Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

to expect a 10 year old to finish his biscuit?

132 replies

bananatrifle · 13/02/2012 17:07

I don't mind a child trying anything to see if they like it - it's a good thing in my mind as it widens their taste experiences. Anyway, I always give just a small amount of whatever it is (teaspoonful for example) and if they like it then they can have more. If they don't then nothing's lost.

However, surely a 10 year old should finish a small amaretti (spelling?) biscuit, not eat half of it, try to put it back on the plate and then say he was going to put it in the bin as he didn't like it. I can understand that they're not to everyone's liking, but I think it's rude to just not finish what you've started to eat. It's not a very big biscuit, and I think the principle is to just eat something that you've started.

No big deal really, just wondered what anyone else thought?

OP posts:

halcyondays · 13/02/2012 17:16

I love amaretti biscuits so I would have eaten it:o Dh hates them.

aldiwhore · 13/02/2012 17:16

You are bananatrifle

I don't live by the finish what's on your plate principle either. We do self service, a little at a time, if you want more have it, if you try it and don't like it, don't bloody eat it, and if you're full bloody stop.

Why can't you or someone else who likes biscuits eat the half biscuit? Unless your son has mouth fungus it would be silly to start a whole new one.

SoupDragon · 13/02/2012 17:16

Put it in an envelope and send it to the starving children of Africa.

BellaVita · 13/02/2012 17:17

They are vile those biscuits. Why on earth would a child want to finish a hard to bite very strong almond biscuit? Not like it is a chocolate hob nob is it now?

Bloody hell!

JustHecate · 13/02/2012 17:18

he tried it, he didn't like it, he didn't want to eat more of it

In future, break off a 'bite's worth' of something if you don't want to waste half a biscuit. So he can try something without being asked to eat more than a bite if it turns out he doesn't like it.

That said, I agree with manic that there are times when you just have to force something down. However, I don't think you have to do that with your mum

JustHecate · 13/02/2012 17:19

gordan bennett that sounded bitchy "don't want to waste half a biscuit". sorry. It sounded nicer in my head than it reads!

Proudnscary · 13/02/2012 17:19

You are mad

tethersend · 13/02/2012 17:20

He was probably trying to combat childhood obesity.

LaBoccaDellaVerita · 13/02/2012 17:21

There are times when you have to force something down - that is true. At a wedding in Italy some years ago I had no choice at all but to briefly chew and swallow a piece of grilled octopus - suckers and all. I stored it in my throat until that course was finished and then excused myself to the lav where I projectile vommed it, wiped my weeping eyes, straightened my skirts and went back. To a plate of horsemeat.

valiumredhead · 13/02/2012 17:23

Dear God OP those Ameretto biscuits are minute, it's not like he took a bite out of every one in a whole packet!

WorraLiberty · 13/02/2012 17:23

Read's Bocca's post and dies

valiumredhead · 13/02/2012 17:23

I LOVE octopus

FutureNannyOgg · 13/02/2012 17:24

Just seems a waste in my mind as someone else could have eaten it.

If he had eaten it, like you suggest, then no one else could have eaten it either.

I am of the opinion that once you give someone food, it is theirs to do as they will.

toddlerama · 13/02/2012 17:26

I'm going to join some dots here....

1)He's not your son
2)You really really like those biscuits and you're miffed about him not appreciating it but 'wasting' it.

YABU. If he had finished it, you couldn't have it. If you can't have it because he's had a bite out of it, you are no worse off.

LaBoccaDellaVerita · 13/02/2012 17:26

No Valium. No no no. It is just wrong on too many levels. Octopus is NOT meant for eating.

HTH

Distended · 13/02/2012 17:27

Octopus and Horse..What sort of wedding was it?!

Original poster

bananatrifle · 13/02/2012 17:28

I think it's about how I was brought up I suppose, there wasn't much to go round when I was growing up and nothing was wasted.

I suppose I just see it as not very polite to not finish something that's all, and it is a small biscuit, not a huge pile of something awful that he had to wade through, which is why I thought he could just finish it off.

OP posts:

WorraLiberty · 13/02/2012 17:30

Look, I hate almonds with a passion and if someone gave me a tiny little biscuit, I'd try it...discover it tasted vile and leave it.

It's not caviar, it's just a little biscuit that's all.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 13/02/2012 17:31

If I accidentally pick a ginger biscuit from an innocent looking plate of biscuits I find it very hard to finish it, if I was at home or say at my parents I would ask if anyone else wanted it, if I was at a friends I would probably just leave it on the side and maybe say, sorry, didn't realise they were ginger. Provided the 10 year old is polite and doesn't say "yuck that's disgusting" or similar I think they are perfectly entitled to leave it.

RuleBritannia · 13/02/2012 17:32

An Amaretto biscuit is only two half-mouthfuls. What's the fuss? Yes, a 10 year old should finish it.

Original poster

bananatrifle · 13/02/2012 17:32

Thankyou RuleBritannia

OP posts:

toomuchmonthatendofthemoney · 13/02/2012 17:33

The finish everything on your plate mentality is one of the reasons the uk is second in the world for obesity levels. Yes it was relevant in ww2 and post war rationing when most people needed the calories for manual labour or walking 8 miles to school or down t,pit etc etc.

Now it's much more sensible to allow children to keep their natural I'm full / I don't like that / instincts going if we want them to stay a natural healthy weight and enjoy their food, not be forced into eating stuff they don't want or need. setting those patterns leads to destructive relationships with food.

Can't believe I just typed all that in response to a biscuit query. Rant over.

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 13/02/2012 17:33

Oh fgs, I think I've heard it all now......only on MN

I cannot believe you are saying that you expected him to try it, but then regardless of whether he liked it or not, he should have finished it I can't get my head around the logic of that one.....I wouldn't want to try something new in your house op!

CailinDana · 13/02/2012 17:35

I'd much rather a person, adult or child, said "Oh I don't like that," and just leave it rather than force it down. Pretending to like something or forcing yourself to eat something is completely pointless and not polite in the slightest, who cares whether you like something or not? You're allowed to have opinions surely. OP if you had friends over for dinner and you accidentally served something a guest hated would you expect them to choke it down?

Original poster

bananatrifle · 13/02/2012 17:36

That's the funny thing, isn't it? It's such a relatively unimportant topic and a few people have said how odd it is to even write about it and yet it's received loads of responses!!

OP posts:

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6