Liking olives is NOT a milestone

[MizLizLemon]

Maybe it's just because I live in a naice area, but one of the most frequent boasts I hear, alongside the usual ones about reading levels and musical/sporting abilities, is that someone's DD or DS loves olives, which I frankly find really odd (not the child liking olives, but that it's considered something to boast about). Liking olives isn't a milestone, is it? I'm quite bed at middle class parenting, I'd never even heard of NCT until after I'd given birth, but the olives thing really puzzles me.

(Full disclosure, my DD hates olives and thinks they're the work of the devil).

I think it is more a boast about:

1.Your child not being a fussy eater

2.Your child having sophisticated taste - doubtless they would turn their noses up at baked beans or Quavers or any other non middle class childish food.

3.The parents being very enlightened, because they encourage their children to enjoy a wide variety of food, and naturally give them lots of other culturally enriching experiences.

quavers aren't middle class???

Ive come across parents who boast about what their children eat. My favourite was when a mum at playgroup told me her baby used raw peppers as a teething ring. Who bloody cares!?

I agree. I've noticed a few olive boasters among my acquaintances.

Tell me that the olive was in a martini and I'll be interested!

I am Greek. Lunch almost every day consists of Greek salad complete with olives and feta. My DD's have been eating them from around 9 months. Not boasting just stating a fact.

Ah, dd has loved olives practically since weaning (I think it's because they're saltier tasting than most things she's allowed to eat). Did I tell you about the time we let her try a wasabi pea, aged one? Thought she'd reject it immediately but no, she ate five! Such sophisticated tastes, so adventurous and receptive to new experiences...

(Not sure the wasabi was such a good idea).

It's funny because it suggests the speaker considers olives to be some sort of exotic food and mark of sophistication. Though I think it's more about emphasising how naturally a wide range of foods and experiences are offered in their home and how receptive their child is, as they haven't numbed little Tarquin's taste buds with the salt, sugar and fat of crisps, fruit shoots and Gregg's sausage rolls (and they'd just like to make that really, really clear).

My husband is Portuguese, I like olives also. We have them for most meals but everyone does in Portugal, they are by no means middle class. My DS however does not like them at least yet ( he is only 5). He does try them though, he gives them a suck and then puts them back which is a bit yeuch!

i like real, fresh olives that taste of sunshine, the cheap nasty ones in jars are vile. my ds hates them bur maybe you grow to like as you get older

People used to remark that my now 15 yo liked olives as a small child. Less so with the no 5 yo.

I also wondered why this was seen as remarkable, and came to the conclusion it was because olives were not around when we were small children and were regarded as somewhat exotic. I can't remember having my first olive, but we certainly didn't have them at home when I was growing up (Norfolk 70s and 80s).

I think our generation and the one above thought a young child eating an olive had rather refined tastes.

Haha, I totally know what you mean. DS1 & 2 went to a very MC kindergarten. The things parents all signed up to bring for the end of term party were ridiculous. It was like they were trying to outdo each other in terms of middle-class party foods. Olives, tzatziki and houmous with crudites, couscous etc. Not a party ring in sight I am only slightly envious that my children won't eat any of the above despite my best efforts, and would rather have a happy meal any day

its just an 'adult' type food, or a bit 'love it or loathe it'
i put it on a par with liking marmite

my kids have all loved olives. other people seemed to find it very funny.

One of my almost-3 ID DTDs loves olives, the other hates them! They both love Serrano ham though (I have to eat it in secret now!! )

They both love Quavers

Ds (15m) kept asking for them yesterday in pizza express and taking a bite, spitting them out and looking at them disgustedly. Think he thought they were grapes gone wrong.
He tried to give a passing waitress a chewed up one, think he was sending them back

I've never heard of that- odd? I didn't like Olives until I was in my early twenties, taste buds changed over time I guess

Mine have loved olives for ages because they are (quite literally) pickled in SALT. I refuse to consider "likes salt now" to be a milestone.

I think it just betrays the speakers own (as most of ours), parochial, un-cosmopolitan upbringings really. Olive and avocados were a bit special when we were children, not so much now.

A suitable answer might therefore be 'oh? Well of course we were rather a bohemian family, exploring the Med from one country to another throughout my childhood - my father was an archaeologist you see and mother a keen botanical artist - so I suppose we just take olives for granted. How are yours on Japanese food? Such a fascinating food heritage and we're really enjoying revisiting Persian cuisine at the moment.'

Where is the best place to buy olives? I do love them but often when I buy them I'm so disappointed as they're such sad little dry things. I like the big juicy, lustrous ones with the stones still in them.

Kind regards,
Squoosh (age 2)

It could all be for show really. Elderflower cordial lifestyle on Fruitshoot wages.

I hate them.

3yo DTs love them. We were at a party at the weekend and all the older grannies and granddads were saying 'wow, they like olives, that's amazing. Had never occurred to me to think anything of it, they just like eating things that are for 'when you're bigger'.

Squoosh Waitrose of course!

Yes Waitrose! Silly me.

Oh dear I'm nearly 50 and I've yet to gain this milestone.

I never ate a mushroom til I was in my 20s though...grew up in the back of beyond eating stuff that came from Spar and Bejam. Or grew in the garden.

My children have don't yet like Findus crispy pancakes, battenberg cake (shop stuff, natch) or fondant fancies. Iam despairing...these are the milestones of my childhood cuisine wise.

However they do like milky tea with sugar, camp coffee, wagon wheels and pot noodle so I'm doing something right.

I'm 37, and remember having olives, antipasti and salami at my sixth birthday party, but that would be because my dad is Italian. And this was at a working-class birthday party, too :D

Incidentally, my three-year-old loves olives, and most other naice food, but I'm only feeding him in the manner in which I was raised.

I thought I was advanced when I finally started to like olives aged 28.