To not feed DC food provided by my DF?

[Notmycircusnotmyotter]

My father is wonderful. He's also elderly with poor eye sight and low energy levels. When I was growing up everything was cooked from scratch but now when DC (4 and 2) visit he buys god awful pasta-based ready meals for them. I just don't eat while there. I get it - it takes the stress out for him and when it's a bit of lunch every other week I don't mind them eating rubbish.

We're staying over tonight. He's gone out for an hour. Am I awful for not cooking the horror shows he's bought for them and instead making some plain pasta with veg from the fridge?

other details - my mum died when I was young so not a factor here, money is not a problem at all, I would never ever ever be rude or make a point, I'll do it quietly and say they weren't that hungry.

My DS favourite food in the world is lasagne, but I can't make a fresh lasagne from scratch every day/time he wants it. So I always have a lasagne ready meal in the freezer for emergency situations. You are being a bit weird about your aversion to freezer meals.

To answer your question directly, if you not eating them means they’d go to waste then I do think YABU. I really hate food waste though!

A ready meal may be high if fat, salt and unhealthy but one occasionally won’t kill
you. As for not feeding it to a dog it can’t be that bad! Ready meals in the UK have to go through stringent testing and processes before being available for sale. It won’t be rat you’re eating!

Maybe he wants to feed them and feels this is an important bit of his independence.

Maybe the kids genuinely enjoy eating a ready meal now and then and it's actually a treat for them.

Maybe this is an important little routine for them all and the kids don't want to eat the same food they have at home all the time. I hope you're not rude about these ready meals in front of the kids.

Oh @Notmycircusnotmyotter are they CHOW or MEALS à la Good Omens?
'CHOW contained spun, plaited, and woven protein molecules, capped and coded, carefully designed to be ignored by even the most ravenous digestive tract enzymes; no-cal sweeteners; mineral oils replacing vegetable oils; fibrous materials, colorings, and flavorings. The end result was a foodstuff almost indistinguishable from any other except for two things. Firstly, the price, which was slightly higher, and secondly, the nutritional content, which was roughly equivalent to that of a Sony Walkman.'
MEALS 'MEALS is CHOW with added sugar and fat. The theory was that if you ate enough MEALS you would a) get very fat, and b) die of malnutrition.'

@Notmycircusnotmyotteryou sound utterly nasty. Your poor dad.

Christ calm your tits its one ready meal

Fast forward 10 years OP and your kids will be necking red bull, mcdonalds and kebabs at every opportunity. I really don't think a pasta meal from the supermarket freezer every couple of weeks is going to do them much harm.
Just e
Wait until they start school dinners if you want to see some really crap food.

YANBU - your Dad should listen to you. He maybe just thinks you’re being polite,
but if you make them something else he will finally understand you mean it.

You sound very snobbish, OP. Perhaps it’s all he can afford! I love a good M&S mushroom pappardelle or Macaroni ready meal. They’re really nice with high quality ingredients! Just because it’s in a packet and needs to be reheated doesn’t make it “frankenfood” ffs. There are many, many families out there having to queue up at food banks!!!!