If you have always been a healthy weight, what treats were allowed when you were a child?

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If you have always been a healthy weight, how were snacks, treats and desserts dealt with in your childhood?

I'm interested to know. What food was available? When and where did you eat it? Where was it stored? Who got to decide when it was ok to have a treat? Were treats always shared equally? Just generally interested to know the minutiae of your house rules.

I wasn't brought up with a healthy relationship with food and don't want to pass this on to my children. But so much of the discussion around these things centers around people who have changed their own snacking habits to lose weight. I'm looking to find out what habits set you up for a healthy relationship with treats from the start.

in the 70ties
3 simple meals a day one of them hot
ice cream every second day in summer
a piece of chocolate on a friday
home made cake once a month
no snacks, take aways, ready meals
always at the table, never with the TV on

In the 80s.
No more than 4 biscuits in one go
Puddings on weekends
Squash but no coke
Never been overweight
Same rules for DSis
Overweight in childhood and now very obese

@Prok
Were you made to eat all the food on your plate at mealtimes before being allowed to leave the table? Regardless of whether or not you'd had enough and regardless of whether you liked what was on your plate?

I was a healthy weight until I was mid 30s with 2 children , in our house as a child it was a case of if it’s there you can eat it . My mum was a SAHM and cooked a meal every night but we could always access fruit , crisps etc as we wanted . I have 2 normal weight adult children and we had the same rules .

I should add that I’m a healthy weight again now ( mid 50s) but have to literally not eat to stay the same weight despite being fairly active .

@Prokupatuscrakedatus

in the 70ties 3 simple meals a day one of them hot ice cream every second day in summer a piece of chocolate on a friday home made cake once a month no snacks, take aways, ready meals always at the table, never with the TV on

That was exactly the same for me except Thursday was chocolate day, Dad would bring one bar each home. No snacks were kept on the premises so to speak!

I think we were very restricted in what snacks and treats we were allowed as kids and hence when I had free reign over what i ate I went the other way and had too many!

I have 3 siblings. Two of us are healthy weights, two are not, so in my experience it has ha no impact.

The same is happening with my two DS, one bordering underweight, one overweight.

They are close in age so hard to manage without drawing attention to DS 2s weight gain.

I think the difference between it is the ability to regulate your appetite. One of my overweight siblings can’t control their appetite, nor can DS2.

3 balanced meals a day, dessert of fruit or yoghurt, occasional ice cream or cake. Fun size chocolate some times with packed lunch. Crisps and a chocolate on Friday.

1980s childhood:

Chocolate once a week on a Friday
2 biscuits before bed (we called in supper)
Something sweet for after tea if we ate everything

1990s adolescence:

Ate anything and everything, hollow legs - lots of crisps in the house but no chocolate (bought loads of crap from shop to eat out and about)

I have always been very slim but put that down to genes rather than upbringing

@joystir59
We had small portions and seconds when needed.
And work day meals were of the kind that could be reheated the next day
think kale, cabbage, savoy, carrots or beans + potatoes and very little meat.

Hmmmm, good question. 80s kid, I think we had small fruit yoghurts after dinner most days. Sometimes we’d have treats like ice cream (ALWAYS tutti Frutti or raspberry ripple!), mum made healthyish cakes like fruit cake if we were having an outing/picnic. Crisps were limited. Basically it was all homemade apart from morning snack at school when she bought us those Jordan’s frusli bars and an apple to take in. I remember the fruit roll up craze and we weren’t allowed them (sad). So pretty healthy, certainly not chocolate or ice cream every week but not so strict we never had any. I kind of do this with my kids, I make a crumble with custard about once a month, the occasional chocolate bar. But they do have lots of fruit and yoghurt.

Late 70's and 80's. Always had a healthy relationship with food although I am a fussy eater. My parents were not well off.

Friday night was treat night. Chocolate bars were kept in a tub in the fridge (the treat box) and on a Friday my mum would cut the bars up into pieces and we'd help ourselves from a dish. I got seets (spangles!) once a week when we went shopping as my auntie ran a newsagents and we always called in there.

Sunday we sometimes had a pudding of cake and custard or rice pudding about an hour after Sunday dinner.

Ice creams were once a week in the summer from the ice cream van.

Crisps were eaten as part of a lunch type meal with sandwhiches.

At morning break at primary school I usually had a mini bag of crisps, like the 5p smoky bacon flavour footballs they used to sell.

Early 80s and the only thing apart from 3 meals a day was 2 biscuits and I had to take the tin to mum so she knew I didn’t sneak more!!

Odd ice cream at nannies from the van or and ice cream float on a Sunday once in a while.

Always had a fruit bowl on the living room table

1970s, never been overweight.

3 meals a day, allowed to choose a 2p mix from the corner shop after school. After tea we were allowed 2 biscuits during the week then we had puddings at the weekend.
When teenagers we could eat whatever we liked, but because we were used to eating only two biscuits, I still think it’s greedy to eat more than two a day!

I was bought up in the 90s, teen in the 00s.
Food (alcohol too) has always just been there, db and I have always been allowed to have whatever. We were never denied anything and sweets/crisps weren't treated like a treat, there were just there with total access. Although I was never allowed to eat anything in the evenings if I hadn't finished my dinner.

Storage wise, we had a chocolate draw in the fridge, basket of crisps on top of the fridge and then cakes and biscuits etc (sahm who loved baking she still bakes a lot) in the cupboard.

I've found that because it has always been there and totally accessible, I've never craved it. Same with alcohol, I went to house parties as a teen but never got totally bladders like a lot of my friends, I've only been ill from alcohol a handful of times.

I've always been the upper end of a healthy weight for my height, but this is because I have a high muscle ratio due to weight training (currently half a stone overweight aftet having ds and lockdown closing the gym so my training has been seriously tailed back)

Born in 79 so had a very working class northern upbringing. Dripping buttys, chip pan chips with bread and real butter.

There was always fruit to have but I was allowed what I wanted in regards to crisps and chocolate. I was very active as a child and still have a healthy weight but I put it down to genes tbh

2 biscuits seem to be a theme!

I’m astonished at my DH’s eating habits. When he grew up they could eat as many sweets/biscuits they liked. He still annoys me that he will demolish half a packet and he struggles with his weight!

This goes against what you normally read but I'm an 80s child. Most of my school friends had a packet of hula hoops & a penguin in their lunchbox or a pudding if school dinners. Hardly any overweight dc. I was underweight for yrs but very very sporty.
No fizzy drinks though & lots of homemade meals. Mcdonald's happy meal as a treat.

I'm heavier then I'd like now buts that after dc & getting older & the fact that I'm not burning off loads of kcals & hate the idea of deprivation.

1980s.

Dad brought sweets home from work a few times a week. He had his stock of digestives, nice buscuits were bought specifically for coffee mornings.

Cream cakes and chippie on a Saturday. Other desserts were rare.

Other takeaways were rare, usually if family were visiting.

Squash in the house. Fizzy was for going out/ parties.

I didn't have a huge appetite until I was a teenager. Trying to force me to clear my plate would have resulted in a long stand-off.

Dad had his first heart attack when I was 7 and died when I was 11. That's always been a strong motivator to be active and eat sensibly.

I was always allowed to eat anything at any time (with things like biscuits in moderation - wouldn't be allowed to hoof a whole packet). But I was underweight for a lot of my pre teen years and never ate very much at all so my parents were happy for me to eat anything.
It's probably related that I was born with hirschprungs disease which meant that eating would have been associated with pain til I had my surgeries at age 3/4.
I'm still a healthy weight but not very good at keeping to a healthy diet. The only time I've been strict with myself is when pregnant as I've had gestational diabetes twice

literally not eat to stay the same weight

This is what I can't cope with 😭

Divorced parents, 1990s, with different rules in each house, but both fairly relaxed. Mum's house: not pushed to finish plate and fairly free access to chocolate, crisps, treats. Sugary cereal most days. Dad's house:pushed a little bit more to try things (but never forced to finish), much more 'grown up' cooking, much less junk available but still occasionally sugary cereal available, and pudding (usually a few squares of chocolate) offered fairly regularly alongside unlimited fruit. Both parents and both siblings have also always been a healthy weight. Food was never treated as a reward or linked to behaviour in any way which I see as a very positive thing now and looking back I can't think of ever having anything but a positive relationship with food. I am having to be a bit more mindful about portion sizes now in my 30s and after 2 DCs but my BMI has always been below 22. DH's upbringing was much more restrictive around food (eg sugary cereal came out twice a year as a "treat", had to finish meal to get pudding, his siblings would try and take food from his plate etc if they had finished which would never have been allowed in my family), basically various things which IMHO have encouraged a less healthy relationship with food, various things have had a "forbidden fruit" sort of appeal for him which persist into adulthood (he still occasionally buys a box of cereal, finishes it in a couple of sittings and hides the box out of shame) and has struggled with his weight and relationship with food for most of his adult life. Needless to say we adopt more relaxed attitudes to our own DC although they are little (1 and 3) so obviously don't have unrestricted access to anything yet.

Next door children were allowed Ribena
Also the Alpine pop man delivered to them every week.