Here's a boring question for a Friday night

[peasando]

What do your children eat off?

I have a 6 year old and a 2 year old. They both still eat off a mixture of kids bamboo plates (dinosaurs, unicorns etc) and those amazing totally practical plastic plates with a rim from IKEA.

Recently though the 6 year old has graduated from 'kids' cutlery to just a smaller version of our cutlery. And now I think the plates seem a bit ridiculous, at least for him. I'm also worried that now he's at school if he starts having friend round for tea they'll ridicule him for having 'baby' plates.

TL;DR: what do your 5/6/7 year olds eat off? Should I just give him an adult plate?

I think up until 7ish mine were using kid themed plates, they’re now 12 and 9 and eat off of a side plate (12 year old gets a slightly bigger portion).

An adult plate would be huge and look a little ridiculous for a 5 year old with appropriate 5 year old portion sizes.

When mine were younger and still ate smaller portions I just used the side plates of the dining set.

I still use the plastic mr men plates for my toast or a sandwich though. 😄

My 2&4 year old just have ceramic standard plates like us now. They’ve learned to be careful with them and like to be the same

I sometimes use a pasta bowl for my children's food, not too small and not too big and robust with sides on too!

I was just thinking this the other day when I served my 8 year old his dinner on an IKEA plate. He hasn't asked for different plates, whereas he did recently ask to drink from a glass rather than a plastic cup. I was thinking of switching to side plates for both DC (8 and 4).

My 5 year old likes to eat out of the plastic ikea ones. But he's a creature of habit and probably still will be when he's 35 😂

Whatever plate or bowl is clean!

My nearly 7 year old still has the plastic ikea plates. I guess I will swap them when they are too small for his portion. He's a clumsy bugger (like me) so probably best to stick to plastic for now.

Whatever comes out the dishwasher

My dc - now 18 and 20 - still use their plastic cereal bowls with integral straw for ice cream . We got these in the usa when they were under 5

On the flip side - ds claims that our cereal bowls are not big enough so he uses a Pyrex casserole dish ( I buy shreddies in catering size from Costco )

I hope to never lose the IKEA plates, I tend to find myself using them all the time for toast/sandwiches/snacks etc. I don't drink a lot of juice so the little matching cups are ideal for me too 😂

Proper plates since 4&6 for dinner. Its easier to cut food on a bigger plate!

We do actually have some plates half way between side and dinner now, which are useful for lunches.

My youngest 2 still like eating from melamine plates....they are 13 and 18 😂😂 they moan at the scraping sound of a knife on China plates. So they always help themselves to the plastic ones. Obviously they haven't got kiddy pics on. We do have plenty of china plates they can use.

A pasta bowl! Stops things from flying off the edge glares at peas . Normal cutlery. Aged 9

I still have picnic plates in the cupboard though. They're so handy!!

Side plates seem very small to me. Our dc went from plastic plates to full dinner plates, probably at about age 6 or 7.

I love a boring question. My kids are the same age and both use bamboo/ plastic IKEA plates. If I changed the 6 year olds into a ceramic plate, the 3YO would want one too! They use normal cutlery but they are quite lightweight and small compared to the cutlery you get in restaurants.

Normal plate and cutlery for 5yo

I'm really really shocked! Kids of 8 or 9 eating off plastic plates or side plates seems so odd. Surely, it's hard for them to use a knife and fork on those?

My 9 and 7 year old use the same China dinner plates as us. We introduced that when they were 2 and 3 and a half.

They use old kiddy plastic bowls for desserts like doughnuts!

Same (5&3, but started with normal plates a while ago).

Also, my DCs have used regular cutlery from about 8 months old - once they were eating real solids and not just mush. I give them tea spoons and little desert forks, just from our usual cutlery set.

Introduced grown up plates at 2yo

I think oldest dc used the plastic plates longer than youngest, cos once one had the proper plates they all wanted one! I think we also had some that were full size but still plastic (probably sold as picnic plates).
A bit surprised at a 12 year old using a side plate! Mine definitely ate full adult portions by then.

This! I often eat snacks in those colourful ikea plates and bowls if they are to hand!

A side plate is tiny for a 12 year old’s dinner portion!

We have 3 plastic plates left and I often use them for their lunches or snacks, or for a dinner that doesn’t take up much room on a plate eg lasagne. Otherwise it’s china plates but we have 2 odd smaller dinner plates that I try to use for the 8 and 10 year old. Teen has a regular plates.

My older 2 (21 &19) still eat off cartoon plates as they are in the cupboard near the toaster.