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.

Child of the 80s.

Home cooked dinners always, I never remember not liking anything other than liver but I didn't have to eat it.
Icecream on a Sunday. Got a packet of sweets on a Sunday after mass, and never had takeaways. Not sure we could have afforded them but there was nowhere to get them from.
Never had fizzy drinks. Odd packet of crisps. Unlimited access to fruit. Possibly yogurt.
First tasted McDonald's age 21.

I probably do snack too much now but I have never been bigger than a size 10.

90s/early 00s

There were always snacks in the house (I remember mini rolls and home made fairy cakes) but we had to ask they were not freely available (kept out of reach)

Used to get more interesting snacks to have infront of match of the day when we did the big shop on Saturday but they’d never last past Saturday night!

No takeaways and rarely had pudding.

In the 90s, sweets or chocolate when I wanted them but not in excess.

80's child 90's teen

There were always biscuits and small mini chocolate bars (fun size!) in the house. Always juice and squash never coke or fizzy. No crisps.

If we were hungry we were sent to the fruit bowl. Puddings were only more fruit or yoghurt and not every day. Sunday was the only proper pudding day.

Saturday was the only chip day.

Mum cooked from scratch every day. Pack lunch was checked when we got home.
Hungry growth spurts were fed with cereal or toast, never crisps or chocolate.
I didn't feel deprived or hungry.

As an adult I don't buy biscuits or chocolate. Sometimes crisps. Always wine.
My DC cook with me. No sweets in the house generally. Fizzy is only for Sunday dinner and only if we have guests. There's chocolate minis for pack lunches but they don't eat them if it isn't pack lunch. Pudding is sporadic but a Miller rice or corner is a special treat.

Water with every meal.
DS growth spurt is being fed packet noodles.

Meals contain protein, carbs, fat in proportion and my DC know what ingredient is what group and how much to eat. You don't have to clear your plate here but you do have to eat your veg and protein before your carb if you're leaving some. I avoid chocolate cereal. I meal plan.

Genes help. I'm one of 3 - we all cook. None one is overweight in our family tho DSis did get a bit big for a while but she dieted it off.

We all either exercise or have physical jobs.

Desert was fruit or yogurt. Snacks were more fruit and toast but we didn’t even have jam. We never had squash, biscuits, chocolate, sweets or crisps on a regular basis. They were treats reserved for birthdays and Christmas.

I’m mid thirties so we’re talking probably the 90s here when nutrition wasn’t necessarily up to much! I aways had breakfast, cereal usually and a packed lunch for school containing sandwich, penguin biscuit, crisps and a drink. Biscuits and fruit available as snack. Home cooked dinner which I rarely ate as was quite fussy with food. Pudding or chocolate bar most days. I still eat chocolate most days tbh and have never been above a size 8 except when pregnant. Was always trusted to self regulate and always have ish and I take a similar approach with my own children who aren’t overweight either.

I'm 43. I've always been between 8 and 9 stone as an adult and was a skinny child.

I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted really. Nothing was off limits. But we never had 'traditional' hot puddings after meals. It was more like chocolate digestives or a slice of vienetta 😄

For my packed lunch every day in primary school I had a ham sandwich, a wispa, a milky way and a packet of crisps. And a carton of Ribena. Yum! I'd never dare send my children to school with anything like that!

I am. DM didn't buy food she didn't like: no Crisps, chips, sausages, sweets. Lots of fruit and veg available.
I remember when I realised that school friends got taken to buy sweets on weekend. It seemed odd to me and I don't think I thought it would ever happen. When we had money and old enough to go alone we occasionally bought sweets but it wasn't a habit acquired young.

All the usuals: doughnuts on shopping day (we ate them all the same day), chocolate, crisps, sweets a couple of times a week. But the house wasn't generally full of food and I recall being hungry a lot!

Oh and we were a family of five. A packet of biscuits would have to last the week for all of us! But sometimes got big box of broken ones and could help ourselves

Terrible diet in my house growing up, lots of beige food and lots of snacking between meals, sweets crisps chocolate fizzy pop.

Always been a healthy weight but I was underweight as a kid, I think my metabolism was crazy fast. Don't struggle now with my weight but I do make more conscious choices and try not to over indulge as much

Child in the 80s.
Three meals a day.
Sugary breakfast cereal.
White bread sandwiches, crisps, chocolate & fruit for packed lunch.
Home cooked, fairly healthy dinners.
Sweets from the sweet shop almost every day after school!
Only had puddings at home on special occasions.

Portion sizes were small compared to today’s standards.

We didn’t really snack. Toast or fruit, occasionally biscuits if we did.

My mum was a good (adventurous by the day’s standards) cook and very relaxed about food. She didn’t force us to eat our vegetables etc. and didn’t seem too fussed that I was a very picky eater (my siblings weren’t).

We all grew up slim and not too fucked up about food, I don’t think. I do have a ridiculously sweet tooth still, though, and eat chocolate most days!

Born 86. We were allowed to snack on whatever and whenever we wanted really. 3 of us kids always been slim, dps were slim up until their mid 50s. My kitchen is the same with my dc, they don't need to ask for a snack and anything in the kitchen is there to be eaten by anyone, all four slim.

Twice in my life I have gone through a year where I was too poor to eat regularly and was very underweight, people were fucking cruel so I'll do my best to make sure my children are never underweight... Or overweight for that matter.

[quote aapple]@Meredithgrey1 do you remember how the conversations around after school snack went? Presumably you always would have wanted the biscuit not fruit. Was it just random that some days you were told yes and sometimes told no, eat some fruit?[/quote]
Umm my mum was pretty firm, not a parent you could argue with, there was really no point (she used to say that the house wasn’t a democracy, but a dictatorship). It wasn’t a strict rule like “only a biscuit on two days” I think she just paid attention to how often she allowed it. And if she said no, that was just it.
She has a pretty healthy attitude to food in the sense that nothing is really totally off limits but she doesn’t buy a lot of treats. And I think her portion control has always been good, she basically enforced (with an iron fist!) everything in moderation.

Always been a healthy weight but moreover have also always had a healthy attitude to food and eating. There were never any rules or limits on food when I was growing up. If it was in the cupboard, you were allowed if. We had treats - chocolate and crisps freely, but also had fruit, nuts, cheese etc if wanted.
Food was never an issue in my house. It was something you ate if you were hungry or wanted a treat. The only childhood friend I can think of whose parent did nag and restrict her a lot, ended up anorexic.

Portion sizes were small compared to today’s standards

I think this is a lot of the problem we have today. Eg single serve bag of crisps is easily double what it was back in the 70s/80s

Child in 90s, went to my Nan's every day after school. She brought me treats in the car every day from chewing gum, sweets or chocolate. I was allowed anything treat wise I liked there and would drink Coca Cola every day. Loved crisps. She'd make me a dinner every week that was just pure snacks: cakes, biscuits, chocolate etc. I had so much sugar that I had two rotten teeth extracted at 7 years old.

I'm in my 30s now and have been a healthy weight my whole adult life. I am always of the mindset that I everything should be in proportion. If my clothes feel tight, I eat less crap and move more. I don't buy snacks. I also never deny myself anything. If I want a family pack of chocolates, I'll have it. Life's too short.

Always had home cooked deserts such as apple pie, fruit cake, choc cake, yoghurt with stewed fruit etc with meal each day.

Never snacked between meals unless it was a piece of fruit. Would never take anything sweet out if the cupboard unless it was dished out. We were very poor and it simply wasn’t tolerated.
Had pocket money on Saturdays we used for sweets.

Had to clear our plates. If we didn’t eat the meal it was given again and again. Once I had the same plate of reheated food for lunch, dinner and then again at breakfast - I hated it!

We were very active. Walked a few miles to and from school each day, went swimming, long walks at the weekend, played in the garden , on our bikes. Only 1 hour of TV each day. No electronics.

One of us siblings always struggled with weight, others always been healthy/slightly underweight.

I don’t think, if I had kids, I’d let them help themselves from the cupboard other than fruit between mealtimes. It’s not necessary and sets up bad eating habits.

Born in 1976

We had free rein pretty much, if it was there, you could eat it. Although, you had to remember there were 4 people in the house and make sure there was enough for everyone. We always had homemade cakes and biscuits. A couple of times a week we’d go to the shop at the end of our road for a bar of chocolate or a bag of sweets each. Don’t remember having many sweets in the house although had stuff like Penguins or Blue Ribbons for packed lunches.

3 meals a day - had coco pops at weekends for breakfast and stuff like shepherds pie, nuggets and chips, or the dreaded mince and jacket potatoes. Fish and chip Friday. Roast on Sunday. Sometimes had Chinese on a Saturday. Always had yoghurts in the fridge for pudding - or those supermousses in the freezer - loved them, still do but haven’t seen them in years. Sometimes Angel Delight. Arctic Roll and Vienetta were considered weekend only puddings

We’d get a gingerbread man or something like that every week when mum when to the bakers

Always had squash, coke rarely.

I was never made to finish my plate if I’d had enough. We always had to try something - if we genuinely didn’t like it that was fine, but we had to give it a go.

Never been over weight until I hit my 40 when I’ve developed a bit of a spare tyre.

I can't really remember having any rules as such. Was all very relaxed! We used to have proper home cooked food. My grandma used to make me lots of chip butties! We always went to my other nans on the Thursday where we had a big dinner, pudding and then sweets!

Probably not very extravagant puddings the rest of the week. Not that much focus on goo generally we were always out and about.

Born 1956. Food was cooked from scratch, but my DM was an excellent cook. No fizzy drinks or crisps, unless for a picnic or treat outing. DM baked a couple of times a week so there was cake after school, but I was a very fussy eater and wouldn't eat school meals at all. We got 6d for sweets on Saturday.

It wasn't until I learned to cook and could choose what to eat that I became even slightly interested in food. DS worked between school and uni as a chef in a very foodie hotel, so now we are a bit competitive with each other, but still never inclined to gorge.

Thinking about it, we never, ever had takeaways and always had sandwiches from home of on a day out. I had my first Chinese meal when I was 17 at a friends house.

I remember once we were visiting my parents friend who lived quite far away and they had a wonderful meal called Kentucky Fried Chicken. When we asked if we could have it at home, we were told that it wasn’t something available near to us - it was a restaurant only near to the friend’s house. We just accepted it. With the lack of TV, we didn’t see any advertising etc,

Had fizzy apple on Sunday’s, watered down juice with meals the rest of the week 🤢

I was born in the early 80s.
We had mostly home cooked dinners, always eaten at the table. My mum would put extra portions in the freezer for days she didn't have time to cook from scratch. We had school dinners all the way through school. We didn't really have snacks, but dessert was allowed everyday if you had eaten your dinner, sometimes fruit or yoghurt but my mum would bake a cake every week and would cook a pudding (apple pie, crumble etc) on Sundays. We were allowed crisps once a week as our break time snack at school on the day we went swimming. We didn't have fizzy drinks and rarely had sweets. My mum didn't buy us sweets/ chocolate bars, we only had them if we went to parties or on special occasions, but there were biscuits and homemade cake. We occasionally ate out in restaurants or at pubs that served food, but we didn't really get takeaways and never went to mcdonalds. I didn't go to mcdonalds until I was in high school and went with my friends, the first time I went to Burger King was when we stopped at a service station on a school trip to Europe or somewhere, I didn't go to KFC until after uni!
There were 4 children, 1 is a student, the rest of us are working with families, none of us are overweight as far as I can tell (haven't seen them for a long time obviously). I eat absolute shit now and don't exercise so I don't know how I am not overweight. I try to feed my DC healthy, home cooked food and not too many treats, but I am out of the house for all their waking hours at work 2-3 days a week.

Always been very slim, and so are my siblings. We had sweet cereal for breakfast- Frosties etc with full fat milk. We had pudding/dessert every day at home. Evening meal was a sort of high tea - sandwiches, biscuits, cake etc. We didn’t have a “meal”. We had orange squash to drink. We didn’t have fizzy drinks. We didn’t get sweets but we had a pack of crisps every day after school. We would make a chocolate selection box or Easter egg last weeks. We never had takeaway, not even fish and chips.