To think when parents are out with their kids it's likely to be for a treat?

[LaWeasel]

And therefore, if they are letting their kids have less than perfectly healthy food/drinks whilst out it's not a reflection of their normal diet?

I wouldn't really care either way but yes, I guess that is true. Quite often cafes have a limited range of food avaiable and you go with what is there - so my DC might well eat sausage and chips and coke - or more often than not, just chips While they eat all those things at home sometimes they are a very minor part of their diet.

But mine are a great deal older. I was as bit more erm... discerning... when they were tiddlers.

" Are you having Dessert?" "yes" " Right then no salad"

Said (loudly) by me to DS at Pizza Hut recently.

DH spluttered out laughing.

Fuck knows what the crowded room thought of it.

There was a whole conversation that put this in context.
It wasn't a random rant.

I'm having a salad cream wrap for lunch made with left over turkey dinosaurs - random post.

Why would parents being out with the kids be a treat? Does that mean parents are not seen anywhere with the children unless it's a fun day out? Don't really get that part.

Woman at Ikea sounds crazy though. Who really gives a crap what other people are eating?

My logic was a bit crap, being honest.

I was trying to say that most families probably don't go out together very regularly (if the parents work, you've only really got the weekend for eg) so when families are out together - even if they are only at the supermarket, or Ikea, they are probably more likely to allow things that they wouldn't allow at home, just to make life easier or to make things more fun.

So what you see when you see families eating out together it isn't necessarily a reflection of how they eat the rest of the week.

lol you should seen teh faces when we went out for dinner and ds2 ate chips steak etc(he is 14) but i then ordered a desert for him and it is meant for 2 or 3 people whe i said no just the one spoon .oh and he did eat it all .

Ds2 is build like a whipped and consumes 5000 calories a day to maintain weight but was judged on it .

It could possibly have been a roundabout way of starting up a friendly chat.
Only because the fruit juice thing was on the front page of one of the papers on friday.

I think a 'normal' diet incorporates a little of everything - I find the hysteria over sugar, ect hilarious. For snobby idiots with nowt else to mither about.

Oh was it really Paisley?

Maybe you are right.

It was a bit of an inflamatory way to do it if so though, muttering about teeth and rotting out of skulls while DD tries to open her juice in the queue...

Food is just another thing to judge people about, just tell her bottled water isn't environmentally friendly, doesn't she CARE about the planet etc etc. . I love the home-made organic snack comment! When I hear that sort of comment (and I've got a Steiner friend so I've heard plenty) I just want to offer to knit them a bloody personality. Do what you want, but don't use it to get one over on me . .

I had my judgey pants on the other day in a coffee shop when I saw a mum sat there with a cake and cappuccino while her miserable looking 3ish year old had his own beaker of water and some rice cakes. DD on the other hand had a chocolate cake and a fruit shoot, so I was probably being judged right back! But for us going to a cafe is a bribe to get round the shops without a tantrum big treat that doesn't happen that often.

I had my judgey pants on the other day in a coffee shop when I saw a mum sat there with a cake and cappuccino while her miserable looking 3ish year old had his own beaker of water and some rice cakes. DD on the other hand had a chocolate cake and a fruit shoot, so I was probably being judged right back! But for us going to a cafe is a bribe to get round the shops without a tantrum big treat that doesn't happen that often.

I keep forcing all this shit food down my kids necks while we are out so I can encounter one of these fabled judgy pants but have still yet to find one.

Might just be done with it and let DS walk round town with a can of stella and a Lambert and Butler hanging out of his mouth...

See you're trying too hard!

All you need is juice...

(and a very peculiar woman who presumably had some kind of teeth related issues)

Gosh Lambert & Butler! My kids roll their own!

No idea if you're being unreasonable or not, but IKEA sounds great. Meatballs you say.............

LaWeasel I constantly have to explain my dc's food to others. Their lunchbox generally consists of white bread sandwiches, crisps and (normally homemade) cake. Oh, and some cucumber sticks.

The youngest two have IBS and wholewheat intolerance. Anything 'brown' makes them poo copiously over a two/three hour period leading to broken and bleeding skins on their bums. They get fruit at home but I like to be in control as too much fruit 'skin on' makes them 100% worse.

Fruit juice? Def no orange!

I probably don't 'have' to explain, I just constantly feel judged by the looks I get when they open up their fibreless meals.

My DS1 is really skinny. He can't have dairy as he's lactose intolerant, so he's often eating fruit in a cafe while I tuck into a cake. People think I am a horrible mother all the time, I'm sure. Luckily I don't give a stuff (and nor does he, he loves fruit and he does get plenty of puddings at home).

OTOH I don't really buy into the snapshot thing. MN is not representative of parents as a whole. Most kids in this country eat a lot of crap whether they are at home or elsewhere.

We take our DC out all the time, but yes, trips out or meals out are viewed as a treat by our family, they are expensive after all and not a necessity.

As such the DC are allowed mostly free reign as to what they eat or drink, but I try and discourage them from fizzy drinks and if we go to pizza hut or somewhere with an icecream machine or salad bar, I always try and make sure they only take what they think they can eat, although I don't mind how much that is. I've never noticed anyone judging me for it though, but I wouldn't care if they did.

My friend is extremely strict with what her DC eat. They are never allowed fizzy drinks, not ever. The DC do have limited diets though as they dislike a lot of things and the other day they were having dinner of white pasta mixed with tuna, sweetcorn and mayo with hot dog sausages and a wrap each. I do find that an odd dinner for someone who is so obsessed with their diets and I wonder if maybe she just isn't very knowledgable about food. They also often eat frozen stuff like pizza, nuggets, chips etc.

Oddly, this friend was never, ever allowed fizzy drinks as a child and now drinks the best part of 4L of diet coke every day. She will not drink anything else at all, ever, no water, no tea or coffee, no fruit juice.

feckin rice cakes, i never understood why people made their babies eat those bits of polystyrene. They are utterly foul.

Baby rice evokes a similar response in me Norman.

That's awful midori! Her teeth must be shocking and her gut is probably eaten away by the acid! I also find it odd that there are such ignorant people about - I guess this is another example of me being naive in thinking knowing about food is important and pretty much universal.

But then, I know I am naive!

Norman my DCs love plain rice cakes

But then so do I, now and again. DH is quite open about the fact that we are all freaks because of it.