Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think party food does not need to be healthy/ eaten savory before sweet

129 replies

MikeRotch · 12/04/2011 17:21

what IS with the party food nazis/
let the kids NOT have veg for ONE meal fgs, let them eat three cupcakes and NO sandwiches

its a party

OP posts:
manicinsomniac · 12/04/2011 22:17

No, you are not being unreasonable. It's really sad that so many children nowadays don't get the experience of just eating food that is fun and tastes good, no matter what is in it.

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of my dad picking my sister (aged 8) and I (aged 10) from a party for children on his workplace. He asked if we'd had a good time. I shrugged and said there weren't many games and I didn't know anybody. My sister jumped up and down, shouted 'I've had 17 cakes and 9 packets of crisps' then promptly threw up all over her shoes and his. She's the healthy, balanced adult and I have an eating disorder. I don't think the odd party splurge does any harm.

I don't live up to what I think though. I'm constantly panicking about what my children eat at parties. Telling myself it's just one meal doesn't work because it can be several meals in close succession if there's a run of parties. I fight against it though. I will not let my kids suffer for my food hang ups. I want them to enjoy their food and not worry.

mercibucket · 12/04/2011 22:25

but most party food tastes vile - cheap cake, cheap meat, cheap crisps, cheap processed cheese - bleurgh.

exoticfruits · 12/04/2011 22:27

Why does it have to be cheap? You can give DCs kettle chips, good cheese, homemade and iced cakes!! I also think that you should stop viewing from an adult point of view.

colditz · 12/04/2011 22:29

It tastes vile to adults

It doesn't taste vile to children

I would much rather eat lives than space raiders, but my children, despite my best efforts to contrary, do not feel the same way, and neither did I when i was 8.

colditz · 12/04/2011 22:29

"eat lives"

har har

NO

"Eat OLIVES"

BarryShitpeas · 12/04/2011 22:33

When mil gets out her old photos, in the background behind birthday child and mahoosive cake, the party "food" is plates of crisps decorated with sticks of Wrigley's chewing gum.

Surely at a party all the food is out all at once and they can pick what they like?

I have to say I couldn't care less- if it's a party my dc have been invited to, I am pleased I won't have to feed them. If it's a party I am giving (have 4 dc) I will do the food to accommodate what the birthday child wants. Anyone else can get stuffed Grin.

flyingspaghettimonster · 12/04/2011 22:34

YANBU - I've started doing a candy buffet at my kids' parties... huge success, gorgeous and they can fill their own party bags :-) Love the grumpy mugs on some of the parents!

StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 12/04/2011 22:53

I used to put all the food out at once - mainly because clearing away the savoury stuff and putting out the sweet stuff would have meant extra work for me, and frankly I think a birthday party is exhausting enough as it is.

I would put out some cherry tomatoes, strawberries and grapes, but wouldn't worry if the dses ate just sweet stuff - and in my experience most kids eat at least one savoury item, even if it is only a crisp or two anyway.

BucketOfSoldiers · 12/04/2011 22:57

One of mine put his sweets into a ham sandwich Hmm

SkinittingFluffyBunnyBonnets · 12/04/2011 23:08

BarryShitPeas! I love that idea! May begin serving plates of that up to general visitors!

"Wotsit? Hubba Bubba?" I'll say them as I circulate.

SkinittingFluffyBunnyBonnets · 12/04/2011 23:09

Merci I don't buy food for my DC parties that I would not feed them usually...so no cheap ham or crisps!

mercibucket · 13/04/2011 18:05

it does taste vile to kids as well - apart from space invaders which I also love Grin
it doesn't have to be cheap but it usually is. those cheap cakes are particularly grim - as, tbh, are most of the birthday cakes which look great but never get eaten
perhaps I have odd children
they like the cherry tomatoes, celery, cucumber stuff then it's on to the crisps. jam sandwiches are always a hit though

mercibucket · 13/04/2011 18:08

oh yeah, that disgusting juice as well
yuk

oxocube · 13/04/2011 18:17

I always do a mix of sweet and savoury. I think kids like home make nuggets, little sausages, pizza (I often make a big one or a scone based pizza and cut it into squares) as well as all the crisps, jammy dodgers, cakes etc. Maybe my kids have weird friends but stuff like bowls of strawberries and raspberries always disappear fast

But I agree that the food police at kids' parties are boring in the extreme Grin

heliumballoons · 13/04/2011 18:35

I do sandwiches: egg/jam/ ham and cheese
sausage rolls/sausages
carrot/cucumber/pepper/grapes
breadsticks
cold pizza
dip
cakes/ biscuits
crisps

I do this because most chidren will like something and like cakes/ sandwiches/ sausage rolls and crisps etc. My DS isn't keen on any of those and therefore I make sure there plenty he wil eat (pizza/red pepper/ breadsticks and soft cheese!). He does love French fancies so always make sure those cakes are on offer Grin

Its not always about being a nazi but 'knowing' your own child and their friends and catering to a wide audience. Including those with allergies, intolerences and vegetarians etc of which DS had friends with each.

Clary · 13/04/2011 22:35

mercibucket the birthday cake always gets eaten in my house!

But then I make it myself. I don't see why a party foodtable of pizza, crisps, ham sandwiches, a bit of salad and lots of cakes has to be cheap and yuk.

I never buy cheap ham or cheap cakes. I make the cakes at the DCs' parties as a rule (not the choc fingers tho!). I agree cheap meat is icky, but hardly the stuff we're talking about here!?

exoticfruits · 14/04/2011 08:00

I still can't get off the meaness of making a pirate cake and scraping all the icing into the bin before serving it!! How could she?!

KaraStarbuckThrace · 14/04/2011 08:09

I suggest those of you whose dcs only eating the icing get together with me and DS. DS HATES icing, so he can eat the icing-less cakes, therefore no waste Grin

He will fight all comers for the sausages....

sunnydelight · 14/04/2011 08:32

After years of doing kids' birthday parties in Brighton (no darling, you can't have the hummous, we're not sure that it's organic) parties in Oz are a breath of fresh air. You are not expected to provide a meal (10-12 and 2-4 are especially popular party times). Popcorn, fairy bread (the wierdest thing on earth whereby you butter cheap white sliced bread then dip it in hundreds and thousands - makes me chuck but you can't do a party without it) and birthday cake is all you need. Lolly bags are called lolly bags for a reason - and this is fairly upmarket part of Sydney!

Panzee · 14/04/2011 08:40

At the last party I went to we all got stuff from the chippy. They took our order a week or so before. All came in cardboard boxes, nothing to wash. Genius. :)

funkybuddah · 14/04/2011 09:51

My god, Im glad my kids have never been to a 'neurotic mum' party.

Let them choose what they want, by doing that they will probably choose to eat a variety of party food not just the sweets etc, make it an issue and of course they are going to go nuts when you finally allow them a morsel of sugar or flavourings etc.

FFs ita party, you know, a fun time to be had, reach down, remove the stick that is firmly up your arse and let them have what they want.

Its another reason I have always 'dropped and run' from when my kids were about 3ish (if the parents were ok with it).

HellonHeels · 14/04/2011 11:28

oooo sunnydelight I'm from downunder, we had fairy bread when I were a lass! It was ace.

Once went to a neurotic foodie party where the fairy bread was made from dense wholegrain bread, spread with cottage cheese and then sprinkled with the hundreds and thousands Hmm

As for cupcakes/fairy cakes I prefer cupcakes simply because there's loads of icing!

Laquitar · 14/04/2011 11:49

At my dd's party i had potato wedges and couple of mums said 'we don't eat junk food' Shock

Grin @ K999. As much as i like the taste of hummus and olives - and my dcs are half Cypriots- i begin to hate them now because of all this 'we only eat hummus', 'my dcs eat olives' Hmm
(the same parents who ban crisps because of the salt Hmm)

dearyme · 14/04/2011 11:55

and i thought parties were supposed to be fun Grin

i suppose the party games are also defunct, now its sit down, shut up and read the Guardian

Morloth · 14/04/2011 12:03

And chocolate crackles.