Saw this on the way out of swimming lessons earlier...

[SleepWarrior]

The front entrance to the leisure centre has a few tables with school-type chairs which are usually being used by children to do homework while their siblings swim.

Today as we were leaving there was a mum serving up steaming spaghetti and meatballs out of a giant glass dish onto proper dinner plates with proper cutlery laid out around the plates. Her two very embarrassed looking children (about 10/11yo) were talking in those cross hissy whispers through gritted teeth "that's enough mum", and she was all "no, no don't be silly, you need more meatballs. Here." while she dished up with proper pasta serving spoons.

Spaghetti and meatballs at the swimming pool! Made my day! I normally hate the faff and palaver of swimming day, but this is a new day and time for me so now I can look forward to seeing if she's there each Monday, and find out what's for dinner

The main thing that strikes me is how impractical it would be transporting all that crockery and a glass container and proper cutlery etc. I would be bound to break or spill something. Stick it in a thermos flask each and suddenly it doesn't seem remotely odd or remarkable. It's the laying of plates and dishing out while there...

Same thing always strikes me when I have picnics with my brother and his kids. He will bring knives and chopping boards to prepare stuff while he's there while I just chop what needs chopping at home and stick it in tupperware. His way seems a massive faff and by the time he's chopped and fannied around my kids have almost finished eating!

Apparently you can buy heater thingy to plug in your car that will heat food up from cold in about 30 - 40 minutes.

www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/car-food-warmer

I have one of those heaters

It was an absolute godsend 10+ years ago, trying to cater for a gluten and dairy free child with food issues. It always seemed that you could get gluten free choices, OR dairy free, but that combo (and ending up with something a restricted ASD child would eat!) stumped most places.

That gadget saved our bacon many a time.

Do you think she's threatened them with "if you don't eat your dinner at home, we'll have to eat at swimming" type thing? Tell me they had napkins!

I’ve done similar
No big deal

And the crockery etc is so that I didn’t need to use plastic.

It would be so wonderful if we were all able to do these little parenting quirks without there being sniggers and judgement. From other parents.

I would never have

What a lovely image of embarrassed children and a mum without the normal social boundaries I am imagining. Must have napkins I agree!

I hope Embarrassing Mum was also instilling good manners.
“Sit up straight, Alfred! Elbows off the table!”
“Letitia, don’t hold your knife like a pen!”
“What do we say when we wish to leave the table, Jeremiah?”

Love it! One of my friends so would have done this.
She’s super posh and her kids have those classic names like Beatrice and Eugenia - their packed lunches were a thing of wonder and admiration from their schools friends
Leftovers. But the FANCIEST leftovers ever
Squirrel stew, braised bass with elaborate side accompaniments, uncracked left over crab legs with a tiny pot of butter.
Gah I envy them

this remind me of swimming café suppers waiting for the brother.

There’s nothing wrong with what she did, the kids have been well-fed in home made food.

Having said that, if my mother had done that at the swimming pool, I would have been MORTIFIED

I made Spaghetti before simply because of my admiration for this woman.She sounds...practical.

is it so she can wash up in the pool?

Excellent post by @Gunpowder at 10:51:18

I agree, it isn't the taking of hot food that is odd, it is the ridiculousness of taking proper crockery etc. If you have to take hot food on the go, take a food flask and just eat it without making a performance out of it, is the point.

Haven't read the whole thread but I can't see anything wrong with this. Practical and sensible.

My kids would give not one hoot. They would rather have a nice hot dinner than cold packed tea.

Maybe I'm missing the point but can't see the issue.

And yes OP I would def become her mate and get her to feed your dc too

@BackforGood

What’s the alternative to crockery if you do not want to use disposable plastic? Camping plates etc but perhaps she didn’t have and not much difference to crockery surely?

Pffft. I do a hog roast for mine up the council pool every Thursday evening.

Amazing but weird - slow cookers or casseroles or the answer for swim days. I have a hunch these are kids who go straight onto another activity though!

Gunpowder has it spot on love others eccentricities guess we not aware of our own as we think ourselves normal . What’s that saying “everyone is somebody else’s weirdo”

Thermos flasks are an alternative, I have a metal one so no plastic in sight if that's a concern. I also re-use any and all plastic boxes like ice cream tubs and take away boxes. I would have just put the dinner in a flask or tub and they could have eaten it from there, much less faff than carrying heavy and breakable dinner plates around with you alongside the dinner itself in a glass container!

I seem to have different meals for different situations. I fear i'm being embarassing when i pull out the warm food in a thermos (dutch pancakes and berries, or porridge, on the train, and finger foods on the bus). I notice a lot more looks on the trains, perhaps because it's more visible, but I thought it was better because the foods don't smell. DC oblivious to the looks but i'm self conscious. I rarely notice other people eating their own food (except for stinky crisps on the bus or the swimming changing rooms which seems a bit yuck) and assume everyone is more organised than me. It seems a bit odd to eat indoors at non-eating places i.e. homework desks like in the OP. At the same time you can only eat food purchased from the place you're at if it's a designated eating area, hence our eating more bland foods on route.

The dinner plates must be nicer to eat from and not too annoying if you're in the car. I'm curious about swimming lady's next meal :)

Sounds much better than the traditional bag of chips after swimming.

I don't get why it was so embarrassing.

So basically we’ve come up with a whole new streak of performance parenting
Sticks tongue firmly in cheek, emphasising the light-heartedness of the following statements:
Yummy mummies can race to the top with organic home made quinoa type posh food served on non-plastic dinnerware with bamboo cutlery and freshly pressed and laundered every hour napkins. Whilst instragramming the whole thing as #makingmemories with the famalam
Some mummies will pretend to race to the bottom - pretending not to care but actually providing a decent meal for their kids (hot or cold, on a plate or out of a plastic tub - you know just normal
At some point someone will pile onto to the thread wondering why these children are doing so many activities and just let them be kids as they’re only babies for a short time.
A vegan will turn up annnouncing spag Bol is murder
Someone will express disgust that you haven’t bleached the table and everything within a five mile radius.
At some point someone will request a diagram
Etc etc in fact I think Mnhq should set up a whole new topic just to cope....

I always take a tub of salad when travelling but maybe I should go a step further and take a flask of hot food.

To be fair @scrappydappydoo I would like a diagram to show positioning related to the cafe. Is she eating food from outside right under their noses?