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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not see the need for a kids menu?

108 replies

cheeseandmarmitesandwich · 17/08/2011 18:44

Just been told yet again the 'kids menu' at a wedding we're going to in a few weeks will be nuggets and chips Confused. I just don't get it, that will be the 3rd wedding this year where DD is served a plate of fried crap that she won't eat while the parents get a roast dinner. Last time she just scoffed all my roast potatoes! What's wrong with just a kids portion of the normal meal, it's hardly going to be more expensive.

Same goes with pubs etc- why do they assume kids only eat crap?

I am by no means a food purist with the DC, they get plenty of crap treats, even, god forbid, the odd fruit shoot. But I just don't see why they can't eat the same as us, they do at home!

OP posts:
thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 20:20

but Lola, lots of people would "prefer" to eat certain things!

i would LOVE to live on cake and wine forever.

my kids may "prefer" to eat sweets constantly. that doesn't mean they're incapable of eating a normal meal does it?

thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 20:22

" My 18 year old nephew brought a pizza to the dinner where I made about 10,000 different kinds of food. And always eats cold curry (bought from the indian restraunt the day before)on xmas day rather than the lovely food his mum makes. "

see THAT... that is just fucking rude. if I made a lot of food and someone turned iup with their own pizza i would tell them where to go.
i mean why would you even let your child do that? eat shit instead of proper food just because "they prefer it?"

ffs

Taffeta · 17/08/2011 20:22

I love Giraffe. Went there with a group of 7 children recently, and 4 of them ate from the adult menu Hmm. We ordered 2 of the adult mains and they split them. The duck stir fry is sooooooo good Grin

crazycatlady · 17/08/2011 20:22

I always ask for no MSG at Wagamamas too. Does limit the menu options but it's that or feel like my insides have been scalded for 24 hours. It's so annoying as I quite like some of their food...

DoMeDon · 17/08/2011 20:24

lola - so do you still say many DC won't eat normal food? - I know MANY DC and almost all of them eat normal food

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 17/08/2011 20:25

Totally agree with ThisIsYesterday. If the boy has been allowed to do that, it's the parents' fault that he's fussy, for allowing this.

LolaRennt · 17/08/2011 20:26

no not at all thisisyesterday,

I am just saying that if I were to plan a wedding and do a menu etc I would have done the menu just as the bride and groom in the OP did.

If she had put a really lovely meal on their for the children, you can guarentee at least one of the parents would have complained and said my PFB won't eat eat it she wants nuggets.

And for the sake of the odd one shit meal that won't kill a child who has an otherwise healthy diet and having a bit of peace and harmony at your wedding (with no hungry screaming children)do the easy thing and serve the nuggets.

I mean they are still getting complained about by the OP who wasn't impressed that her dc didn't have a nicer meal. So they wern't to win either way

Sirzy · 17/08/2011 20:29

I agree thisisyesterday if someone turned up at a meal I had done with there own food (unless it was with good reason/pre arranged) then I would be telling them to find somewhere else to eat it!!

There is no reason children shouldn't be able to eat things like pasta dishes, shepherds pie, hot pot etc. They could probably all be produced as cheaply as the nuggets and chips but provide a more nutritious option.

thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 20:29

so you'd give shit food to all the kids just in case one was fussy?

rather than give everyone else nice food and let the one fussy one have a sandwich or something?

thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 20:29

i think i live a sheltered life though cos i don't think i actually know anyone who gives their children chicken nuggets anyway

squeakytoy · 17/08/2011 20:30

Not sure that roast potatoes are any more healthy than nuggets actually.. both are cooked in fat.. :)

I also imagine that people expect kids to make more a mess with a roast dinner than they would with what is essentially finger food.

gaaagh · 17/08/2011 20:30

EternalPie i think you'd like one of the local restaurants near us, they actually have a children's menu which is quite good (basically just a cut down version of the adult menu, but with chips added as an option for all dishes, really).

but they also have a Senior Menu - the in laws love it. it's basically somewhere between a half portion and a full one meant for over 60s - often MIL can't handle a full restaurant meal, so she often skips the starter but can handle one of the senior plates and apparently they're just the right size.

i've queried whether I could have a portion similar to hers before and they didn't charge me full price, they let me have it off the senior menu (this was when I was quite ill being pg with DD though, so didn't even end up finishing it, although it was lovely). i don't know if the waitress did it as a one off or if they regularly allow non-over 60s to order from the senior menu.

but it's not something i've seen in a lot of restaurants - defintely a good idea i think.

olibeansmummy · 17/08/2011 20:31

YANBU ds is 2.2 so just has some of my meal, but not sure what we'll do when he's older, as he has quite a mature palette (sp?) and isn't interested in chicken nuggets etc ( but he does live chips!). The trouble is a lot of kids aren't fed the sane as adults so want 'children's' food when out. We once went for a meal with friends at an Italian place. I noticed there was a lovely children's menu ( ds wasn't weaned then) but one man turned to his 9ish year old daughter ( who was quite capable of reading!) and said 'there's chicken nuggets or sausages'. How can she ever learn to enjoy different foods if she's not even introduced to them ( this is the same girl who asked me if pasta is squishy!!)

gaaagh · 17/08/2011 20:31

sorry meant to say, btw, their "senior" menu has always been the FULL adult menu, just with the smaller portion and cheaper cost too. so you get the full range of dishes just like anyone else, which is excellent Smile

fluffywhitekittens · 17/08/2011 20:33

Whispers my dd won't eat shepherds pie, pasta or sausage and mash...

MissMarjoribanks · 17/08/2011 20:34

We always try to order a small portion of something for DS because I'm also not keen on chips, chips or chips with beans (bleugh) or other crap. OK once in a while, not every day on holiday though.

We went to a fabulous pub in a little village just north of Hebden Bridge once. We were going to stop in HB but DS was screaming so we screeched to a halt at this unassuming place. It was a carvery, which I would normally run a mile from but I was impressed. Really fresh veg, massive Yorkshire puds, gorgeous local meat and loads of it.

They also gave DS a small portion for nothing. Yes, nothing. And it wasn't that small. He scoffed the lot.

LolaRennt · 17/08/2011 20:35

thisisyesterday i think i live a sheltered life though cos i don't think i actually know anyone who gives their children chicken nuggets anyway

You do. btw I agree there is no reason why restaurants can't serve normal foods. I just disagree about the married couple serivng what was effectively easy food

fluffywhitekittens · 17/08/2011 20:35

And she would quite happily have chicken nugget type things at every meal...

FakePlasticTrees · 17/08/2011 20:37

when we got married, it was pre-DS and we only knew one couple with DCs. It didn't occur to me to do a children's menu, I just asked for smaller portions for the children, but then when we'd been to their house we'd all sat at the table and had the same meal, I just thought that's what you did. It was only much later when more friends started having DCs I noticed that it seems you're supposed to feed your DCs crap. Hmm (we're using those friends as our example for feeding DS)

fluffywhitekittens · 17/08/2011 20:38

Also would like to point out that chips and roast potatoes are both potato cooked in fat.
And many chicken nuggets are just bits of chicken in breadcrumbs.

StrawberryGateau · 17/08/2011 20:39

The children's menu is also there for another special reason- to be unsuitable for children with allergies! About 50% of the adult menu is normally fine for ds but around 0% of the kids menu.

He's allergic to dairy, soy and fish and this is typical:

fish and chips
buttery mash and sausage
pizza and chips
battered chicken and beans

with any number of things like chilli con carne, chicken and chips, thai curries, tomato pastas, steak and chips, veggie/ vegan options etc on the adult menu.

Any they never vary the meals because the kids meals are pre-packed shit.

PizzaEmpress · 17/08/2011 20:40

...salt and other nasties too though, fluffywhitekittens.

thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 20:43

"serving what is effectively easy food"

easier, surely, to serve up small portions of the meal everyone else is having than cooking something separate?

olibean i came back to make a similar point. by constantly choosing nuggets/sausages/fish fingers and chips for your kids off the kids menu you're basially teaching them that that is what they eat when they're out. it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

LolaRennt talks about real life as opposed to mumsnet... well i live in real life, as do my children. Just because I use mumsnet doesn't mean that my kids magically attain the ability at birth to eat normal food.
they eat what they eat because that's what they've always been fed.

a child regularly fed "kids food" at home will want "kids food" when out. a child who is given normal "adult" at home will not expect shit food when out, they will expect the same as everyone else is having

Pandemoniaa · 17/08/2011 20:45

We were guilty of the occasional "junky" meal when the dcs were small but certainly, they'd have been very pissed off to be offered what now seems to be the classic nuggets/beans/chips option for children. If eating out they wanted proper grub even if in smaller portions.

I've not forgotten how cross ds1 was, when aged 16 but admittedly small for his age, to be served a similarly vile option on a plane. He was all the crosser that ds2 (aged 14 but already over 6 foot) had automatically been served the adult offering. After a terse exchange with the cabin crew who'd assured him that as a child he had to eat the food available to children and confirmation that actually, he was even old enough to have left school, they grudgingly removed the offending nuggetty shit and served him an adult meal.

I do wonder quite when it was that children were assumed not to be capable of eating smaller portions of adult food though. Only when I was a child, you were offered starters or smaller portions from the main menu. If the crap wasn't offered it occurs to me that people wouldn't know that this was what children were presumed to want. (If that makes sense!)

thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 20:46

ahh but fluffy that really depends on the chips. and the nuggets

we once made the mistake of going to harvester, and letting ds1 have fishfingers and chips from the kids menu.

it came out absolutely BURNING hot, clearly just out of the fryer

deep fried chips are NOT the same as roast potatoes. they have a LOT more fat.
now, actually i don't have a huge problem with kids having extra fat, they don't need to be on a low-fat diet at all.
just wanted to make the point that they are not the same as roasties cooked in nice fat

ditto the nuggets. baked chicken in breadcrumbs doens't really compare to mechanically recovered chicken meat that's then formed into "nuggets" and deep fried