to keep the expensive stuff for me and let the kids use the normal stuff?

[2kidsintow]

There are few things in life that are reserved for me alone.

However, I buy the DDs the normal bog standard chocolate spread for their weekend breakfast pancake treat and keep the lovely Cadbury stuff for me alone, on a high shelf.

Why wouldn't young children appreciate steak? This is one thing I think the French do right. Even at nursery children get all kinds of quality food that many British would reserve for adults.

And to get away with the sweet treat question, I totally agree with Grennie here. Baffles me that we bring up kids with the cultural expectation that they are not to eat good food.

I actually do think there are some children who don't appreciate good food, just as there are some adults who don't. But I also know some very young children love good food if they are given the opportunity to try different foods out.

Up to you, really. I am very serious about chocolate. I buy great chocolate for the whole family.

But this thread is not about depriving children of "good food"! What kind of Mumsnet mother would do that?!!

It is about the right of parents to act like individuals sometimes - rather than 24/7 self- sacrificing nurturers - and hoard a few harmless treat foods for themselves!

Currently in a cafe. He is having burger and chips while I have just a cheese toastie. He has the better deal here but he doesn't know about what I scoffed while he was at nursery

What he doesn't know wont hurt him

Chundarella you see I read your passive aggressive "some people" and "in some quarters" as your own opinions, thinly veiled. Obviously my mistake.

And I look forward to hearing how it goes when your dc is/are older when you say "no darling, instead of that ice cream, let's skip to the building society and pop that £1 into a savings account. That's MUCH more fun!" Good luck with that!!

Yanbu.

I made the mistake of allowing dd to have all the extra yummy foods and now she is a total food snob and wants all the expensive stuff for packed lunches.
Hot smoked salmon, with horseradish and rocket, pressed apple juice, smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels for breakfast.
Scrambled eggs but only if served with smoked salmon.
Fillet steak, green and blacks chocolate, homemade pesto ect ect she's 10 it does my head in!
But to be honest I only eat nice food too DH and ds will eat whatever.

I understand that few people's budgets stretch to organic ice cream. I think that most people make the best choices for their family that they can afford. I just don't think restricting better (whether that is nicer or healthier) food to adults sends a very positive message to kids.

I agree that giving kids even small quantities of sweet food does do something to establish a taste for sweet food. And you are right that there's no guarantee that the kid will then go on to choose those sweet foods carefully themselves and eat small portions. But it seems a better bet than letting them scarf down tons of cheap sweet stuff, while you have a moderate amount of something carefully chosen/produced.

ELR - Apart from the expense, isn't it a good thing that your DD likes quality food?

Chumderella, but I do not see giving ice cream to a small child as "less than optimum". It is food with good nutritients that can be enjoyed. Just like good cheese, ham, fish, meat or fruit can be. You do realise that there is lots of sugar in fruit right?

You guys have been brainwashed by the "all sugar is evil" cr*p that is spouted about in the UK because the BBC and government etc have decided that obesity is a big health issue

Christ, kids won't get hurt by eating a hamburger, sweets or ice cream. In fact, they may treasure the memories and grow up to be really happy adults, which is the goal afterall. Something that would not happen if they were always given the less premium choice while the adults enjoyed the better option like with my example with fish and chips.

Children have an in-built sense of fairness in them. Being constantly treated unfairly is what causes so many problems

Fucking hell, its ice cream not crack

And btw, our boy loves sweet food because he was exclusively breast fed until 6 months and is still breast fed now. Breast milk is incredibly sweet, maybe you should ban it, in case the children get a taste for sweet things? ;)

I made the mistake of allowing dd to have all the extra yummy foods and now she is a total food snob and wants all the expensive stuff for packed lunches.
Hot smoked salmon, with horseradish and rocket, pressed apple juice, smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels for breakfast

That's so true! DD asked for smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels for her birthday breakfast. Her idea of a treat is a pound of mussels. She is 7 FFS.

I'm 23 amd never had smoked salmon or cream cheese bagels. I'd rather have a dairylea dunker

I was brought up eating very few sweet things. I absolutely love sweet food now. Along with lots of good quality food, including mussels like your DD pavlov.

I cannot wait to see what happens when the parents of the young DCs who avoid chocolate etc and think that children should always have good healthy food so they do not develop poor eating habits do when their DCs grow up and go to secondary school.

In my experience, it doesn't matter if you give then the best organic food and no sugar, if you let them have the occasional treat or if you let them have unlimited junk food.

Once they are given their own money and their own choices and no one to tell them otherwise, in the first term of year 7 when you log into parent pay to see what they had for lunch it will say

Pizza
Double chocolate muffin
Cheese toastie.

And that is it. I stopped checking my ds1 lunch choices after it read that for 10 days straight.

I personally don't get too worked up about it, that's why I simply cannot see what all the drama is over buying a cheaper ice cream.

My ds1 is now 14, 6ft and skinny as a rake due to all the sport he does. If he wants a chocolate muffin, good luck to him.
It could be worse. He could be like his best friend who was never allowed any sugar at all at home.
Now, every single morning on the way to school he buys either a Victoria sponge or a large Swiss roll and eats it walking to the train station.

you have to look after yourself, they aren't going to look after you.
I am sure everyone works very hard to give their children happy, lovely lives and does their very bloody best. In return your children (if they are small) will jump on your bed at 5 am and wipe snot on your hair, will eat / otherwise trash everything they get their hands on. They don't mean to, it's just their way of showing love doesn't include actually having the mental or physical wherewithal to make you comfortable. So unless you have given up all idea of ever being comfortable again, until they are 25 year old people with jobs well paid enough to buy you a lovely bottle of prosecco, and the nous to chill it and serve it to you in a pretty flute on a nice clean armchair in a sunny room, well, till that day it is your job to provide all your own comforts. It isn’t unkind to not let children run riot over your life.

Tantrums I like his thinking

I used to sneak out to sandwich shop and get a sandwich and a brownie. Sometimes just a brownies and cigs

I hid my chocolate from my DH never mind the kids.
I have my little treats and they get their own little treats.

not like your hiding it and not letting them have chocolate spread at all! haha

as mums I think it's important to have things that are 'just ours'
such a the Terry's chocolate orange I have hidden on a top shelf

grennie I don't mind it's great really we go out for lunch together quite a lot. But it can be a little annoying sometimes when especially for packed lunches. One day last week her packed lunch came back untouched apparently the cheese was poor quality!
I had been to the shops and had forgotten my bank card so only had a small amount of cash bought a cheaper cheddar than usual didn't say anything but low and behold she new it wasn't that nice.
If she goes to someone's house for tea it's a nightmare. I have asked her to try to just eat what they offer but it's difficult chicken dippers and frozen veg just isn't her thing!

Of course yanbu!! Are you mistreating them? Are you starving them? No. It's one simple thing that they probably wouldn't appreciate anyway.
Like you say they probably have loads of treats and want for nothing. I think that society these days makes us feel guilty for even the tiniest of indulgence in ourselves. You are not saying that you have my food and their food for anything other than this one product. Don't worry about it, just enjoy the cadburys!!

I hate this idea that children can't/won't appreciate being given good food and as such they shouldn't be fed it. How will they learn to appreciate food then? At what age do they suddenly become old enough to enjoy "adult" food?

YANBU as such but don't think your kids won't notice. When I was growing up if my parents had steak, we had burgers. If they had pork chop, we had sausages.