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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:
SaorAlbaGuBrath · 07/02/2017 10:01

DDs best friend comes to us on a Thursday for lunch while her mum is at college. Despite my best efforts the only thing she'll eat is kraft cheesey pasta, apparently 😂 So I end up making it every Thursday with a sandwich for DD and DS2 because they don't like it. As long as she's fed I don't care Grin

OverTheHill50 · 07/02/2017 10:01

DS2 once had a friend over from school when he was about 5 or 6. Served them standard kids fare - breaded chicken fillets (100% breast meat!), beans and chips. The visiting boy looked at his plate, then at me, and asked "does (DS2) always eat this stuff?!" before picking at a couple of chips and pushing his plate away.

I was ShockHmm but when I met his dad a few months later I realised where it came from - he was an -up-his-own-arse foodie type criticising the 'nibbles' at a school event! Poor child...

After a few years in different schools DS is at senior school with him again now. Apparently he spends all his lunch money on chocolate, muffins and fizzy drinks Grin

AwaywiththePixies27 · 07/02/2017 10:02

I am wondering though for those of you who says " use a better quality sausage" Would you be asking for the type of sausage used if the mother had said they had "hotdogs"? or would you simply assume it was tinned hotdogs?

I'd simply assume it's tinned hotdogs. It wouldn't bother me. England isn't going to fall if someone feeds my DCs hotdogs once in a while.

My DCs are in a 'naice' school. When DD had a party at her friends house the Mum went "are you okay with her having sausage and mash?". Apparently some parents can even get uppity about homemade things like that. I just assumed it'd be a buffet style thing and was just happy she was being fed.

Trust me. My DCs have been on long play dates after school at their last school where they've not even been offered a piece of fruit or a slice of toast. If I'd have known I'd have fed the kids before sending them or sent then with a snack but nothing. They came back at 7pm starving. Now that I got pissed off with.

OverTheHill50 · 07/02/2017 10:04

Just wait until they're teenagers and want to go off on their D of E hike with 3 of the massive Mattesson's Smoked Pork Sausages as 'snacks'...

Rugbyplayersarehot · 07/02/2017 10:04

Fuck me hilarious. I would be happy you had my kids to play and fed them. Anyone sniffing about play date food to another mother is causing huge embaressment for their kids and word will go round that mum is a knob and the kids stop being asked.

Artandco · 07/02/2017 10:04

I wouldn't mind too much, but neither of mine eat hotdogs, or breaded stuff as don't like.

If we have people over with very little prep time I usually just offer beans or scrambled egg or cheese on toast. Can have any combo, without toast, with beans on top, in bowl, not at all or whatever. Fruit and yogurt on offer after. Otherwise they just get whatever we were going to eat for dinner anyway which could be anything. It's one meal. If they don't like it, they can leave, eat a banana, and get fed by parent when home

AwaywiththePixies27 · 07/02/2017 10:04

OverTheHill Grin

Rugbyplayersarehot · 07/02/2017 10:04

over and Kendal mint cake Grin

SomedayMyPrinceWillCome · 07/02/2017 10:05

If you were kind enough to feed my child I wouldn't dare judge you on what you offered him, everyone deserves treat food occasionally (DS loves hotdogs). I'd also be relieved than when I repay the favour and have your child to my house for tea, I can feed them chicken nuggets or fish fingers & you won't get bitchy at me

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 07/02/2017 10:05

It wouldn't bother me.

Willow2016 · 07/02/2017 10:06

My ds2 would love you forever Grin
He loves hotdogs although we never have them in the house he will get one on a day trip out etc.

I wouldnt care what you fed them as long as it wasnt actualy poisonous I would be grateful you went to the trouble of feeding them. Grin

Although mine wouldnt thank you for pasta unless it was mac cheese, he doesnt like it at all, never has.

llangennith · 07/02/2017 10:07

I love a cheap and nasty hot dog!
But it's one of the few things I'd never serve as a meal to kids.
Ordinary Tesco pork sausages contain 97% pork so that's what we have on play dates.

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 07/02/2017 10:08

I'd never really thought about it before, but this thread has made me realise that I have double standards when it comes to hotdogs Grin.

I would never buy them or make hotdogs at home - not from "plastic" sausages anyway, normal sausages maybe - but, if DD came home & said she'd had hotdogs for tea at a friend's house, I'd just be grateful that she'd been fed and had a nice time with her friend. It really wouldn't cross my mind to be bothered about the nutritional value of the food offered.

letsmargaritatime · 07/02/2017 10:08

Nothing wrong with eating all the bits of the animal nobody likes to think about other than the fact meat eaters find it gross psychologically. It's no more "crap" than the rennet in your cheddar, the fish eyes in your curry paste and the gelatine in your haribo. So I would have no problem with my meat eating child eating frankfurters, to object would be hypocritical.

Willow2016 · 07/02/2017 10:08

Overthehill

OMG now that is really gross!

BrieAndChilli · 07/02/2017 10:09

I do fishfingers or pizza
Or jacket potatoes with a variety of toppings for the kids to choose from (beans, cheeses, mini sausages, tuna, salad etc) which is good when all 3 kids have a friend over.

There are a couple of kids I know well who i will cook a 'proper' meal for, DDs friend loves me fish pie and he requests it if he comes, others will eat lasagne or spag Bol etc.

MadMags · 07/02/2017 10:10

Not true. I know quite a few women that would not be happy about their DC being given hot dogs. Even once!

Well then, sorry to say I would be avoiding play days with those children.

Life is too short to deal with those types, and I'd much rather my dc have nice, easygoing friends whose parents don't treat a hotdog like an international incident!

user1477282676 · 07/02/2017 10:11

I always give easy food like that. My own dc love it when they go somewhere that does too.

DD once went to her friend's house when she was four and was served trout! Fucking trout!

Please. Who does that?

Give them hot dogs.

And before anyone says "Oh MY kids eat what we do"

So do mine...but not trout! If you're serving tea to a strange child, you choose something mild or easy to cope with.

SaucyJack · 07/02/2017 10:11

I don't mind my kids eating shite for one meal, but I would secretly think you were a bit limited in the noggin.

Really not a fan of the idea that cheap mechanically recovered meat is a massive treat for all children.

NavyandWhite · 07/02/2017 10:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BarbarianMum · 07/02/2017 10:12

Hah! When my kids were younger I went through a phase of serving normal food on playdates to children whose parents claimed they'll eat 'anything'. After a few wasted cottage pies/spag bols/home made pizzas (I never tried polenta, rice, or any of the stuff we actually eat chez Barbarian) I gave up and it is now either ready made pizza, sausage and chips, hotdog and chips or baked potato with sausage, beans and chips. Pasta only to the two children I know will actually eat it. They can eat healthily at home.

I don't get the whole 'oh its all the bits and pieces left over' hysteria either. That's what sausage is. I lived in Nigeria for a while and learned to eat every part of the animal. And really it is all perfectly good.

GieryFas · 07/02/2017 10:13

I wouldn't mind as a one-off, though I won't buy them myself.

My easy equivalent is a tray of sausages, new potatoes and random veg (like cherry tomatoes, bits of red and yellow pepper, baby mushrooms) in an oven tray, spray it with a bit of oil and roast it all together. Most kids will eat sausages and roast potatoes, some will eat the roasted veg, others will eat the veg raw (so I keep some aside). It's easy because you just shove it all on one tray and put it in the oven for half an hour, and can pay attention to the kids.

NavyandWhite · 07/02/2017 10:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NerrSnerr · 07/02/2017 10:13

Bloody hell. I'm a long term veggie but with a meat eating child and husband. My daughter is too young for playdates but didn't realise how much of a minefield it is! As someone who doesn't eat meat I don't see why people have issues with eating the 'gross' bits but will happily munch on the other bits of flesh.

Hope none of my daughter's friends parents will be precious about this- I know I won't be. I'm in the 'happy she's been given her tea' camp.

BarbarianMum · 07/02/2017 10:14

Oh, I forgot fish fingers, beans and chips. The other playdate staple.

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