to think that thanking your own organic juice to give to your child at a party because you disapprove of the squash provided by the hosts us just rude?

[OhBuggerandArse]

Obviously I don't think I'm being unreasonable and would really just like you all to join me in my disgruntled ire. But go on, give it a shot at putting the other side of the story. No behavioural issues involved, if anyone was wondering whether that might be a possible tactic.

I've never had one artifical additive in any of the food I handed out at parties and no one was left feeling they had less of a treat...

Some foods are nasty...can't think of any other way to describe them, there is such a thing as a bad food - I don't what the mantra says. And the food I serve isn't boring - far from it, don't automatically associate someone who wishes to remove cheap additives from their child's diet as someone who wishes to remove flavour - we don't all belong in the same box.

I don't. Make assumptions about flavour, I mean. But what is a party without party rings and jelly?

I never said there was anything wrong with jelly or party rings - I'd just choose a brand with free from artificial additives and hydrogenated fats. Party rings are boggin' though - why on earth do kids like them?

Some foods are nasty - macrobiotic brown rice is one of them!
As long as you and your children eat a balanced diet on the whole, what on earth is wrong with party treats?
Party rings? It's all about the colour. Plus they're sweet. Have you met any kids ever?

Exotic I would have welcomed seaweed in this meal - it was entirely based on brown components. Surely it's wrong for food to be all brown? Seaweed would have at least injected some much needed salt...

and no alcohol at a dinner party is beyond the pale!
was it in a monastery?

Party rings colour all natural too!

Oh, OP you are blessed To witness such PFBness

I'm really surprised anyone would buy squash. It is so unhealthy! I have never had a bottle in the house and really hate the idea of children ingesting artificial sweeteners. For the same reason I would never drink diet coke or anything like that.

I fookin' love Party Rings.

Crisps are even better than Party Rings.

I am, incidentally, a health journalist.

It is possible to get squash with sugar instead of artificial sweeteners. And not at all difficult to make your own.

"I'm really surprised anyone would buy squash. It is so unhealthy! I have never had a bottle in the house and really hate the idea of children ingesting artificial sweeteners. For the same reason I would never drink diet coke or anything like that."

ChristinaF Are you for real, or are you always that smug? (Although I agree with you on artifical sweeteners - they are the food of the devil).

seasonsGripings You might be surprised to know that although Party Rings look like they contain all sorts of nasties they don't - no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. I don't particularly like them but they go down a bomb at children's parties.

I prefer to offer home made and home baked food at parties. DD was the only child in her class that didn't have the obligatory revolting Barbie/Scooby Doo/Disney themed supermarket cake at her parties, but always a home made one (usually chocolate). I offered squash and water. Only one child preferred water though.

I still take the view that, as DD goes to very few parties these days, it doesn't matter what she eats and drinks there.

Am staggered that this thread has carried on for so long.

One thing I'd like to know, from the pro bringing-your-own-juice-for-your-kid brigade, is this: what do you make of the fact that so many of us think your attitude (& in some case actions) is incredibly unpleasant and offensive?

Does it not bother you? Does it make you question your point of view at all? Or does 'no squash for my kid' trump all other concerns?

Frankly, I find the thought process mystifying as well as disheartening, but I'd like at least to have my suspicions confirmed.

Bunbaker I did say earlier I had no problem with party rings as long as they were free from artificial additives and hydrogenated fats - like many things, some will be, some won't, depends where you buy them. They all taste horrid though compared to my lovely buttery homemade shortbread with icing.

While supermarkets like Asda own brand and M&S (maybe Sainsbury's) promise not to add artificial colours or flavourings to food - they still add artificial preservatives and sweeteners and from memory when my dcs were small it was very hard to get a squash that didn't contain one of these - organic squashes were the exception.

Kid's food has been cleaned up quite a bit since my dcs were small and it was then I was most concerned with all the artificial e numbers. Some of the additives we allow to be used in the UK have been banned in lots of other countries, it's not completely unreasonable to play the cautious card with your very small children and aviod these nasty food additives even for a party.

don't automatically associate someone who wishes to remove cheap additives from their child's diet as someone who wishes to remove flavour -

Of course we all want to remove cheap additives, I cook from scratch and it is very healthy and full of flavour. I don't however get all sanctimonious about party food like crisps, iced biscuits and squash. You can't brand all squash the same and I think it is certainly better to have weak, higher quality squash, which is nearly all water,than tipping juice down them all day with the idea that it is healthy.
Even the seaweed came out brown, and wasn't salty, GreyGardens-you are quite right that food shouldn't be brown and this was. I have had delicious vegan food but this particular meal managed to be heavy, brown and utterly flavourless. It must have taken some doing to get that effect but they were proud of their 'healthy lifestyle'.

Does it not bother you? Does it make you question your point of view at all? Or does 'no squash for my kid' trump all other concerns?

No one has answered so , from the ones that I know, I would say - no, no and yes.

And funnily enough I find the ones with the -no,no, yes -end up with DCs with an unhealthy attitude to food.

I am thinking about something here...

Many parents will not allow their precious darlings to have sugar because it makes them "hyperactive".

To me, that means a bit of sugar is doing what nature intended it to do, and giving the kid some energy.

That is why, 35 or so years ago, kids set off to school after a nicely sugar laden bowl of cereal. They walked (yes!!!! walked!!!!) to school and were awake and alert at their desks..

By lunchtime the sugar had worn off a bit, they were getting tired.. so they had a lovely stodgy dinner in the school canteen, with an equally stodgy pudding.. and then ran around the playground until the bell went.

At the end of the school day, the kids piled into the sweet shop and raided the penny tray for shrimps, mice, and chocolate spanners.... and then (shock horror!) went out to play again... more running around.

So my theory is, nowadays, in this immobile generation that we have produced, who get a lift to school, nibble on a bit of mushroom hummous at lunchtime, then get picked up and go to play on their DS once they get home... their parents dont want them to have any sugar, just in case the little buggers actually want to move around.. (and if they happen to lapse and their offspring get some sugar down their neck and become a bit lively, we hear the cries of "oooh but he is hyperactive"...)

Thats all. :)

Nothing wrong with natural sugar - it occurs in varying proportions in most of the foods we eat including fruit and veg... was anyone complaining about sugar?

There seemed to be plenty of people advocating their banning of any drink other than water...

If I was to change career and train for something else I would go into nutrition because it seems an area where people are utterly clueless. They seem to equate a healthy diet for a DC with a diet for a overweight woman who wants to slim.
On the one hand you get those who freak out with sweets or cake and on the other those who are filling them with junk everyday and nothing much inbetween-(not to mention the idea that organic fruit juice is a healthy option).

Goodness knows what these people are going to do when the DC spends time away from home, has pocket money and goes to teenage parties! (I think at the latter they will be overjoyed if they are merely drinking squash!)

Surely it's wrong for food to be all brown?

Oh I dunno.... chocolate anyone?

Goodness knows what these people are going to do when the DC spends time away from home, has pocket money and goes to teenage parties! (I think at the latter they will be overjoyed if they are merely drinking squash!)

Damn right, although if i remember correctly I did used to make up a bottle of squash before I went to certain teenage parties, into which I'd decant an inch from every bottle of spirits in the drinks cabinet. A Tia Maria, Archers and Gin Ki-ora cocktail. yum yum.

I'm currently imagining a lifestyle journo, depressed at having nothing to write about for her weekend column, chancing upon this thread and squealing with delight

"The politics of party rings"