To be fed up of hearing "oh my kids won't eat anything like that, I don't know how you do it"I

[Emillee1]

Basically i feed my kids a healthy diet (why wouldn't I?.....) and lately when I've had my neices round for lunch/dinner they've refused to eat what's on offer. When my SiL has turned up to collect them she told me that no wonder her kids wouldn't eat what i'd made as it wasn't typical "kiddy" food and that she's very surprised that I could "make" my children eat it.

Well to be fair her kids have existed on junk food since they were old enough to chew, and I can remember how on occasion my niece would be sat in her pram holding a burger dripping in fat, wrapped in a napkin happily chomping away and the tray in her pram was covered in chips!

Anyway this has happened a couple of times now and I'm getting rather annoyed with it. She asks me to mind her kids, which I'm happy to do but if they don't like what I've made for tea then it's tough, so why am I made to feel guilty? Without meaning to come across as one of THOSE mothers, my children's diet is very important to me. I was an overweight child and i'm still a stone or so overweight now as an adult and I put that down to the fact that as a child myself I was allowed to gorge myself on crap, my parents didn't know where the oven was and my meals were ready meals and convieinience foods, and I didn't want that for my kids. They get their "treats" an overall have a balance diet but I'm looked down on by my so called family for not serving up chicken nuggets and chips every night, so AIBU to feel a little pi**ed off?

You obv have issues with food that you are projecting onto your children and others.
Feed your DC what you like, but don't expect others to like what you serve 100% of the time.

My child loves chicken nuggets, as do all babies. My husband just dredges regular chicken in flour and fries it in canola oil, which is much healthier than the processed stuff.

There are healthy alternatives to "junk food".

Next time get some potatoes, cut them up and make your own chips. Get some lean hamburg meat and make them some hamburgers. Not every healthy meal has to be salmon on a bed of kale with a side of pita bread.

Our kid eats healthy too. I do have family that feeds their kids junk food and their kids are overweight. I cringe a bit, but she loves them and I know that I'm making my own child dysfunctional in other ways.

My DC had a quinoa and pumpkin salad with chia and flax seeds for lunch. And KFC for dinner.

I'm very conflicted

No idea what my sister fed her DC though

You are lucky to have kids who are not fussy. My DD2 is 17 and still wouldn't eat salmon or corn or jacket potatoes or tuna. DD1 wouldn't eat pulled pork and she is 23! Why don't you make them heathy versions of chicken nuggets with wedges. It is better to do that than come and be horrible on here.

(Oh and good luck making your teens eat healthily btw! :))

True stilllearnin the what's for dinner threads are usually eye openers, and sometimes helpful suggestions when you're stuck in a rut.

Hmm, not sure about this. When my dc were little I deliberately fed them a varied diet, so they would grow up to not be fussy eaters. Yet I still have a teenager who looks at vegetables like they are made of arsenic and I still often end up cooking 3 different dinners because it's rare that they will all eat the same thing.

I'm not sure where I went wrong. So, while some of this may be your sister's fault for not giving a variety of food to her dc, equally it may not. Of my kids, I have a mix of fussy and not fussy, yet they were all raised the same way.

Sorry if I come across as bitchy, I didn't mean to, I was just saying it how it is and that is the honest truth. I didn't feel the need to boast about my children's diet as firstly that would a kind of weird and secondly like some of you just said, their meals are pretty "normal" and I'm not forcing tofu, spinach and caviar down their necks!

SurlyCue, pack it in! It's pretty obvious that my parent do not still feed me

that was my point you are overweight because of what YOU feed you. don't blame it on your parents. you're responsible for your own diet and have been for a while now I would imagine. it's a bit rich complaining about what your SIL feeds her DC when you cant feed yourself well enough in order to be a (according to you) healthy weight.

My kids were weaned on to normal home cooked meals. I never stored/cooked fish fingers, sausages, nuggets or oven chips. My kids like to eat and have mature taste buds.

TBF tofu or caviar is one of those odd textures that would have to be forced down most adults necks, never mind children

OP: how I wish my kids would eat that list! My kids typical responses:

Spaghetti bolognese - we have that every day!
Pulled pork - what's that?
Paella - it's yellow!
Sausages & mash - I hate mash
Pizza - can I have beans on toast?
Breaded chicken and chips - yes please! (Me - yuk!)
Risotto - can I just have pasta?
Pasta - can I have beans on toast?
Beans on toast - can't we have something else?

DHs responses to different meals - see above!

AAAARGH!!!!

Oh come on op , there is plenty of middle ground. If you disapprove of junk food , how about homemade nuggets, burgers, meatballs, fish cakes, wedges, pasta, pizza etc. Your snobbery is not endearing.

Saying that I always compromise when we have guests. I won't cook crap but will do something like jacket potato with beans or wholewheat pasta

Oh yeah, my actual point was that different families eat different things - both healthy and less so - its always about finding the common ground. BUT I have just realised this is AIBU!!! eek I'm out!

Meh. My DS is quite fussy, and he would turn his nose up at 'herby' chicken kebabs, 'tomato and basil' rice. But he'd smash his way through Chicken And Rice and he adores all kinds of oily fish. DD isn't so great on meat or fish but mainlines cucumbers is much more adventurous with veggies.

If you severed them most of your meals they'd probably refuse it. If you served them chicken nuggets and chips they'd probably love it. But that doesn't mean their overall or preferred diets are unhealthy, just different to yours and, irritatingly, often each others.

You cold always ask your sister to pack a packed lunch

MrsRossPoldark, I have one who eats adventurously (eg on holiday in France 'Ooh, can I have snails?') and 2 like that.
Pizza for tea tonight (all home-made from scratch and lovely, of course) and one will be having garlic bread because he thinks tomato sauce is poison. He eats tinned pasta shapes, though, so I have a cunning plan to feed him tinned pasta shapes pizza a few times as a halfway step...

I'm not projecting anything onto my children, I'm trying to learn from mine (and my parents) mistakes and choosing to serve them up a healthy diet, what is so wrong with that?.... I have the typical treat cuboard in my kitchen that i'm sure most families have and it's stuffed with chocolate and crisps but my kids have learnt that moderation is key, which is something I was never taught as a child but, wish I was. And I have a teenager (13!) and she eats fine! Don't get me wrong her school backpack is sometimes stuffed with crisps and chocolate wrappers but it doesn't bother me as I know that she's getting a healthy diet at home and she's the average height and weight for her age so is doing great.

why wouldn't you want your guests to eat something they'll enjoy?
if your kids' diet is so healthy then eating nuggets once in a blue moon won't matter
I am lucky enough to have two DC of the oyster and asparagus eating persuasion, but if we have young visitors I serve plain pizza, garlic bread and kinder eggs.

SurlyCue my diet is actually really good now. I'm 5ft 10 and to look at me I'm nowhere near "fat', I was simply going off what the bmi chart states and that is I'm between 10lbs and 14lbs heavier than I should be. I eat the same food as my children and have managed to get portion control correct now so my weight is going in the right direction, I'm hardly an 18st wheezing old woman who can't walk without getting out of breath, get some bloody perspective will you?......

I know what you mean, OP. I've never pandered to the whole kiddie food thing either. DD eats what we eat because seperate meals are a gigantic waste of time and money.
My brother's kids were terrible. At my wedding, they refused to eat the meal because it wasn't reformed crap covered in breadcrumbs, so he had to take them to McDonalds halfway through, which I thought was just rude he didn't even attempt to make them try it!

Without meaning to come across as one of THOSE mothers
Not sure you succeeded there.

You complain that other people look down on you, you couldn't be looking down on other people more if you tried.

I'm glad your children are easy to feed and will eat anything. I've got one like that too. And then I have another who rejected more foods than he ate and it has taken a huge amount of effort to increase his range of foods.

Whenever I have had other kids eating at mine, I always try to make them feel welcome by cooking something they will enjoy. It's not that difficult to find a reasonable compromise most of the time.

YABU.