WIBU to say no to Pepsi for 6yos?

[FatalCabbage]

6th birthday party, high street restaurant. Guests ordering drinks.

My child quietly, while he thinks I'm not listening, orders "coke please". I am listening, and say absolutely not, but nice try. He settles for Fanta.

Another child also politely tries to order coke. I veto that too; he has Fanta too.

It's not the sugar or the fizz (although I know neither of those is good, it is after all a party) but the caffeine. My 6yo hasn't had coke before, as far as I'm aware, and since caffeine sends me absolutely doolally I'm not keen for him to try it either.

Was I unfair? I have previously served coke at 11th birthday parties, ie to 10- and 11yos, but six is sooooo much younger physically.

And if I was unfair, was that to both children or only one, in which case which? I know I was a bit precious but did it matter?

And no, not McDonald's. Knife and fork

San Pellegrino also do beautifully packaged soft drinks.

Mama erm, what a bizarre and confrontational thing to say. Are you usually violent? You know it could be deemed assault to do that?

Bottled water at a birthday party. How miserable. Who'd be a kid these days!

It looks lovely. But it's got 34g of sugar in it!!

YABU! pepsi would be better for the children, and better for the environment, than bottled water.

I love their limonata. Very tart.

Haha kate you can have the fancy pop. I was just trying to emphasise, that for children, that's a lot of sugar. And it looks fancy. But its a lot of sugar given that a woman's rda is 90g.

I'm sure your teeth look

As someone else said, who'd be a kid nowadays? I have fond memories of parties being full on sugar-fests and caffeine for all. Now it's all carrot sticks and water.

YABU

It's a party - a once in a blue moon treat. I agree Thumb - who would be a kid nowadays.

That is true, computer games are definitely better - would prefer my kids looked back on their childhood and remembered parties with chocolate and coke as ours were, rather than a childhood of computer games in front of the screen.

Home computers weren't invented when I was a child. It was pin the tail on the donkey, bind man's buff, musical chairs, oranges and lemons, grandmother's footsteps and pass the parcel at parties.

The party tea would be sandwiches, crisps and cake, and then a little gift to take home - no party bags then. And we loved it.

The children didn't have menus in front of them, because it was a "make your own pizza" affair. I simply hadn't given any thought to the fact that they might choose something I wouldn't allow my own DC. I was caught off guard, really.

The child in question thinks he's an adult, and DS hangs on his every word, so I shouldn't have been surprised. Later on he was quizzing me about the contents of the party bags, with a rather pitying expression. I said brightly that if he didn't like what was on offer he was under no obligation to take one ... and suddenly it was just what he wanted after all. O RLY.

San Pellegrino lemon is beautiful but the sugar level is absolutely unacceptable ::sobs::

As keen as we were on this kind of party, I doubt we will repeat it for some years. The children loved it (saw two sets of parents this morning and had a text from another, and DS says it was "the best party EVER") but the stress of herding so many Other People's Children was significant. When all of ours are older, and when the party guests are all older, great. But yes the toilet trips and noise and car seats...

I'm not convinced I was right or wrong, still, given the balance of YABU and YANBU, but it's genuinely interesting to hear the range of views.

I should really start a new thread asking about caffeine for children: when and in what form?

Milky tea in bottles / coke at parties / diet coke in sippy cups / nothing until adulthood / etc.

Separate discussion from sugar.

DH, helpfully, suggested we give them all espressos just before we dropped them off. I countered with two valium crushed into a jug of Ribena.

Wh

Computer games weren't invented when I was a child either - unless you count this . Computers were great enormous things which required whole rooms to house them - I remember going to see my Dad at work on one, not realising that this was The Future

YANBU. I allow my 11 year old charge to drink coke very very occasionally. The almost 5 year old gets an "absolutely no way!". This applies to all soft drinks.

Luckily for me ds is a supertaster, and would rather nibble his legs off that drink a carbonated drink.

Aged 14 he still only drinks milk, water, maybe a bit of squash.

Though he has started drinking milky tea recently.

I is so a perfect parent.

ds (7) had diet coke with his lunch when we were out today, as did dh and I. DD (10) had a fresh orange with lemonade.

No coke at a party?!?

Ridiculous.