Has afternoon tea food for a child changed significantly?

Honestly if you'd looked after my kid for 6hrs & fed them I really wouldn't care if they didn't then want much of their evening meal!

I think fishfingers and beans is fine. Mine would eat that and still eat their tea later!

I think if the guest is used to a cold snack mid-afternoon - sandwich, crackers, fruit or yoghurt etc - then fish fingers and baked beans might seem like a quite substantial meal. Also, "a few tablespoons of beans" sounds like an adult portion.

I said cheese or toast. Not both.
An apple a digestive and half a piece of toast is a snack.
The fact is, that in the uk, white British household, fish fingers and beans is seen as a full, dinner, meal for a small child.
If I had specifically requested that my child was not given dinner, then they came home and told me they’d had fish fingers and beans for ‘tea’ I’d be a bit miffed. That would sound to me as though my stated wishes have been completely ignored.
I love fish fingers, no issue with feeding them to anyone. BUT they are not appropriate in this instant.

I’ve clearly been out of the UK for too long but tbh I don’t remember ever being served ‘afternoon tea’ when I grew up there - especially not a hot, savoury meal. It would usually be something snacky after school.

In France now, where school lunch tends to be around 12 noon then dinner not served until 7 or 8 pm. So a snack (goûter) is served around 4pm and it’s always, always sweet. Baguette with chocolate in, pancakes, crepes with Nutella. Shared bag of Haribo on a bad / busy day 😂.

nothing wrong with fish fingers and beans but not if parents are planning to feed dinner when the kid gets home

But why? Why is a very small portion of fish fingers and beans 'too much' and 'an extra dinner' when its no more food than a sandwich or all the other suggestions that people are saying are more appropriate despite being a similar amount of food?

I'd offer a slice of toast with cheese, jam, or peanut butter, and a piece of fruit to go with it.

1130 till 6 is a long time with no food.

id suggest a sandwich at 1pm.

nothing wrong with fish fingers and beans but not if parents are planning to feed dinner when the kid gets home.

I’m not from the UK, but fish fingers, beans and chips would be considered a friday night extremely lazy dinner. Not an afternoon snack. Chips or even crisps as an everyday snack for kids, the rest of us can’t quite get our heads around it tbh.

a few fish fingers/chicken nuggets, beans & hand full of chips is perfectly fine. Mine would have no problem wolfing it down and later having their actual evening meal.

as a one off fine, but surely if a child is eating two dinners every day this IS a problem? 25% of children are obese when they start school - and most of their parents insist they’re not as they’re not used to what normal looks like on a child anymore.

a few fish fingers, beans and chips is what I would eat as an adult if I wanted that kind of dinner. It’s not a snack for a 4 year old

How is fruit, biscuits and cheese on toast less food than 2 or 3 fish fingers and a quarter tin of beans?

Your sandwich, biscuits and a warm drink, is probably more calorific than OPs offering. A single slice of bread can have well over 100 calories as can a biscuit, before you put anything on the bread. Volume wise it is about the same so how is one a dinner and the other not? I'm genuinely curious about this.

I agree. 2 fish fingers and a quarter tin of beans less 200 calories. Up it to 3 fish fingers and you get about 270 calories. A teacake with butter around 200 calories. Houmous is high calorie as is cheese and most of the other stuff people are suggesting.

If the mum has declined a meal then I think what you’re suggesting is too much. That is what my 5 year old would eat for his evening meal. He definitely wouldn’t be able to eat another meal after.

I'd probably go for some fruit or crackers, something very snacky and nothing cooked.

Yes I do, people overfeed their kids. Kids don't need to snack hourly. One snack between 12 and 6 around 3pm is fine

Three or four table spoons of beans and three fishfingers... thats quite a lot, half a 400g can!

British Heart Foundation suggests 3 fish fingers is an adult portion. (Birdseye suggest four).

Nowt wrong with hot food at all, not sure where I said there was. Just don't understand why hot food seems to be better than, provide more energy than, cold food. It doesn't have any bearing on the nutritional or energy value at all.

If the mother has said that the child is eating again when they get home then I would do a couple of sandwiches with a few bits of veg sticks / fruit on the side and maybe a yogurt or cake / biscuit.

If you are feeding them at 3.00 pm then it's still quite a long time til the play date ends at 6.00.

I HOPE they mean chicken or potato, otherwise I want to know what specialist butcher this is! 😂

@DeepBalonz a few fish fingers/chicken nuggets, beans & hand full of chips is perfectly fine.
Mine would have no problem wolfing it down and later having their actual evening meal.

My autocorrect 🤣 🤣 I couldn't remember sex and put it kid🤣

And for goodness sake, check for allergies. They didn't seem to exist when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, but when I was preparing food for DS's birthday party this year we had different kids that couldn't eat gluten, lactose, milk protein (which apparently is a different allergy to lactose), nuts, eggs and processed sugar. 😱

Genuinely can’t recall what I ate as child at my home or friends - which is a bit weird but I digress…I remember something chip like called alphabeties, and my gosh I loved Heinz spaghetti hoops. Slush Puppies for a treat…. Memory lane….
Kids having a snacky tea before a full supper or a full tea with no supper seems to make sense. Pending what age groups kids may be, tend to go for steamed or grilled veg with some kind of grains and a salady thing - green leaves or something and a yoghurt for after for supper and a salad & grains of a light tea.

Oh you know what I mean! Come on Barb!

Crepes are a good call, if you have a crepe pan. Fill with grated or cream cheese or Nutella and pear, or serve the old fashioned way with a little dusting of sugar and lemon.

I have read all OP's comments but not all the other replies so apologies if I am repeating.

I think the type of food you are serving is spot on, but if they are having lunch at nursery and your neighbour has told you they have supper plans with grandparents, then sitting them down to a plateful of food that a polite child will finish may fill him up and spoil his family's evening plans.

If I am feeding DC's friends mid afternoon I normally cook a pizza and possibly a bowl of potato wedges, or humous and carrot sticks (as well as the pizza), so if they are hungry they can eat, but if they are not they don't feel obliged to.