To eat DCs leftovers and everyone thinks it's disgusting

[Evelight]

actually, I also gnaw at their chicken bones eg chicken wings because I am appalled at how much meat they leave behind and I can't bear to waste it. I often get them to look at my bones (which I clean like a hyeana) and compare it with theirs, and they just try to escape.

I come from a fairly frugal family, and it didn't help that I spent part of my childhood years in a country afflicted by war and food scarcity (food rations, kinda like the WWs. DCs get excited when I tell them about having coupons for milk, and bananas and butter being a luxury). We weren't allowed to have anything left on the plate. At school, i remember we were supposed to glue two short pencil stubs together to make them last longer.

ANYWAY, I don't see the problem- we've all learned at school that we are sharing germs in a family - what is so gross about eating the leftover salad off of DD's plate? Tbh though, I only do it with my kids, not eg DH or my siblings.

On the bones thing - I've not given the DC meat on the bone yet but would totally do that if they left anything worth having. SiL does it to DH's still too...if I don't get there first.

I would (and do) eat certain leftover food of my OHs... Salad mainly (He never eats much), yogurt (shared anyway as a communal bowl - flavoured with herbs/spices etc). Can't really think of much else that would get left... Fruit pieces? A roast potato? I do eat his bone marrow though. He never finishes the bone on a lamb shank, that's my job... It's all mine. I have a special tool to help get the marrow too!

Look i have given kids stuff of my plate when they where smaller.Its not that.My kids are clean[ish] but they pick their nose and scratch their arse and bits.Im not eating if they have had their hand on the food.I wouldnt only be eating food but snot and God knows what else.

I will drink after them and share food but just not this.I dont double dip either.

SiL does it to DH's still too...if I don't get there first.

I just can't think of a single situation where I wouldn't be sick, at the thought of munching on my brother's leftover chicken bones, or my DH's for that matter.

But we're all different.

I would just stop giving them meat on the bone. As an adult I still cannot eat chicken wings I find the texture and the whole teeth touching bone thing horrible.

If my mum started showing me her chicken wing bones and explaining/showing how I should eat it like her I would more than likely end up being sick.

I don't eat the kids left overs as by the time I consider them left overs it's stone cold, my kids have a habit of being full but wanting a pudding at which point their told if your still hungry eat your dinner.

"my Mam complained to the school principal."

My mum did this once. The staff at my primary school were trying to force me to eat lukewarm custard with a thick skin on the top - it was frigging vile and I couldn't stomach it without retching. #vomitsmiley

My mum went up to the school to complain. I was left alone after that. Children shouldn't be forced to eat anything they don't want to especially manky custard.

I rarely ate left overs. At home I prefer to give them a small amount and add extra if necessary. If eating out if I didn't think they'd eat a whole meal then I'd order something we'd both eat and an empty plate for them and put some of it on their plate. If you're regularly eating their leftovers stop giving them so much and remove their chicken from the bone before you serve it.
I don't like cold food (except cold custard but then not someone else's left over slightly warm custard.)

"I don't know a parent who doesn't pick at their child's leftovers en route to the bin! "

I don't - that's why we have a dog.

YANBU to eat their leftovers. There's got to be some perk to being a parent, after all.

However YABU to ask them to clear their plate.

I really can't believe people find this gross?? It is just food off your own child's plate? They haven't contaminated it! I always eat all of my DS leftovers and my DP if he ever leaves any which is rare...I love food and yes I'm greedy but what's the difference if its only going in the bin? If it started to affect my weight I would stop it but as I have a very active job at the moment I can carry on eating all of the food

Why is a child's cold half chewed food a perk? We can only eat so many calories a day and stay slim so why not be fussier about what those calories are?

Gnawing at someone else's leftover chicken wings is pretty grim, sorry!

I've never eaten anything leftover from my kids plates! I also don't share drinks with them. I bleeding hate it when people ask for a sip out of my glass, just take it then, I don't want it back.

Yes, very interesting, how differently everyone sees things :)

I also find it interesting the comments about staying slim. Personally, I don't agree with it as parents, who are obsessed with staying slim generally can pass it on to their children, who might end up with an eating disorder because of it, so parents really need to be careful, what messages they send. What about staying healthy instead? Within reason healthy weights varies for each person and the children's growing bodies can go through different shapes. I was pretty chubby as a baby, then very skinny as a teenager without any dieting.
I don't think eating a couple of bites of chicken of children's plate is going to make anyone fat, we just need to listen to our bodies, when we are full and when to stop eating. I know a lot of us grew up parents telling us to finish our plates. However when studying hypnotherapy I found it very interesting, how this requirement to finish plates can come through in many problems later in life. One thing it does for sure is it stops us listening to our bodies, when we are full, which is the main reason for most weight gain later in life.

I try not to because DD is always brewing some kind of kiddie bug and i don't want it.

Nothing to do with staying slim - I don't eat left overs and I'm still a bit of a chunk because I am a greedy cow like food too much - just not other people's. I hate sharing drinks, dips etc. - I just find it all a bit ick.

One of my friends usually finishes my dinner for me when we go out he asks though first

It's slightly gross, I sometimes do it if unobserved. I have scraped too much food into bins, so I give the kids tiny portions, they can always take a second or third. For the chicken wings, tell them not to take another before they finish one, then you can have your own rather than their slobbered-on ones.

I am not obsessed with staying slim and don't diet or count calories. I do put on weight easily if I eat too much or cut down my exercise though. I love food so like to be fussy about which foods I actually eat. Would I want half chewed chicken wings and pizza crusts or would I want my own meal of hot chosen by me food?

I just don't want to eat cold fish fingers or pizza crusts. I want nice food

I think it's completely normal and have always done this. Though, as a vegetarian, not the bones part - can't think of anything they'd have sucked or chewed that I would then eat. I'd eat the remaining untouched portion left on the plate, or the serving dish. At home. I wouldn't eat from someone else's plate in a restaurant but would feed a small child from mine, using a side plate, rather than order an extra dish likely to go to waste.

I find food waste morally wrong for many reasons, as well as being a waste of money for us. I am far more horrified at people throwing away good food because they prefer to eat something else, than by what you're doing.

Of course it's tricky to judge how much a toddler will eat, as they're so fickle. So easy to end up with leftovers. Some things go in the fridge for another day e.g. cooked veg, other stuff like omlette I'd eat, as it's nice fresh but horrible later.

When dd was a baby and ate dinner before us, the consequence was that I wouldn't be hungry at dinner time, so would eat very little, which made cooking a proper meal seem a lot of effort for one person. If DP was away I'd just eat with dd. The result was that we moved from eating at 5 and 8 to eating together at 6ish.

My own dd is definitely an exception though. I have always been quite 'ick' about sharing saliva - biting someone else's apple, or sharing a drink. Yuck.

I don't think it's gross at all. I used to do it, until I realised I was gaining weight because three small children leave quite a lot of pasta on occasion!

Putting uneaten food off your plate to a childs plate is completely different than eating cold baked beans and chicken wings.

I wouldnt eat that but if we where out somewhere an the kids didnt eat a sausage or something a long as it hasnt got bite marks or being mauled to death i would eat it.I just wouldnt eat anything that has been licked or chewed by anyone else.

I get where you are coming from. I eat the leftovers of mine, except bits that they had chewed. I am thin. HTH