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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To give visiting child hotdogs for tea?

444 replies

EssieTregowan · 07/02/2017 09:05

With baked beans, so that counts as healthy, right? Wink

Just an idle ponder really as I know this particular 4yo's mum doesn't mind at all. But when ds2 starts widening his friendship group are the other mums going to judge if the fare on offer is quick stuff like pasta pesto, or nuggets, or plastic sausages?

Tuesdays are really the only day we can have his friends round, but it's also the day the shopping comes and it doesn't come until 4.30 so dinner is very often the quickest option .

Would you judge? Or would it not even cross your mind?

OP posts:
Nerdymum83 · 09/02/2017 03:20

When I was a kid I loved stuff like that when I was at friends houses for dinner. I don't mind what my daughter is fed as long as the other parents respect that she can't have too much dairy. And if she has friends over I ask them if what I make for dinner is ok.
Personally a favourite quick dinner in our house is fresh sausages, home done potato wedges and baked beans xD Not the healthiest, but quick and easy :)

MaisyPops · 09/02/2017 03:33

Depends.
Personally as a kid i hated hot dogs, turkey thinbs and general kid friensly meat products (probably because my parents just gave us the same tea as them). Much prefered going to friends where rhere parents gave us pasta, wraps, shepherds pie, pizza etc.

Even now when im.havinh people round there are pleanty of things that can be done quickly without resorting to hot dogs.

MaisyPops · 09/02/2017 03:34

Should add, I'd never say anything if people served hot dogs etc A meal is a meal.

Just that personally Id not.

Housemum · 09/02/2017 08:20

All you who only serve home cooked stuff be warned - DD1 had some bloody awful food as a baby/toddler (early 90's - I even followed what all the other mums did and gave her those powdered cow & gate meals that you mixed with water - what was I thinking!). Anyway 10 years later I had DD2 and didn't make a big thing of it but only served cooked-from-scratch meals and didn't buy sweets/biscuits (except for the ones we'd scoff when she was in bed!) When she went to school and discovered junk food she was like a thing possessed. She is now 13 and regularly spends all her pocket money on sweets and fast food with her mates.

DD3 I followed the herd who had by now moved onto BLW - wish I'd gone the purée route as she regularly chose hardly anything, and even now at 9 eats a very limited range of food (including hotdogs!) and doesn't like mushy food. She is quite slim build so when at other people's houses she is very good at eating the veg and taking a few mouthfuls of main if it is something she doesn't like then says she is full - doesn't seem rude (I hope!)

greenworm · 09/02/2017 08:51

TBH I judge more the people who would get sniffy that their kid was served a hotdog than the person doing the hotdog serving. Lighten up!

SleepFreeZone · 09/02/2017 10:00

I did BLW with my eldest and he is so fussy now. My little one I'm just shoving puréed food in his mouth and hoping for the best.

Loopy567 · 09/02/2017 21:40

Have you tried veggie hot dogs? Sainsbury's own are really good. They are in the freezer section. My kids eat meat but not where hot dogs are concerned.

ShatnersBassoon · 09/02/2017 22:01

Veggie hotdogs are good, I agree.

TheEdgeofSeventeen · 09/02/2017 22:17

I would eat anything as a kid ( and if you provided pickles and mustard with a HD then i would've loooooved you ) and if theres one thing i hates and STILL despise its Shepherds/cottage pie ( i find it vomit inducing) - one mum once made me eat an entire portion of it because we were allowed to leave the table otherwise - i was around 8 and am still scarred. If they have an issue then don't feed them it next time . ask them before hand If they're vegetarian or have certain requirements. My mum would rather i was happy with a bit of crap than sobbing because they fed me something i hated.

FromBigCityToTinyVillage · 10/02/2017 09:48

I always cook nice traditional meals for my kids ( spaghetti , lasagna, chicken stir fry etc..) but when they have friends over it's normally always pizza as it's a safe bet! or I do chicken wraps and salad ( they make up their own, what they want in it!) or do Jacket potatoes with cheese/ beans and keep it simple!! As I'd be more embarresed by a child going home hungry because they didnt like the food than full because they ate pizza for tea! Most parents are just pleased you've fed them 😂

CEOD · 10/02/2017 18:58

I have the opposite problem. I follow a menu plan and I do not change it if any of the kids' friends are over, so they may have to lump lentil soup, or rice and curry, or enchiladas or whatever is on the menu for that day. I do not pander to "what kids will eat". So they probably of home starving if they don't like it, though up to now they've all eaten whatever I put out (maybe they c complain about it afterwards, but they're fed and on good food too).

TeethDrama · 11/02/2017 20:01

CEOD you are the sort of parent I'd have been petrified of when I was a kid in terms of food! I was nervous if eating things we didn't have at home (eg enchiladas, or lentils) and I've have sensed the disapproval if I didn't tuck in with gusto.

I'm on the other end of the scale - I remember who likes fruit juice and who likes strawberry yoghurt etc play dates-wise, and I make an effort to try & have it in. I want my dc's friends to remember their play dates here as fun and not unsettling.

This is younger kids - if they were older that would be different, but I'd still offer a cheese toastie if they said they really didn't like lamb or fish or whatever, it's not that much of a bother and o wouldn't take it personally at all if they didn't want to eat what I'd made.

TeethDrama · 11/02/2017 20:03

Sleep free - I did baby led weAnibv with 2 of my dcs and they are the fussiest! My other dc who I didn't have time to do it with eats anything. Go figure! 🙂

TeethDrama · 11/02/2017 20:04

*weaning

IHaveBrilloHair · 11/02/2017 20:10

My dinner tonight, thanks for the inspiration OP Grin

Original poster
EssieTregowan · 11/02/2017 21:33

Grin ❤❤

OP posts:
Twistmeandturnme · 13/02/2017 12:25

I fed everyone hot dogs at the weekend off the back of this thread, with caramelised onions, French's yellow mustard. ketchup and grated cheese. Went down a storm!

IHaveBrilloHair · 13/02/2017 18:07

French's yellow mustard is lush, try it on toast with melted cheese and dill pickles on top.

Grilledaubergines · 13/02/2017 18:15

My feeling is that if you're kind enough to invite my DC I couldn't care less what they eat. Keep them safe, absolutely. Give them crap to eat, not a problem.

I cook fairy healthy meals - curries, cottage pies, lasagne etc etc as the norm but when friends are over I'll do frozen stuff simply because I think children can be fussy about home made food if it's not the same as their parents make. DS refused bolognaise once at a friend's house because it had big pieces of tomato in whereas mine doesn't. It's safer to do beige food.

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