....and buy something for your kids do you give it to them straight away or wait until you pay?

The reason I ask is, if we are ever out & get something for Zander (a drink or a snack) I always always make him wait until we pay for it. I figure it will teach him patience and that even though he uses his manners, sometimes he just has to wait.

Today we were at the supermarket, we had done a few other things & I could see he was hot so I figured he would be thirsty. I pick a bottle of apple juice and he held it but I told him "you have to wait until we pay the lady". Everything was fine he held the bottle while we finished the shopping and we went to the register. There was a bit of a line so we had to wait. Zander handed the botte to me & said please. I told him again we had to wait until we pay the lady. He was hot, thirsty & tired so he started to whinge & say please some more. I told him he has beautiful manners, but we really have to wait until we pay the lady. The checkout girl said to me "oh that's ok he can have it, everyone else does it" and I said no that's fine he can wait. So we got to the front of the line, she scanned it first and handed it to him. Of course he passes it to me says please. I told him yet again he has to wait & he went nuts. So I explained calmly (I think!) that mummy can't pay the lady & help him with the drink at the same time so he has to wait a little bit longer. He kept carrying on, but I paid then walked over to a seat & organised the drink. As I walked away I heard the checkout girl say to the lady behind me "poor little guy"

Do you think that I'm being mean or expecting too much? What do you do?