to ask politely that a visiting child not to have sugar on his cereal?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

Occasionally I'll have one of DD2's classmates before school, as it helps with his parents' working situation.

I have 4 DCs who obviously will have to be cautious over their eating habits for life. Genes.

Therefore we have only cereals that are not excessively sugary for breakfast.

This child moans about what is on offer at my house. So he then asks for augar to be added to weetabix, which I would rather not, but if DS is not in the room he can have some discreetly, as the girls understand my rationale, but DS is only 4 and I would rather not have this eating style visible to him.

So, AIBU to request politely that he doesn't add sugar when ChaoticBoy is around?

jesus christ, i worry that people like the OP are left in charge of children

OP should be supervised for their own safety I feel

just goes to show you dont need brains to breed eh

I never knew people ate Weetabix without sugar
how the hell do you manage to swallow the vile healthy stuff?
i am so impressed with parents who manage to keep up the food policing. it is a constant battle and sometimes I can't be arsed am persuaded otherwise.
I know this might be alarming to some people but Ds has been known to go to school after a breakfast of a bacon butty.Sometimes, I even fry the bacon.

Or indeed to join Mumsnet. Welcome, judgejudie.

oh, nicely done, NoVittyAte [impressed]

chaos, tell him no. You don't need to add bloody sugar to everything.

Not everything our kids eat has to be sweet. It's not good to start them on that from an early age. They get used to it and think that food has to taste like that.

I think we are so used to everything sweetened and savoury stuff with loads of salt in that we have lost the ability to just appreciate the natural taste of food.

not me though. I have quite the opposite problem

I would just give them some sugar-they are a visitor. It doesn't mean that you have to start using sugar.

The only way to eat Weetabix is to sprinkle on sugar, then very carefully and slowly pour the milk around (not on!) them so you end up with the perfect consistency of mush underneath with a crispy sugary top.

Is there a medical reason why OPs child/ren can't have sugar to be exposed to others having sugar?

Otherwise I would let the visiting child have a smal amount of sugar ad tell mine they don't need it.

Same as my friend's DD can't have chocolate (medical reason) but her other DD and my DD will eat chocolate around her. She has an alternative.

Likewise another friend's DS can't have diary. Same situation - his sister and my DD, or other children, eat dairy, he has an alternative if possible

Both the above children cope fine with the situation and always have. Neither have airborune issues so others eating near them is fine. Both are now 5y. They know why they can't have it. They understand.

If you don't have sugar in, fine. Tell his mum you don't have sugar. She could always opt to send him with a small sachet.

YABU

Why on earth don't you just offer toast, etc for breakfast when the friend is there. You can't put sugar on toast.

There are ways to avoid the situation if you just thought about it.

A sure way to make your DCs into sugar lovers is to be so strict you can't provide it for visitors! Everything in moderation.

BTW - I don't like cereals without sigar. I don't like milk but can't eat cereal dry, so a spoonful of sugar sprinkled into the small amount of milk makes it fine for me to eat. DD sees me do this. She has hers without sugar, despite not liking milk as a drink.

DS1 is allergic to egg but I still have eggs, cake etc in the house - I'd be doing him no favours if I didn't teach him that sometimes he won't be able to eat what someone else is having.

Well said novittyate.

I think it's up to the child (or his parents) to say whether he can have sugar on weetabix or not. Unless you don't have any of course.

DH is a no-sugar on cereal puritan. But then he has it in tea which is much more disgusting

Totally OT but did anyone ever eat weetabix with butter on when they were kids - like big fat crispy ryvita? V nice they were too

Weetabix looks like dog diorrhea when it goes all soggy in the milk.

HTH.

I do think YABU, actually.

I can't eat weetabix without sugar because it tastes horridly cardboardy.

I remember once (this is very tenuously connected, so bear with me) we had dinner at our friends' house, and I went to put the ketchup on. My friends only had a tiny amount of ketchup (not even enough to dunk one chip in!) and I was told off for having too much ketchup.
It was a very weird situation, and I remember thinking how awful it was that my friends weren't allowed ketchup on their dinner!

It is a little bit weird.

However - i do understand your predicament, so maybe you should have put the sugar and milk on for the child, so that your DCs didn't see there was any?

Why on earth don't you just offer toast, etc for breakfast when the friend is there. You can't put sugar on toast.

Oh yes you can :o

OP, you say you only have the boy over for breakfast occassionnaly, then YABU and let him have some sugar.

YANBU - can't understand adding sugar to cereal-. raisins or fruit as a topper is acceptable. Some holistic health prcatitioners would rather people gave up sugar than smoking as the no1 body fucker.

Different houses have different rules - tough tits.

yanbu. Although imho wheetabix is vile no matter what you add to it.

it is alrightbut you have to eat it quickly before it dissolves into sludge iMO

Some holistic health prcatitioners would rather people gave up sugar than smoking as the no1 body fucker

oh well in that case, sod the weetabix, give em 10 B & H and an espresso for breakfast!

holistic practitioner indeed

Sorry was out and carpphone was playing up aagin!

Too many posts to answer individually so I'll just add a bit more info.

The Chaos family has a propensity to be, ahem, sturdy so to counteract this we try to eat healthily but no food is banned - it's all about informed, wise choices and moderation.

The family tries hard to exercise as well.

There is always a wide range of cereals available for breakfast. I am not forcing the child to have only weetabix. Porridge, several mueslis, and own brand shreddies, puffed wheat, instant oats, rice crispies, shredded wheat, cornflakes, bran flakes were availble this morning. So there's not a lack of choice. All my DC are happy to eat these without sugar, so why offer it to them?

This child refuses all of these, and initially asked for Chocolatey stuff. So the compromise he offered was weetabix with sugar, which I have accepted, but have asked that he doesn't add sugar when DS in room as I like to take the path of least resistance. DS is going through a phase of having a wobbly if the sun is on the wrong side of the house so I just don't want to add something else into the mix in the mornungs.

I have 5 children to get out the house in the mornings (4 usually), no DH around, 2 school drop offs to do and so I just want to avoid potential TantrumTriggers.

As for the toast - I'm not really keen on giving toast for breakfast if they are having a wheat based lunch, so try to avoid that for that reason (also time constraints make cereal the easy option).

Is that everything?

Oh, I think I'm probably BU asking the child to discreetly add sugar because of boy. But hohum, I'm trying for any easy life there as well - compromising with visitor and family.

NoVitty - enough of this nunsense.

buppy -

Oh and judgejudie - "just goes to show you dont need brains to breed eh" - I'll accept the fact you think I'm brainless [shrugs] - I'll just assume you have no brain either as you cba to construct a sentient post.

Oh from the OP I thought Chaos' whole family had diabetes, not just that they had a tendency to be a bit fat. Denying the kids sugar and wheat seems to be a good way to ensure they rebel and end up "on the sturdy side" (overweight?) later in life.

What about teaching them about moderation and to stop eating when full instead? And give that poor boy a bit of sugar if he wants it on his horrible weetabix. Telling a child they can have sugar but only when another child is not in the room is a pisspoor unsustainable plan.

Whoever it was who pointed out that sugar is not grated plutonium above is both funny and right.

I'm off to find a holistic practitioner to find out what in their unscientific opinion is worse, sugar, fags or standing in front of oncoming cars. Ommm...

I can see why it happens chaos - its much easier than the tantrums isnt it - the thing is it is easy for your dc to eat them without sugar as thats what they are used to - a dc who is used to having sugary cereal wont be able to eat it without and it isnt your job to fix that. Much as we'd like to

I think the weetabix with sugar was a good compromise from the child actually and he should have been applauded for it - after all he could have been the one to throw a complete tantrum - and better for him to have food inside him before school than not just to save your son a meltdown.

tbh it sounds like you've got a lot on your plate in the mornings and this is the last straw - do you have to look after the other dc before school?

Oh and pmsl at the holistic practioner and their very scientific spoutings about sugar and fags.