I'm not judging you, but to offer another perspective to anyone reading this thread: I am a parent of two young children, and have never not returned a shopping cart. I take the kids with me when I return it.

As a parent, I realizes that it's harder to do things with kids than without, but I go out of my way to not pass that burden onto others.

There are many ways our situations could be different that would make it harder for you to do this than me - your reasons are completely your business.

[–] WoahWoah@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I hear you, but in a busy parking lot, the shopping cart elevates the height of the children, making them visible to cars.

Where I live, the grocery store and target or whatever are primarily SUVs and trucks. The blind spots on vehicles like that are huge, and my children suddenly decide something looks and interesting and will sometimes just bolt off.

They're pretty good in parking lots, and obviously we have to and do walk through them, but, when I can, I try to limit the time my children spend on their feet in a busy parking lot.

My daughter barely comes up to the bumper of some of these trucks! But I do appreciate what you're saying, and I tend to agree with you in most circumstances.

[–] adhocfungus@midwest.social 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't know why you're catching so much flak. Parking lots are not safe places for kids, and you can't leave them alone in the car for long either. I've never had an issue returning a cart, but that's because I've never shopped at a place where the return corrals are that sparse. If it's over a minute's walk to return a cart then that's a failure of the parking lot architects, not you. You're doing what you can, which is good enough.

[–] WoahWoah@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Hey, thanks for your understanding. It is much appreciated.

I do return the cart when I can!