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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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 . 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 20:48

to add... i don't have a problem with my kids having chips. or fishfingers occasionally (macdonalds is one of the places i know i can get a dairy-free meal for ds2!)... i just don't see the need for it to be the default option for kids.

have it on the menu by all means, just offer some alternatives as well

zukiecat · 17/08/2011 20:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TastyMuffins · 17/08/2011 20:53

Absolutely nothing wrong with chicken nuggets and chips at a wedding, providing it is fast food for the adults too! I hate the idea that kids have different food on their menus, smaller portions would be great and the extra plate option fab too.

Vizzini · 17/08/2011 20:55

Well I'm getting married in a few weeks and we offered the choice of a half portion of the adult meal or the children's menu. Of eleven children, only my DD (17 months old) is having the adult menu. All of the other children chose chicken nuggets, including my 10 and 12 year old nephews. So, often children and parents prefer it.

LolaRennt · 17/08/2011 20:55

thisisyesterday mumsnet does have a certain demographic, you aren't going to get the kind of parents (generally) who are ignorant of what is considered a healthy food option.

If you genuinely don't know anyone who gives their child chicken nuggets (and I know many and worked in many nurseries that serve it) you'll know that healthy isn't the default setting for most parents. The UK doesn't have the highest child obesity rate because the chlidren eat so well.

The "real world" (the majority) are happy to feed their kids quite a lot of crap. Until Jamie Oliver told them to how many parents actually questioned what their children were eating every day at school?

LolaRennt · 17/08/2011 20:56

The UK doesn't have the highest child obesity rate in europe

fruitloafrocks · 17/08/2011 20:59

Trying to find a healthy meal for kids without dairy in it is quite difficult in most places, so for us chips and fish fingers tends to be the safest option (provided the fishfingers aren't coated in 'milk powder' flavouring of course - then it'll just be a bowl of chips for DS. We get lots of 'judgy' looks for that one especially when DP and I have 'healthy' meals, but other than bringing our own food for him, which we used to do when he was very small there aren't many options. Due to his allergies and probably my anxieties around food/feeding when he was small due to these undiagnosed allergies, he has been what others would perceive as being fussy.

Whatever your opinion on what a parent feeds a child at home or out, I think a Children's Menu can be quite useful - a child can order a meal and know exactly what to expect wherever it goes - rather than a chef embellished adult meal with sauces and spices that a child may not be used to and may not like - in our case it makes the experience of eating out a good one rather than a challenge for my son.

samels001 · 17/08/2011 20:59

hi, no time to read all the posts. Just say that the main meal sounds so gorgeous would it be possible for DD to have 1/2 adult portion! Totally agree with you re crap childrens meals. My S always eats proper food and loves it!

DawnTiggaFashionGoddess · 17/08/2011 20:59

YANBU having run a catering business I'd just like to say that we offered small portions for children of the food everyone else was having and we were rarely taken up on it.

NeverUnderstoodThatTiggaxx

youarekidding · 17/08/2011 21:06

YANBU.

We went to a wedding last week, meal was tomato soup, pork green beans, crushed spuds, chocolate fudge cake - all fine dining style.

The DC's could have the soup, then got chicken, roasties, carrots and green beans followed by 2 huge bits of ice cream. This was also served fine dining style. DS scoffed the lot

fluffywhitekittens · 17/08/2011 21:09

there's some salt but I really would hesitate to call this crap
Dd eats lots of these, she also eats lots of fresh veg and fruit. She doesn't like many things when we go out ( which isn't that often). We went to a lovely wedding last week. The main meal was roast beef and children could have that or fish and chips. Dd chose the fish. It was lovely fresh fish, the wedding was on the coast, and thick cut chips. So no not all children's choices are crap as many people seem to be saying.

hephaestus · 17/08/2011 21:09

Rather like Tigga's experience, I work in a pub/restaurant/hotel and not once have I sold a smaller portion of an adult meal for a child despite it being freely offered. We sell about three cheese and tomato pizzas with chips for every one of the other ('healthier' type) kid's meals. A great number of children eat chips or garlic bread only.

The only exception was a very MN type Boden-clad family, in which the DS ate an entire platter of fried whitebait, salad and brown bread and butter with every sign of enjoyment.

youarekidding · 17/08/2011 21:11

And can I say ckicken nuggets and chips don't have to be processed. They are easy to make and are just chicken, breadcrumbs and potato - it's just the packaging may be considered more child friendly.

My DS would prefer it 'roast style' though.

youarekidding · 17/08/2011 21:14

x poats with fluffy. Fish? I'm impressed DS will not entertain the idea of eating it unless its tuna!

I'm glad there's lots of people here in catering/ restaurants who are happy to do child portions. My friend and I always feel like PITA's when our DC's want gammon, lasange etc and we ask for a child's portion.

thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 21:18

fluffy like i said... it depends on the nuggets! they aren't all made of proper chicken and baked in an oven.
ditto other stuff.

Lonnie · 17/08/2011 21:48

We didnt offer a different childrens menu at our weddign 15 years ago. didnt occur to me and I can recall being genuinly surprised at dd1's 1st birthday when her godparents wanted chicken nuggets/fish fingers and chips for their dk's I still now feel they would have done fine with the menu we served.

I just asked 3 of mine age 11 9 and 7 what they would want a roast dinner or chicken nuggets and chips 11 and 9year rold said roast dinner 7 year old went errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr chicken nuggets .... then pausesd and added " but can I have some roast potatoes too??

fluffywhitekittens · 17/08/2011 21:51

I know thisisyesterday, I'm just a bit meh that people seem to equate chicken nuggets and chips as crap.
Youarekidding dd won't eat tuna, although preschool had a lunch club and apparently she ate it there she also doesn't really like pizza or garlic bread but will eat hummus. She's not a great fan of sweetcorn but likes broccoli and parsnip.
Also she takes a verrrry looong time to eat her main course but can inhale pudding :)
Thinks wistfully to pre children Fluffy who was going to make sure her offspring ate the same as the adults with no fussing.....

A1980 · 17/08/2011 22:03

Depends on the establishment.

Places like prezzo have really good children's menu's which are like the adult versions but smaller and not so many bits in them for a younger child. Also becasue a young child may not like alot of the things on offer on an adult menu.

If you have 2 dc's with you, you could always order one adult meal and ask for an extra plate and split it between them. There are ways.

bonkers20 · 17/08/2011 22:07

Went to a poncey pub place the other day and got DS2 chips and fish fingers from the children's menu. It came with NO veggies so I asked for a side dish of whatever veggies they could come up with. They gave him a little ramekin of oven roasted peppers and aubergine .

It also came on a daft wooden chopping board so 1/2 of it ended up on the floor for the dog.

Luckily he'd eaten a massive tub of grapes earlier that I'd brought with me and ate an apple on the way home.

I think some restaurants say that the adult menus have too much salt in the dishes. This I can understand, but I do wish they'd offer nicer dishes to children.

AlpiniAddict · 17/08/2011 22:09

YANBU kids menus can be terrible. Luckily all 4 of my DC don't like chips or nuggets(although they will eat McDonalds ones) so when we eat out they'll either share adult meals or have spag bol if it's on the kids menu,which it seems to be at most places round here.

Smokedsalmonbagel · 17/08/2011 22:26

When we got married 6 years ago a half portion of the adult meal was a lot more expensive than a chicken nuggets/sausages and chips option. So the children all had the something and chips I'm afraid

Also thinking back it seems really daft but at the time I thought that most children would prefer this option. This was before I had my 2 DS and didn't know many young children!

But agree menus out are pretty rubbish. Although DS1 is always happy with tomato pasta.

A1980 · 17/08/2011 22:30

I'm beginning to feel sorry for these evil evil chicken nuggets. Christ what have they done?!

Some of them arent' that bad. The nuggets in McDonald's happy meals have 170 cals and only 1g of saturated fat. They are made only from breast meat and have 1/3 less salt.

When I was a child burgers contained brain and spinal cord hence the BSE crisis, the nuggest in mcdonalds contained chicken that was inedible.

Pret chicken sandwiches that are meant to be healthy have more fat than a Big Mac.

breatheslowly · 17/08/2011 22:44

I think there may also be a perception that children are unable to wait for the adults' meal to be served, so need their special food served instantly. The only wedding that DD has been invited to had the option of half portion or nuggets. We chose the third option of leaving her at home with the GPs .

Hulababy · 17/08/2011 22:47

I agree that children's menus shoudln't be necessary. There should just be flexibility in the proper menus oto have smaller portions of proper meals, or the option to have the starters as mains, or for young children/toddlers to eat from parents plates maybe with extra sides of vegetables.

tigerbear · 17/08/2011 23:08

OP, oddly i was going to start exactly the same type of thread today too!
I've always wondered about this. What I really can't understand though are parents who say their DC will only eat nuggets/burgers/chips/crisps etc and don't like vegetables and other healthy foods. Am I missing something? Just don't give them this shit in the first place!
Why do so many people give their DC crap??

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