No more tears

At some point, all parents, unless they live in a town called Stepford, experience the Shop Tantrum. It usually starts when your offspring are toddlers and in some cases can continue until they leave primary school. Or home.

Last weekend my friend Sam found herself on the receiving end of a particularly spectacular tantrum in the vegetable aisle of a well known supermarket (I won't name it for fear of embarassing her). Her five-year-old son suddenly produced a Transformers toy he had found on one of the shelves and asked if she could buy it. 'Not today, darling,' Sam told him gently. At which point her son let out an almighty roar and started screaming at the top of his voice. He kept on screaming, and then crying 'Please mummy, please' while other customers gave Sam disapproving glances and she felt herself growing redder by the minute. In the end she had no choice but to usher him away and inside the customer loos until he had calmed down. 'From now on, I'm doing all my grocery shopping online,' she told me this morning. (To see fantastic BBC1 comedy Outnumbered's take on the Shop Tantrum click here)

If you're planning on grocery shopping online for the first time then KidStart has a brilliant Tesco offer for members at the moment – £10 off all grocery orders over £50, and don't forget it's completely free to join. Stress free aisle browsing and savings too – now that really does help.

written by Liz Jarvis