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

[MikeRotch]

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

I must be very lucky - DD2 had a stonking birthday party back in November. Not only did some of the lovely mummies stay because they could see there may be a riot, but they helped feed, play, clear up and even ate the platters full of sausage rolls, mini eggs, sandwiches, party rings, fairy cakes, crisps (you get the picture). Some of us adults never grow out of a love of 'party food'. Surely that's why it has it's own food category, because it's only really ever eaten at parties.

Some people really need to get over themselves.

Childhood is short-how sad to look back on parties and think that no only couldn't you have an iced cake, but you couldn't touch the hummus if it wasn't organic!
Have these people not thought on to when the DC gets past 7yrs and they can't control every mouthful? I am trying to imagine the 13yr old going to a friend's house and asking whether the hummus is organic and saying that they can't eat crisps!!

interesting article abut the dangers of an overly 'healthy' diet

who are these parents staying at parties to make their dc eat sarnies - yuke sarnies all curled up.

at parties you need curly fries and sausages or fish fingers and chips and jelly and ice cream and fairy cakes

Parties are supposed to be fun! They are also one off occasions and not part of the daily regime so children should be allowed to have what they want - not what the parents think they should have.

Having said that I do have choc-dip fruit and carrot/cucumber batons, olives and cherry toms at my kids dos. However, that's because these items have always been eaten with nothing left behind!

At one party one little boy had been so brainwashed by his mother's view of what he should eat that he asked for a yoghurt instead of cakes / biscuits because his mum did not allow him to eat them.

get gregs sausage rolls for the veggie children, there is never any meat in a gregs

I would love to know if the parents who stick to a strict regime, even for parties, go out for dinner, drink wine etc. I have a distinct feeling that many exert a control over their DCs diet that they could do over their own.

colditz thank you for the link.

I've said this on other threads, i don't see any fat children in uk (at least where i live). I see more underweight children than overweight.

Interesting that the article mentions risk of heart desease and diabetes due to low fat diet.

yes due to low fat foods having high refined sugar content.

Your dc will grow into teens who buy there own food on their way to school, large bars of chocolate to share and biscuits, crisps etc for the end of term etc, and if those foods are banned outright at home then they will buy/purchase more when you are not around and eat them all through term. If they are foods that are offered or around at home they will still purchase them but not in high quantities as they are not sinful foods but the occasional different food stuff.

Very true ivykate. Mine don't buy much in the junk food/sweets line-but you should see the friends who were strictly controlled!

My DC always wanted me to stay at parties, I'd often be the only Mum there , so to exact my revenge I would hover behind them and make them eat some veg, mwah ha ha! Eventually they learned and would let me leave...

DH always asks why I bother to put carrot sticks/cucumber etc out at parties. I remind him it's for the parents. We know and they know the kids will only eat the sausage rolls, crisps and sweet stuff.

I watched a science programme where the same group of children were given a 'junk food' party one day then a 'health food' party the next. The children came back from the healthy party more wired, more screamy, more pinballing off the walls. The scientists (they were real scientists!) likened the mindset that filling up on sugar will send you hyperactive with putting more petrol in a car to make it go faster. IYKWIM.
I always serve a reasonable balance- pizza, sandwiches and nuggets with cherry toms and fruit kebabs. I made gorgeous chocolate cakes (with Betty Crocker fudge icing!) for DD1's last party, and the little feckers ate the icing off the tops.

peeriebear - not sure I am following the science bit, sorry...?

Basically, if there's sugar in the body it doesn't matter how much- one cake or fifteen. It won't make them go nuts and more than putting more petrol in will make the car go faster.

*any more, oops.

The whole junk food + party thing is more to do with the fact it's a party - don't know if it was the same programme, but the parents weren't told what the kdis were eating, just that it would either be healthy or sugar-loaded. The healthy kids party finished with a bouncy castle session/manic play. The sugar kids' party ended with story time. Most of the parents of the healthy food kids said that the kids must have had sugar as they were so hyper :)

that betty crocker stuff is vile. my kids wont eat fake cakes

arfararf

My sil (whose children are 25,23,21,21) looked horrified at my other sil's ds's(6) party last year, when all the cucumber and cherry tomatoes came out.
She wondered what it all was, and why.
I think its becasue in her day, parties were rare. and a treat. I mean, I only remember going to about 3. most people didn't have them. Now they are 10-a-penny.
So, when you did go, to your annual, and all you had was jelly and icecream, ringed biscuits and cake, no one would think anything of it.
Back to those 'good old days', I think is best !!

The good old days were best! If you had two friends you expected two parties-now when you read these threads people get upset if every time the invitations come out their DC doesn't get a party. I can see that if there are 30 in a class and you get 30 parties-whether they are a friend or not-party food is a problem.

the good ole days - parties in hotels and they did proper jelly and ice cream and we got to wear proper party dresses and the boys wore dickie bows

I LOVE kids party food. There is something about the smell of it that has me hovering by the food table waiting to be allowed to eat it!

Egg/ham/cheese sarnies (the egg always goes first)
Strawberries
Apples
Yogurts
Party Rings
Chocolate Fingers
LOADS of different crisps
Chocolate Teacakes
Mini sausages
Sausage Rolls
Chocolate Caterpillar birthday cake
and loads of other really lovely but "unhealthy" food served at my DS's parties.

AND with all the left overs hubby (unhappily) has his lunch already made for the next two days at work!

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)

I'm half cypriot and know exactly how you feel Laquitar. Someone on another thread said can't they have hummous as a healthy alternative and I wanted to hit something. Actually my DS can't eat hummous anymore as he is allergic to seseme seeds.

But what is the point of a birthday cake if everyone is already stuffed with sweets?

Ah bruffin, and hummus and olives was the poor man's food in Cyprus. Like baked beans here. How did this innocent food became middle class status food and 'smug food'?