon

You're very generous, V3ra!

Haha! We decided it was actually cheaper and certainly less stressful than paying for things, or not, as they asked for them.