To not feed my dc shit, just because the kid from school won't eat it?!?

[pinkclouds]

ARRRGGGHH!!! I spent the day thinking what will this child eat? So I opted for mince and Potatoes (Not a vegetarian) fairly safe option I thought.
The friend wouldn't even try it, not only that he couldn't even use a knife and fork at 7 years!!
WTF. My DC are told to least try something before dismissing it.Maybe it's me.

When I was a child I went through a phase of wanting practically nothing other than mince and potatoes (and this was not the 1940s). Dd loves it when she goes to her granny's house and will always ask for it to be mixed up into a "pie".

Nothing odd about choosing to serve that to a visiting child.

Safe choices for children under 11:
Pizza
Pasta with cheese
Fishfingers
and even then I'd check with the parent.
Mince and potatoes is definitely odd.

my DS takes any opportunity to remind us he "not like cheese" :o
though he wolfs down pizza

"heathens"

Have none of you heard of mince and tatties??

Same as shepherds pie but with the mash on the side not on top!

My MIL (glaswegian) cooks this for dd and she loves it!

Why can't kids eat the same as adults?!

I don't eat 'mince and potatoes'. Sounds horrid.

I think mince and tatties is a regional thing and would be a safe choice for DS and visiting friends.

Good quality steak mince cooked with onion and gravy, bigs chunks of carrot, swede and peas added to it, with mashed potatoes.

For us it is comfort food.

I have a very fussy eater, but I don't expect other people to change what they serve because of him. He will either eat it or not (mostly not).

I would love it if he ate chips.

I had a child round once whose mum told me he would only eat non-green vegetables. But he wouldn't eat the sweetcorn i gave him because it was own-brand, not green giant, and he wouldn't eat the carrots because I'd chopped them in little sticks and his mum always makes circles

Agree that mince and potatoes is not something which many kids will eat happily...I hate it...and it is totally dfferent to Shepards Pie which is topped with cheese and has ssome other bits and bobs in it.

Mince. Blob. Spuds. Plop. Reminds me of the 70s...we ate it a LOT!

I sometimes do a picnic type thing for them...sandwiches, warmed up sausage rolls or quiche, crisps, cubed cheese, bit of cucumber and grated carrot...it''s a pain but at least they eat something.

My failsafe when children come to tea is pasta and meatballs. I bring four bowls to the table, plain pasta, pork meatballs, homemade tomato sauce and grated parmesan. I haven't yet had a child that won't eat a decent amount. If they don't eat the sauce, I just tell the parent that picks them up. Fruit for pudding usually followed by ice cream.
Agree that roast chicken and veg is another winner.

And I always add milk to my mince!! (I actually stir a small amount of cream into Ragusa bolognaise at the bed - sounds gross but is lovely)

Sorry- Ragu bolognaise at the end!! Bloody iPad!

I'm vegetarian, but I still don't understand the problem with mince and potatoes so many of you seem to have! I would happily eat Quorn mince and roasties! Lovely combination.

Although I don't think I would've served it to a child I didn't know....I would never go down the turkey twizzlers route, but there must be a happy medium!

Haha littledawley, I thought we'd just accidentally discovered some rather disturbing information about your sex life! Am actually a tiny bit disappointed that your iPad was to blame!

Mowiel - I take your point and I'm fairly old-fashioned too....but really please don't be too smug about having good eaters.

I did everything you did - gave my children what we were eating from weaning onwards - and I have the fussiest 7 year old imaginable. My other two are better but not brilliant.

I think whether a child is a good or fussy eater really comes down to luck. Yes there are things you can do to help but ultimately luck plays a huge part.

I'm hoping my dd will get better as she gets older. I'm sure she will - both dh and I were terrible eaters as children but now we eat everything.

To the OP - I always ask visiting children what they like - it's only good manners. I wouldn't want to send a child home without them eating a proper meal. It normally revolves round things like pasta with tomato sauce and/or cheese, fish fingers, baked potatoes etc... Big plate of cut up fruit for them all to share afterwards then maybe a bit of ice-cream or a biscuit.

Oooooh, so it's not just mince and potatoes? Or is it?

Cottage pie (Quorn mince here, not veggie but mince (vom)) would be OK I think, but I was imagining a pile of mince and some potatoes.

Could you clear that up please OP, we all seem to have different ideas as to the meaning of said delicacy.

My ds was seen as a fussy eater when going to friends for tea. He wouldn't eat burgers, sausages, fishfingers, pizza and the usual kiddy fodder. But give him a piece of beef, pork, fish and he'd have scoffed the lot - just preferred food in it's normal state rather than processed.

Disclaimer* I know you can have healthy homemade chicken nuggets etc

taintedpaint - pmsl! I coolant have made up that sentence if I'd tried!

i think you need to lighten up op
surely it doesn't hurt for kids to have "fun" food sometimes

Oh bollocks. I'm off to bed, will sign up for a typing on the iPad course tomorrow.

Dancergirl you're right about it being luck. My mum always cooked for the whole family - DSis would push things round on her plate hoping they would go away and I would be asking what's for pudding before my mum had sat down. DSis eats most things now though.

On visiting kids, it's pasta all the way as far as I'm concerned. Though if they're visiting for the first time I always ask parents what they will eat, and will get in something different (which I will then give to DD too) if they won't/can't eat pasta.

Mince and taties is a NE/Scottish thing IME - doesn't sound very appetising but tastes better than it sounds!

Mine would play with mince and spud but wouldn't eat much. even if it is shepherds pie or lasagne or bolognaise hes not keen on mince.

I think kids often get put off by other households' cooking - no matter how varied and healthy their diets at home other children usually refuse my repertoire and my squid and lentil eating children get equally fussy when confronted with other mothers' house style.

The reason why "junk" is a safe choice is that any child recognises chips and sausages (or chicken drumsticks in my case) as being essentially the same thing as they know and trust.

Gosh, I haven't eaten mince and potatoes for about 20 years. I'd forgotten all about it!

Must be a regional thing - in Scotland, mince n tatties is the failsafe meal for visiting kids. I've been having other various kids here for tea for the past ten years, and have yet to come across any one child who doesn't wolf it down.

Not getting the folk who think its 'vile'. Maybe you're not making it right down there?

"tell your mam i tried to feed you won't you?"

is how i used to send home kids who wouldnt eat.

i did serve a whopping pork chop to a veggie kid once.

i should've asked. poor kid ate everything else on his plate though.

i was mortified.