To insist visiting children eat their sausages?

[gruffalosmile]

Have two of DD's friends over this afternoon, their Mum is working tonight so I have done them tea, they asked for sausages chips and beans which I provided (early tea as they are being picked up soon). One got down from the table without asking, the other is still there but neither ate their (good quality) sausages. They cost me 3 quid, I am a bit cross. I have asked them to come back to the table and eat their sausages (I won't insist they eat all of them, I just want a token effort). They looked at me like I was some sort of harridan. AIBU??

Cannot believe the comments on here! They ASKED for sausages which you kindly provided. You did not ask for or expect clean plates. Having asked for sausages, the least the little fuckers could have done is have the courtesy to attempt to eat some of the meal which THEY asked for!

Cannot believe the comments on here! They ASKED for sausages which you kindly provided. The least the little bastards could do was eat some of the food which asked for. Words fail me - if they didn't want sausages why the duck did they ask for them? If my children had behaved like this at another child's home I would have been mortified!

But they did eat!!!!

Sorry got posted twice.

They probably forgot themselves, you know what kids are like. You asked them to come back and they did. No biggie.

YADNBU OP

So rude of them not to try the food that they requested. I'm baffled by many of the comments here, you didn't want them to lick the plates clean, just try the food.

Are good manners out of vogue? It would seem so.

Good manners seem to have been lost. Apparently it's ok for your children to request something to eat then refuse to eat it and that's fine, they're just being children. NO - they are being I'll mannered and disrespectful to the person who has taken the time, trouble and expense to provide your precious darlings with a home cooked meal.

Why bother teaching children manners? It would be better to send them to eat (or not)with all the posters who dont care what kids do. FFS let them do what they like and enjoy the sausages yourself - or give them to the dog. With any luck they'll go home starving and whine to their mother. YANBU!

I've given up trying to feed DDs friend.

She'll ask for a jam sandwich and then leave it because the bread is funny or the jam has lumps. She eats Frubes - but only the Moshi Monsters ones. The only fruit she eats is grapes, but mine were 'too hard'

She'll eat chicken nuggets (must be bread crumbs not batter), but not chicken, chicken strips or a chicken burger. Smiley faces but not potato, mash or hash browns - and she likes fries better than chips (although I did have to lie to her when I made oven chips because I just knew she'd then say she didn't like them)

DD wanted to invite her to our caravan this year, but I've had to say no as I think I'd have a breakdown about starving her. DD was upset, but I can't cope with that longer than a day.

If my children have their friends over and want to stay to eat I tell them what we are having and if they don't want to eat it then they go home before supper. When their friends were very small then I'd ask their parents what they liked and aim to serve that, but I'm well past the days of pandering to fussy kids. We still regularly have friends over so our food obviously isn't that bad!

I gently encourage my own children to try evey part of their meal. However, with visiting children, I don't. They can eat as much or as little as they like.

Only on MN would the OP be unreasonable expecting basic table manners and for the food REQUESTED to be at least tasted.

No wonder it's a nightmare having DCs friends for tea, and unrelaxing eating out in restaurants. I would be mortified if my DCs went to a friends house, requested a certain dinner, and then refused to try it. And my DCs are younger than 10!

You obviously had very different upbringing from me, as (similar to a pp) those sausages would have been a large part of my DMs food budget, and wasting without even tasting would have been unfair and unacceptable. And rightly so.

I think its a difficult one. If it was one of mine they would get nothing else till morning but I wouldn't feel that I could do that with someone else's child. I would probably not make a big deal of it but if I had to feed them again ask mum what she wants me to do.

If they haven't been touched tho you can just whack them in the fridge surely if the waste worries you that much?

I wouldn't force therm to eat, of course not. But would expect them to stay at the table and have a taste of them.

YADNBU.

I had a friends daughter round last week and she requested a cheese sandwich at lunch and said she 'loved them'. She then proceeded to eat her cucumber and tomatoes and said she was finished. She may only be 5, but I am not making something that a child has asked for to be told she now doesn't want it. She then asked for a jelly!

She was told she had to eat some of the sandwich before she got the jelly, as she requested a cheese sandwich. She pulled a face and sulked for a moment, but quickly realised I was serious and ate half the sandwich.