To say no to pizza pasta again?

[karmakameleon]

So I'm trying to arrange dinner with a friend and her family and she's suggested a pizza pasta place. Fairly standard kid food but my problem is that DS (3yrs old) doesn't like it. DS will happily eat Indian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican amongst other things, so I don't think he can be described as fussy, but just not pizza and pasta.

As you imagine this comes up regularly when we eat out with friends and in the past I've taken the view that DS can have some bread and fill up on ice cream after. But this time I've had enough and put my foot down as I just feel it's not fair on DS to always be the one that can't eat and ends up going home hungry. Also I know that DS really doesn't like pizza pasta as I've offered it to him a hundred times but I'm guessing that my friend's child hasn't tried half the options I've suggested. (The specific places I've mentioned to her all do some mild options in smaller sized portions although not specifically a children's menu.) And if the worst came to the worst, surely her DS could pick at his main and then have lots of ice cream for pudding like mine has had to in the past?

Anyway, the whole thing is proving quite traumatic, she's not taking up any of my suggestions and sticking fairly rigidly to her original choice and I'm getting the feeling that the whole thing is off unless I do as I'm told compromise. So now I'm starting to feel guilty and think maybe I'm being a bit unreasonable as it is a fairly standard choice. But then it's not DS's fault he doesn't like it...

Completely agree. 152 pages. Classic mumsnet cliche

He'd def eat the Greggs sausage roll!

I quite fancy this actually...

Classic Italian Antipasto

Cured italian meats: Finnochiono, Coppa, Milano & Calabrian sausage with olives, roasted tomatoes, marinated aubergine, buffalo mozzarella & sweet Peppadew peppers with garlic butter, pestorissa dip & dough baked with Gran Milano cheese & black pepper

Posts, sorry, not pages! now that would be excessive

People are suggestion that it's unfair for her to expect her friend's son to eat more "adventurous" food just because her son does.

You see that is the attitude I've always taken and hence we've eaten a lot of pizza pasta. But now I'm getting to the point where I wonder why it only goes one way.

So if he likes sausage rolls then why not all go to a bakery/cafe type place? Sandwiches, sausage rolls, soups, cakes etc. something for everyone there!

Why do you keep eating pizza/pasta when there are so many other things on the menu though?

Maybe she doesn't understand that either.

And it's not unfair that the OP's son is expected to eat pizza/pasta because her friend's son does?

I'm a about people claiming that's there's so many other things on the menu. Most kids menus in these places are heavily pizza pasta skewed. I don't think I have seen risotto (which he likes) on the kids menu it the main chains. If there is another option it usually chicken and potatoes and that gets dull repeatedly. Often they don't do small portions of the adult menu. When he was smaller he'd pick at our food but now that's he bigger needs his own but still a kids portion.

I've been the one with the fussy eater - for many years whenever we went out he's have a limited choice of anything between 1-3 things on a menu he would eat. Regardless of what restaurant. His brother would anything so it's not necessarily down to learned behaviour - some kids are just like that. He would happily not eat for days rather than eat stuff he doesn't like. When at home he could have a wider variety of food as I could control what was in the dishes. But eating out was pretty much plain burger, plain chicken or macaronis cheese. So, in order for him to be able to have anything to eat we had to carefully choose place that would have something he could have. Maybe your friends are in a similar position? Because your son already eats a wide variety of food, they maybe don't see that they are imposing by going somewhere that isn't his favourite when there are other things on the menu he could have.

There is Risotto on the pizza express menu - not on the kids menu, but they do it as a starter or a main. Is it that you only want to pay for the kids menu?

OP, is he telling you he is "bored" eating the pizza/pasta restaurant food? At 3, really?

FFS, don't bother, then, OP. Just dump your mates (as this seems to be an issue with all of them) and spend your existence sitting with DS in 'adventurous' restaurants congratulating yourself.

It's just food. Get over yourself.

He doesn't say it obv but you can tell when is enthusiastic about food and enjoys it.

Fuck me, all this over a 3 year old pushing a bit of food around a plate while his parents get together.

Either find something to do that doesn't involve food, or book a babysitter.

It all sounds so very exhausting.

Christ knows what he'll be like when he's older, if you're letting him dictate to you now.

So surely the friend's son can push food around his plate in a Mexican restaurant while his parents get together once in a while?

He doesn't make a fuss so it doesn't sound like he's 'dictating' anything at all.

Omg! I was an adventurous/good eater as a child back in the day when kids' menus weren't a thing. Just order off adults' menu and pack up what he doesn't finish. Jamie's Italian have half portions I believe meant as starters

OP you still haven't told us which restaurant or what the menu's like. Is this for real? Are you a journo?

Also - honestly - do you eat out every night?? How many times does he have these things? If you eat at home mainly, a few times as a family in spicy places then surely chicken and potatoes are actually a bit exciting? Jesus wept, when I was three, I ate what I was given

Having images of a little lord Fauntleroy rejecting his traditional English fare in favour of more sashimi and gyoza

Just to be clear, DS wouldn't order anything that spicy

Your ds orders? All by himself? Ha ha. I've got a mental picture of a 3-year-old perusing a menu and debating whether to go for the tasting menu or the a la carte as the foie gras is supposed to be very good at this establishment.

It would depend on whether the Mexican restaurant has a variety of side dishes/starters that the other 3 year old would enjoy Collabo

If the OP's kid can choose something from that Pizza Express menu for example, then it sounds like he's the fussy one.

Either way this thread is madness.

No way would me or my friends allow our 3 year olds to dictate to us. Then again, we're not obsessed with food like the OP and her friend seem to be.

Rhoda

*can't choose something from the PE menu