This mom wants to know if she’s a jerk for letting her 7-year-old use the self-checkout on a busy day at the grocery store, and the internet is not holding back
We all know what it’s like to be out and about with a kid growing into their independence and wanting to do everything by themselves. But over on Reddit’s “Am I the A**hole” forum, a mom is hearing from the whole internet after she gave in to her 7-year-old’s request to handle the self-checkout solo at the grocery store—on a Sunday, while the store was packed and there was a line of people waiting for the machines.
“I am a big believer in learning by doing,” the mom wrote. “I like to give my son as interactive a role in things as possible, and if he wants to do something himself, I always at least let him try unless it’s unsafe. When we got to the self-checkout, he confidently told me he could do it by himself, so I let him.”
AITA for letting my son operate the self checkout?
byu/LearnAsPractice inAmItheAsshole
She continued, “There are about ten self-checkouts and one line for all the machines, so people don’t line up behind individual machines. He was a lot slower than I would have been, but he managed to do it all with my supervision, even the produce. As we started to wheel away, a woman walked up and slammed her grocery basket on the counter. She said ‘thanks for doing that as slow as possible, asshole.'”
The mom thought that the rude woman was the a**hole in this situation, but she turned to the internet for a final verdict. And, well, the internet didn’t love her self-checkout shenanigans, either.
“You should have let your son help with a few items, not all of them, or taken him at a less busy time so you’re not inconveniencing others,” one commenter wrote. “Learning by doing is great, but there’s always a time and place for things.”
Another Redditor weighed in, “My kid loves doing the self-checkout, but I only have him help with scanning if it’s busy (he’s fastest at that) and I do the bagging and paying. OP was being rude as hell.”
Even a grocery store employee offered their perspective: “The store isn’t a preschool. The world doesn’t revolve around you or your kid.”
But most of the commenters also agreed with the mom in this story: The woman was also an a**hole, especially for getting so worked up she swore in front of a 7-year-old kid.
“She had no business commenting. That’s what self check out means — we all do it at our own speed,” one commenter wrote.
Another common thread in the responses was that the mom missed an opportunity to teach her kid a more important lesson than scanning produce—self-awareness and courtesy.
“At a certain point, the ability to use a self-checkout is just common sense,” one person wrote. “Decency, empathy, compassion, social etiquette, etc (& the reactions you’ll get when you don’t use ’em) actually DO have to be taught.”
In the end, the internet delivered its verdict: Everyone sucks here. The commenting woman needed to calm down, but the mom should have chosen a less busy time to teach her child how to work the self-checkout.
