to be shocked by the way this family eats?

[lotney]

A friend told me about a woman she knows who has 3 year old twins and a 2 year old. Her husband works away for long periods of time. She doesn't cook while he's away - the children eat freezer food like fish fingers, chicken nuggets etc and she has ready meals. When he's home he cooks, but when he's away they just eat things from the oven for convenience.

I can't begin to imagine what life is like with 3 under 3 but surely preparing fresh food at least occasionally is important for nutrition and learning about food? I find it really odd and a bit sad.

So does she give them the nuggets straight out of the freezer? If not then OP that is cooking.

Maybe not to your high judgy standards but it's still cooking.
But don't let that stop you.

"Have you considered that those things are the only things her children will eat?"

What bollocks. Kids get used to eating what you give them. Mine are often difficult about eating but eat all sorts as we keep offering it, yesterday they ate large chunks of aubergine in a pasta sauce though they turned their nose up at it before. Just keep trying!

Most of the attitudes here are really stupid.

That the OP is "stuck up" for finding it sad that a mother is raising her kids on ready meals. Pathetic.

And it is MUCH cheaper to cook from scratch than to buy ready meals so don't give me that. Nobody said you have top buy organic.

Spaghetti bolognaise
Fishfingers, chips and peas
Salmon or chicken in a tomato pasta sauce with spaghetti
Chicken fingers with supernoodles
Fishfingers, jacket potatoes and broccoli
Toast with cheese, ham and sliced cucumber
Cheese and ham toasties
Pepperoni pizza

These are the only meals my children will eat they eat them on a kind of rotation, my shopping trolley looks the same every week. I have sweated blood and tears to extend their diet to no avail. I wonder what you make of me OP?

Mind your beeswax.

I thought FishFingers were all packed with omega 3 now anyway + 100% cod or whatever fish is in it?

OP has already said she was BU from reading our comments anyway...

Three year old twins and a 2 year old, on her own, regularly?

Look, it is not just a matter of slinging stuff in the oven. Children do not go Somewhere Else, while you are cooking, and peeling tomatoes and doing things involving avec.

When I am making dinner without another parent in the house, this is how it could go with my similarly-aged twins:

1. Start doing fancy thing, and set kitchen timer.

2. Hear wail in next room, and run to source. Twin 2 gave twin 1 a hug. Twin 1 didn't want a hug. Console both twins over this.

3. Proceed to next step in cooking. Start peeling veg.

4. Hear pitter-patter of feet. Twin 1 is waving an empty cup at me.

5. Refill cup.

6. Twins appear again, and indicate they want to show me something. It appears that Twin 2 took his/herself to the potty, and then twin 1 tipped it over by accident. (This one hasn't happened since last year, thank goodness)

7. Clear up mess.

8. Return to kitchen. Oooh, look, everything is out of schedule, and will be ready at different times. Great. Now, if I'd just stuck burgers in the oven, we could have sat reading stories, before I then quickly boiled vegetables-from-frozen to go with it at the end. Which we could then eat it in five minutes.

9. Try to salvage what I can over the next 20 minutes. Meanwhile twins become increasingly short-tempered due to hunger, combined with lack of parental attention, because mummy is in the kitchen doing that salvaging thing.

10. Eat dinner.

11. Find time to wash up. During this time, yet again, children fail to Go Somewhere Else. Washing up takes longer than usual, because one of the saucepans boiled dry, and has stuff stuck to the bottom of it.

Your friend has twins plus another toddler. I bet it's more difficult for her. Oh, and I have some of the easiest, nicest twins ever. I Seriously. If they were shirts, they'd be labeled: easy-care, no-iron.

Correction: Oh, and I have some of the easiest, nicest children ever. Seriously. If they were shirts, they'd be labeled: easy-care, no-iron.

I didn't mean to imply twins were different species, or something!

Mine had shop bought pizza & shop bought garlic bread last night.

Calls social services.

"There's no protein in pasta and tomato"

apart from wheat protein of course.

Hands up who spent all of their childhood eating a diet like that!

mine had half a tin each of Heinz ravioli on white toast for lunch yesterday - loved it!

Can't won't cook from scratch EVERY day, but we do use frozen veg a lot (retains vitamins) , and cook up our own "ready meals" for the freezer a lot - had shepherd's pie yesterday that I made last week - it was a reay meal yesterday - but I cooked it (and another we ate) from scratch before.... maybe her hubby batch cooks, maybe the nuggets were homemade, maybe - I don't really care....

I love you for doing that joke LineRunner.

Why is ready meals and frozen food deemed to be soooo expensive? I dont think it is. You can buy so many meals for a fiver and frozen things aren't that expensive. £1 a box.

That must some wedgie you're sporting OP.

From one who has "another species" but has known nothing else, twins are not any harder. They eat everything going but we cook from scratch and enjoy it. Not everyone can do it or likes doing it. Our trick is to batch cook so we have tons if home made things in the freezer.

marianne cheaper than ready meals, but not cheaper than all food out of the freezer eg fish fingers, frozen peas, frozen green beans etc.

If wanting to feed my family 7 days a week rather than just 1 day a week makes me stupid then I am stupid, VERY stupid.

Tell you what marianne why don't you call the Ss and save my DDs the indignity of being fed frozen peas. Just think of the malnutrition . I can't afford a non-organic chicken so why don't we add that to my crimes along with finding it difficult doing things one handed.

I've been called stupid so many times it is really getting on my nerves now.

£1 is expensive when you are used to skipping meals to feed your DC.

you are posting about a woman ypur friend knows ok then.
I actually know somebody who had a twins and a 18 month old , and when you are looking after little children that young i guess you shouldnt judge what they eat , I think you are either have no life of your own or just after a fight cos you are bored

It's really hard with young children at your feet to try and cook every night from scratch. I'm lucky I do all the cooking, and most nights cook from scratch but DH does the dishes and cleans the kitchen but if he wasn't around a lot and I had to do everything then i'd rely more frozen foods/meals.

Jessie - apologies, I'm reading on phone and didn't see you saying you have twins. My two are also dead easy. Makes a lovely change to hear someone else say it too.

Surely fish fingers and frozen veg is better, nutritionally speaking, than pasta and tomato?

Pasta is 'ready food' anyway isn't it if you use the dried variety?

I love that the op took on board what people havesaid and decided se wbu. But now the perfect mother brigade have turned up to stealth boast.

Well my dc's had ate squid lightly infused in cabbage juice with a selection of Waitrose exotic vegetable that taste like earwax after I rammed it down their throats with a broom handle

A personal anecdote that your child is compliant enough to eat an eggplant does not mean every other child will.

Frozen does not equal bad.

It is often cheaper to bulk buy meat or fish frozen, certainly frozen veg is good value and nutritious, leftovers and batch cooking can be frozen.

There is plenty of junk food that is sold as 'fresh'.