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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be slightly irked that nursery menu is very different to reality

31 replies

pleasethanks · 31/01/2012 19:46

At my DD's nursery they provide a 8 week menu, in advance, setting out what they will be having for lunch and snack. I 100% appreciate that there will be some differences to the advance menu provided but over the past 5 weeks (she goes 3 times a week) only 1 meal has been the same as 'advertised'. I have made sure I have the right menu.

AIBU to be little annoyed about this? I just find it irritating that I make her meals and then get her from nursery and find out she has had something similar that day for lunch.

OP posts:
ChocolateBiscuitCake · 31/01/2012 19:49

yanbu

StealthPenguin · 31/01/2012 19:53

YADNBU

TiggyD · 31/01/2012 19:56

YANBU.

Sounds a bit like a nursery I used to work in in North Hampshire. 8 week menus are a bit silly. How can a cook really get the hang of 40 different recipes? And only doing them 2 months apart?

Are the meals still good, or have they substituted meals for cheap food?

NatashaBee · 31/01/2012 19:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Oggy · 31/01/2012 20:08

You are not really being unreasonable I suppose, but as someone who does have accurate menus and still manages to accidentally feed the children what they had for lunch for their tea I am just pleased if they eat both meals heartilly, even if it is the same thing twice in a day.

Original poster
pleasethanks · 31/01/2012 20:09

The meals are still good but not as varied as the planned menu would suggest. And yoghurt is served far more frequently for pud then the menu states. Food still seems decent though. But, it does annoy me. I think I will mention it as it does make it difficult for me planning. I think I may also mention that angel delight does not appear anywhere on the menu but I know she has had it!

OP posts:
NannyR · 31/01/2012 20:09

I once worked in a nursery where the meals were absolutely awful. The menu would say "fresh cheese and veggie pasta bake" , the actual meal was a bag of netto pasta cooked and mixed with a bag of, what I call school dinner veg, the frozen stuff all chopped into little cubes, topped with grated cheddar they used to buy in a huge tub from the cash and carry and grilled. I suppose they got away with calling it fresh because it was freshly assembled, not because the ingredients were in any way fresh.
Tea, for the 2-5's room was three quarter sandwiches each, one with jam, one with heinz sandwich spread and one with fish paste, quarter of a banana and two slices of apple.
Some kids were there 8-6 and their parents thought they were getting properly fed, and probably put to bed without anything else to eat.

WipsGlitter · 31/01/2012 20:15

YABU. If it's still healthy then what's the problem? It's not going to kill her eating the same thing twice in one day. You need to get out more.

Original poster
pleasethanks · 31/01/2012 20:17

Oh NannyR don't tell me things like that! I was only asking about the menu being different. My DD gets her dinner at home. But I don't actually worry about whether she gets enough there. And they give me a note in her daily book of what she ate.

OP posts:
Original poster
pleasethanks · 31/01/2012 20:19

WipsG I didn't say it was going to kill her. I just find it annoying that I spend time planning and making her meals, trying to give her a varied diet, and find out that she can, for example, be getting pasta carbonara twice in one day. I certainly wouldn't like that if I were her! And given I try and watch her salt intake, it can be irritating if she has had something saltier for lunch when perhaps the dinner I had planned was salty.

OP posts:
smoggii · 31/01/2012 20:19

YABU if the meals are still good quality i woud take the advance menu as a guide.

Does it matter if child has had something 'similar' for lunch as long as it's all healthy good stuff?

PomBearAtTheGatesOfDoom · 31/01/2012 20:20

I once worked in an old people's home where they wrote the days menu on a blackboard for the visitors to see. Every four days or so it said "home made soup" - sure it was - straight from a big 5kg sack of powder mix labelled "home made soup" Confused and "fresh salad with home baked bread" was two tinned tomatoes on a slice of toast...

EverythingsNotRosie · 31/01/2012 20:24

I think you need to chill a bit. DD's nursery does not publish menus and the food is very school dinner veg based. But she is happy and they love her and cuddle her. Whether or not she eats baked beans twice a day matters very little to me in comparison to that. And they have cake and angel delight and roly poly with custard and DD loves it!

EverythingsNotRosie · 31/01/2012 20:25

I don't mean twice a day every day, obviously! Just every now and then!

WipsGlitter · 31/01/2012 20:30

If she's getting a proper lunch do you need to give her a big dinner too? Why are you worrying about salt? You shouldn't add any salt to food you are giving a child.

thepeoplesprincess · 31/01/2012 20:31

YANBU. It's just annoying generally, shirley? Poor organization.

purepurple · 31/01/2012 20:35

Does it really matter?
Could you not just ask in the morning what the lunch is and then cook her something different for tea?
I wouldn't really be that bothered if she was eating the same thing twice in one day, it's all food.

nancy75 · 31/01/2012 20:36

yanbu - dd used to have school lunch which was done in 8 week cycles much like your nursery. She came home one afternoon covered in a really bad rash (she was not quite 5 at the time) I paniced and took her to the gp who said it was probably a reaction to a food she had eaten. When i spoke to her about lunch that day her description of what she had eaten was nothing like what the menu said so i had no idea what she had eaten and what had caused the reaction.

Beamur · 31/01/2012 20:43

DD's nursery published a menu and pretty much kept to it - the food there was one of the big selling points, it was really good - freshly made, the kitchen had a big open hatch so parents could look in and see the food being prepared, healthy and always smelt appetising. I think I would ask why the food being served up is so different to the menus published.

Original poster
pleasethanks · 31/01/2012 20:48

But the point is that they 'advertise' that they are providing x, y and z and then they don't. If I ask in the morning what they are having that day, they look at the same menu list I have and tell me what is on it. Why even bother having the menu plan given to parents if you don't follow it. It is all about expectations isn't it? If they didn't blinking provide the menu in advance I wouldn't be bothered, but they do....

And WipsG I am perfectly aware that you aren't meant to add salt to their food, but if I was planning to give her something in cheese sauce for dinner, I would be a little annoyed for her to have had something similar for lunch as cheese is higher in salt than many foods. Just because you don't add the salt to the food directly, doesn't mean somethings aren't salty. True?

OP posts:
midoriway · 31/01/2012 20:57

YANBU, I would be really annoyed. I chose DD's nursary on the strength of the kitchen and the menu. It was a mostly afro carribean nursary, and the menu was a delight, rice and beans, jerk chicken, plantain, mashed yams, lentils, curried goat, all cooked from scratch. Good food was a cornerstone of the nursery, and the menu was like gospel.

WipsGlitter · 31/01/2012 20:57

What time do you pick her up? I collect my children about five, am told what they have for lunch then go home and start making dinner. If they had spag bol for lunch for example, there would still be time to decide to make something else. Maybe you need to plan less and go with the flow more?

Original poster
pleasethanks · 31/01/2012 21:03

Afraid there isn't really time to start from scratch on nursery days as we don't get in till near 5 and she is a rather slow eater, so really need her to be eating by back to 5 to get her all ready and in bed for 7 (she is only 18 months). And after a long day at work I something can't be faffed thinking about what to make and cooking it from scratch, hence the planning and prep in advance (which I stupidly presumed the menu was there to help with!).

OP posts:
WipsGlitter · 31/01/2012 21:09

So when do you do the prep? I'm in the same situation only with two children. I meal plan as per mumsnet rules (!) but it is all stuff that can be made quickly.

FutureNannyOgg · 31/01/2012 21:13

I'd be worried if it was vastly different in quality. One of the things I like about nursery is he gets "proper" food, so if after a day working I decide we are having pizza for tea, I know he hasn't had nothing but junk all day.
I wouldn't worry so much about similar meals, if he liked it once he'd eat it again!