How long will we 'get away with ' sharing meals with DD when out?

[AliceTheCamelHasFiveHumps]

DD is 3y4m and I still share meals when out. So if I order sausage, mash and veg. It's usually 3 sausages, like if mash and veggies.

She'll have ½-1 sausage,and some of the veggies and mash.
Or say, McDonald's, she'll have around 10 of my chips and maybe one chicken select.

What age did you stop sharing?

Why aren't you addressing the much bigger issue of why your dd eats so little. Is she underweight?

usual size kids meal at a pub for my dc3 is not enough and we end up getting a starter and sharing from our plates as well.

I have been buying kids meals for DS (2) for over 6 months now, I was of the opinion that it was a bit cheeky not to pay for them when bringing them to a restaurant etc, in the same way you shouldn't bring your own food once they're old enough to eat proper food? 🤷‍♂️

That all sounds a bit of a palaver and at the same time isn’t letting her choose her own food, if that’s the objective, as it’s clear that she’d much rather eat of the adult menu. Why don’t her parents order her a starter portion of adult food, or share their meals and order sides etc so there’s enough food to go around?

About 4. Most meals out are too big for an adult and kids meals were way too big for him. We have often shared as adults too, tapas style or getting one starter and main. Some kids just make a mess; one of DS's friends left a mound of dribbled-on mess by having one bite per sandwich; his mum proudly said he'd had two whole sandwiches, when it was about half an actual sandwich! It does lead to some confusion when people describe what's eaten. Some kids eat a lot, DN memorably ate more lunch age 1 than DS age 4; DS had fruit snack in the morning and a carb snack in the afternoon though.

I'm so surprised by this thread, we still share with DD sometimes and she is 5! It depends on the situation, eg if we don't think she'd eat anything off the children's menu we will have two mains and a side between the three of us.

Yes, often it's because the children's meals are food they don't like. If there were more options it would be easier. I could have given DS a children's portion of many adult meals and it would have been eaten.

This thread gives me flashbacks to my childhood. My mum was always penny pinching (absolutely no need) and would never allow us to do the normal thing and just order one thing each. We had to discuss it extensively and work out some combination of mains and sides between us all to share. I never got anything that I particularly wanted which I think she used as an excuse to continue doing it "see, you don't even finish your food". I remember waiters saying "and for ... ?" And just cringing when my mum would say "oh, no, we'll share".

I think I finally said no more when I was 16 and had a part time job, offering to pay my own shamed her out of it.

Quite a few places will do a half portion if you ask, they just don't advertise it

I don't know any child-friendly restaurant that won't offer a half-portion if you ask!

I have seen on a few menus the option for a smaller serve of some meals but this is rare. If they do it then why not say so on the menu?

Because it's fairly obvious that they can make a smaller amount? You usually pay more than half price for it

@coffeecupsandwaxmelts

Given you don’t have children, how often have you actually asked? The only restaurants that reliably offer a half portion of an adult main are Italian restaurants for the pasta course.

How do you serve half a sea bass or half a chicken breast without cooking it all and cutting in half and throwing half in the bin? Understandably most restaurants don’t serve half portions of fish and meat mains.

@karmakameleon they serve the whole meat/fish and less sides

Well yes it depends on the dish but for many dishes, it's absolutely fine.

E.g. DS1 really likes prawns, not difficult to have half the amount.

I would say about half the average menu it's doable for so if your child isn't too picky, it's worth doing

I'm surprised you're still getting away with that tbh.

This

No-one has ever said anything

I expect you'll be asked to not do this at some point soon so you should prepare for that.

I always ordered a child portion, a while back now so that would have been very little, only couple quid. It mean they had their own meal to eat/ play with/ learn how to behave.

I’ve been ordering dd her own food (from chicks menu) since she was about 2. Prior to that, the portions were far too big for her & there was a lot of wastage, so she would have a little bit of mine/dads. That was plenty for her.

Dd is 3.5 now & pretty much clears her plate when we eat out ( doesn’t at home though🤔)

Do the restaurants you go to that have a minimum spend or stipulate specific meals? Unless it's a tasting menu, I'm not sure I could cope with that as an adult, but I don't really understand how it works. When DS was younger we would ask for an extra plate, actually recently he wanted a side of chips and we got a plate for veg and meat from our much-too-big meals; or he's had a child pizza at 5pm but we each had a slice as a snack. (He eats more healthily at home!!)

We have often shared as adults too, tapas style or getting one starter and main

to be fair this is why the op hasn’t prob had anything said to her, that does happen. I’ve seen a couple,of times adults do this too, share one starter and one main. It’s very rare though. I will be honest I never thought it was because fhey couldn’t manage a whole main themselves and assumed it was a financial issue.

personally if I couldn’t afford a main plate each I’d not go until I could.but I get that means for some folks never going out. But I find it a bit cringe seeing two adults go out to dinner and painfully divvy up a main course between them.

I will be honest I never thought it was because fhey couldn’t manage a whole main themselves and assumed it was a financial issue
When I've done it with another adult we could eat and afford a main but wanted to try other things as well and wouldn't have been eat all of it.