‘I was mum-shamed by a Tesco employee for letting my child eat food before paying’

A lot of people are disagreeing with the mum

The shopper says that the staff member was judgemental and rude but others are saying that she's in the wrong.

In a four minute video shared to TikTok, Samantha, who goes by the name Proud Mama on TikTok, said: "I cannot tell you what a bad experience I have just had in our local Tesco.

“And I feel a mix of both really cross and really upset. The way I've been spoken to by one of the customer service, representatives on the till that just served us.

“And I've never felt in in one moment, so judged by somebody. And I'll be honest, I snapped, and I very rarely snap back at anybody, but..."

Samantha explained: “So basically we went to Tesco to get a few bits. Jack [her son] has not been very well. He's not eating for basically a week, pretty much properly.

“And on the way round the food shop, I bring snacks with us. He wasn't interested in any of the snacks that I bought. He took a shine to one of these baby pouches that I put in the trolley."

Samantha explained that she was delighted to see her son take a liking to one of the products and so she let him eat it before they paid for it.

When Samantha got to the till, she claims she said to the woman serving them that her son had eaten them.

She said: "I said to the lady serving us, ‘I just want to let you know, Jack's eating these two on the way around here. Here they are so that you can scan them. I didn't want to just leave them amongst the shopping.’"

Samantha said: “She literally gave me the most disgusted look. Didn't say a word. Scan them through them in the bin. They weren't actually finished. I hadn't passed them to her to have them put in the bin. I passed them to her to try and be polite so they could be scanned.

“So I said to her, ‘I'm really sorry, but we haven't finished with them. I just wanted to pass them to you so that you could make sure they were scanned'.

"She tutted, huffed at me, got them out the bin, put them on the side anyway and carried on scanning.

"She's never at this point said, hello, do you want any help? Anything like that? Not said a word to me other than just awful looks.”

Samantha says that she then addressed the situation with the cashier saying: "'Hello, I'm really sorry. I haven't meant to upset you or put you out. I just passed them to you because I wanted to make sure you could scan them, and I just wanted to let you know that we'd had them on the way around so that you understood.”

The cashier then responded saying: "I just don't think it's right that people let their kids eat stuff from the food shop on the way around the shop."

Samantha hit back with a: “And I said to her, ‘I don't really think it is your job to be giving your opinion on what you think. My child is really unwell.

"He's basically not eating properly for a week. He wanted something in the shop, so I jumped on that opportunity for him to have something to eat.

“There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. I passed it to you to be polite so that you can make sure to scan that I was paying for the thing that he'd already eaten."

Samantha said: “I ended up in tears in the middle of Tesco."

Samantha then added: “On Reflection. I'm wondering whether there is any way with my receipt I can contact them and whether it was specifically linked to her.

“But I just cannot believe in that moment. No. 1, how rude. And No. 2. how judgemental. As a customer service representative, it's not your job to be giving your opinion or being rude to people.

“It's your job to be polite and to serve. And if you don't believe in something they're being done, it's nothing to do with you. It's not your business. I'm honestly still furious at the whole situation.”

While it appears Samantha thought everyone would be on her side, many in the comments weren't.

One person wrote: "It’s 100% her job to let you know you’re NOT allowed to eat or drink anything before you’ve paid for it. I use to work at Tesco and you are the worst."

Another commented: "Crying in the middle of tesco, how old are you!!!!!"

A third wrote: "Your actually not supposed to open the items as you go around what if your card wasn’t working at the till ? How would you pay for it then."