Are your older children (aged 6+) tidy/quick eaters?

[Miaou]

'cos mine aren't and it drives me mental some days!!

Dds 1 and 2 (aged 8 and 7) still can't get through a meal without spilling down themselves or dropping food on the floor. They constantly have to be told to sit up to the table rather than leaning back in the chair so that the food goes down their fronts . They also take forever to eat, and you cannot sit and chat with them whilst eating because they just stop!!


Grrrrrrrr......please tell me I am not alone

[Mosschops30]

god no. dd (9)drives me crazy and plus she is so slow, sometimes eating when we have got down from the table 1/2 hour ago.
She always comes home from school with some sort of dinner down her, I dread to think how she eats there without me nagging her

[nutcracker]

Hmmmm dd1 (8) is generally pretty good now, although does have to be reminded to sit close enough for the food to not go everywhere.

Dd2 (6) is pretty bad still.

[PeachyClair]

No, the only chair we have to clean up under at every meal is ds1 (6) drives Dh round the twist so it does.

DS2 eats with his fingers all the time dread to think how school picture us eating- actually all at table properly but I guess they don't think that.

[spacecadet]

my 14 year old dd sits and pulls everything apart that she eats and ds1 aged 11 always gets dinner down his front.

[nutcracker]

Oh and dd2 is a very very slow eater. Never ever ask her a question whilst she's eating, cos we could have had a further 3 meals whilst she stops what she's doing to answer you.

[iota]

ds1 (6) not messy but VERY VERY VERY slow and usually leave stuff on his plate

drives me mad when he has friends round to tea and they clear thir plates in seconds

[roisin]

Mine do eat quickly, but they are still very messy - they're 6 and 8. They need constant reminders to tuck their chairs in properly, not wave their loaded forks around spraying food everywhere, etc!

We've always eaten altogether at the table, so I can't understand why they haven't just picked up decent table manners ... but they haven't!

Every now and then I wonder whether I ought to get heavy with them and insist on them being tidier, but then I just thank my lucky stars that they enjoy mealtimes and are not at all faddy.

[Miaou]

Thank god it's not just mine then!!

Apparently dd2 is almost always the last person to leave the dinner hall at school (there are only 15 in the school though )

[Miaou]

That's the nub, roisin - I don't want them to get a complex about eating, and really do try to have "relaxed" mealtimes, but really.....!

[Fullmoonfiend]

ds's are 5 and 8. I have to set the timer sometimes, to let them know how long they are taking - they say ''we've haven't taken long'' I'm beating my head against the wall crying with frustration cos we try to eat as a family but when we are still sitting there45 mins later, and I have a stack of stuff to get on with...oh, you get the idea!
Plus, there is still enough food dropped on the floor to make a nutritious soup out of.

[drosophila]

'Is that enough?' I hear this about 50 times during meal times. It get me down. I have now taken to sitting with him for a reasonable amount of time and then just leaving him on his own to finish. There is a lot of ttention seeking going on so I figure if you have no audience....

The floor is a mess when I return to check what he has eaten. Roisin, I agree thank your lucky stars they are not faddy. DS is highly allergic AND a fussy eater (the two often go hand in hand) and I would give anything for mealtimes like you describe.

[Wallace]

Ds (6) is very slow and mostly uses his fingers. When nagged to use knife and fork he can.

We eat together, but table is in kitchen so when I finish I leave the table and start clearing up so we are still chatting etc, and I am not sitting with him getting impatient

[BettySpaghetti]

DD (6) is incredibly slow -drives me mad. She also has a habit of playing with her food or uses her fingers if shes not interested in the food.

[puddle]

I have just had 6 children round to tea, all 6. I was just thinking how little mess they had made - the mess was all concentrated around one particular chair - the child sitting in it didn't sit up to the table and was faffing about.

[sophiecustessofwessex]

i cant get through a meal without spilling it on myself!

my youngest son also takes a long time. the deal is if he finishes before any of us he can leave the table. when we finish - we leave!

[LIZS]

ds is almost 8. reaosnably tidy but very slow .