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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:
harderandharder2breathe · 07/02/2017 11:00

I did once encounter a child who wouldn't eat round carrots only sticks. As she was ten im afraid I told her they're exactly the same and to get on with it.

I've fed probably a hundred children at various Brownie holidays and have yet to encounter a pasta refuser (plenty who won't touch it with sauce on though). I have had 1 chip refuser. Don't think I'be had a hot dog refuser except veggies who obviously get veggie sausages instead. No chicken nugget or pizza refusers yet. I'm afraid we don't offer hummus but do provide veg and fruit!

Soubriquet · 07/02/2017 11:01

Willow - and I don't know any child would wouldn't eat houmous and cucumber. Here it's something you feed babies onwards as easy

Mine won't. One will eat the cucumber, the other might eat the hummus but it's a big might

AwaywiththePixies27 · 07/02/2017 11:01

Oooh cory I'd kill for a jam sandwich eight now.

ChocolateWombat · 07/02/2017 11:01

If you accept an invitation for your child (or yourself) then you do your host the courtesy of allowing them to offer whatever they like, without comment. You receive it with thanks and a smile and teach your kids to do the same too.

Honestly I agree that if you can't cope with the lack of control you have over what they eat when at a friends, you really shouldn't accept any invitations.........heir house, their rules and their food.

And I agree that many people will offer easy convenience food to small children, because so many are so fussy. When I was a child, we always got offered fish fingers and chips because most people liked it.

Op, if you want to give hot dogs then do. You are being kind enough to host these kids, so you get to decide what to offer.

Can't those of you saying instead that pizza or other alternatives would be better, that people will equally think these are crap or not like them...why is your idea better than the OPs when you are essentially suggesting junk food too. Just acdept it as 1 meal and thank the host politely and genuinely as anyone with manners would do.

ArcheryAnnie · 07/02/2017 11:04

Now I want a Bentos pie, Oblomov. There are times when that terrible flabby pastry is just the ticket!

(Not even kidding. I had to eat a lot of Goblin Meat Pies as a kid. 10p a tin and you boiled them in a pan before opening.)

Orangebird69 · 07/02/2017 11:05

I'm rather disappointed to get a 'real sausage' when offered a hot dog. I bloody love them. Always have one when I go to the pictures (or the nachos with plastic cheese sauce and jalapeños) and ikea. Some of you seriously need to unclench. My ds is too young for play dates yet. He eats well. Never refused any food I've given him (another miracle according to MN as I didn't do the holy grail that is BLW)... he has plenty of fresh fruit and veg in his diet. I hope he continues like that. But a frankfurter hotdog on a play date? Why not! Get some American mustard and fried onions in the mix and I'd probably stay too.

Yanbu OP. And anyone who says you are or judges you for it needs to pull their head out of their Deliciously Ella book.

UnicornMadeOfPinkGlitter · 07/02/2017 11:06

I wouldn't be worried on a play date as long as my child was fed and happy. Although if I picked up and you said you had cooked xyz and they refused or didn't like it, I still wouldn't complain would just make them soup or beans on toast when we got home.

My dc eat a fairly varied diet and aren't overly fussy, however dd wont eat pizza. Now ds1 is an adult its a different matter, his lovingly prepared diet of home cooked meals with the best quality ingredients we could afford, mixed with treat and lazy meals such as fish fingers and waffles, are now all rejected for McDonalds, kfc and nandos. He might be slim but I dread to think what his arteries look like.

Verbena37 · 07/02/2017 11:06

The hotdogs we buy for DS (Ye Old Oak from Waitrose Wink) have 6g of protein in one sausage, compared to 5g in a Tesco finest pork and honey chipolata.

It really wouldn't bother me what you fed my kids when they came to your house......it's a rest from me having to cook and feeding most of it to the bin.

Orangebird69 · 07/02/2017 11:07

Oblomov17 have you been nosing round my kitchen?! Grin

Bluntness100 · 07/02/2017 11:08

I had a kid round once, she was five, didn't want crisps or chocolate, instead munched her way through a tub of olives with some chicken on the side. Honest to god. my daughter of the same age just looked at her bemused, only time I've ever seen a five year old neck olives.

Oblomov17 · 07/02/2017 11:30

Orange Wink

Willow2016 · 07/02/2017 11:33

Ooooh I love a Frey Bentos pie, the pastry is the best bit!!

Oblomov17 · 07/02/2017 11:33

I've had many kids around over the years :

most like my roast ; most of them like steak pie , new potatoes, steamed carrots cauliflower and broccoli . which is a surprise.

one didn't like mash potato so sausages mash peas and gravy was off.
one didn't like pasta sauce and one didn't like any food stuff touching.

But whatever they did or didn't like I just cook them something else / prepared something else and I certainly never mentioned it to their parents.

Oblomov17 · 07/02/2017 11:37

Costco do the best hotdogs. I can't eat them because I find them slimey. But dh and the ds's wolf them down like there's no tomorrow.

GieryFas · 07/02/2017 11:38

Bluntness I know a (lovely) child who necks olives, gherkins and chorizo but cries if asked to eat cake or jam.

fleurdelacourt · 07/02/2017 11:38

loving the idea that people actually believe their children will turn poor quality food down on a playdate.

in my experience children vastly prefer plastic sausages to hummus! (although can sometimes interest a few of them in olives....)

seriously people - one hotdog? do you honestly think your children are never going to eat rubbish in their whole lives?

BrieAndChilli · 07/02/2017 11:38

Bluntness100 - you're not one of DDs friends mums are you??!! She loves olives although she's 8 now.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 07/02/2017 11:39

Willow agree. You get your workout with a Frey bentos pie too. Kudos to anyone who's managed to undo the sodding lid with a can opener under sixty minutes without losing a digit or two in the process! Grin

confuugled1 · 07/02/2017 11:44

One ds will eat sausages but not hotdogs or beans. Other ds will eat hotdogs but only eat sausages or beans if you catch him in the right mood but wouldn't eat any of them if you tried to serve them together.

One will eat ham and pizzas (but not ham on pizzas) but loathes bread or sandwiches, other cant be doing with pizzas or ham but will eat cheese toasties with ketchup until they come out of their ears.

I've also found that even if dsis comes over with dneices and I try to cook something that is - to us - simple food that everyone will eat, everyone has their own way of doing things so invariably there's someone who doesn't like bits of it. And exactly the same happens when I go over to see her or dmum - despite us both learning to cook from dmum we all now cook very differently.

Add in the fact that friends cook things even more differently so I'd just hope for the best and feed DC when they got home but hope that peer pressure would have lead them to try something new and expand their food repertoire!

Must admit if anyone said they were serving hotdogs would assume they would be Herta or IKEA or Costco ones as they're the only ones I've seen in the supermarket/shops locally. Hadn't occurred to me they still did tinned ones, hadn't ever thought about it though!

Cantbeatatryer · 07/02/2017 11:45

This would not bother me one bit. It's a treat going to a friend's. As long as they wasn't offered a bag of crisps or chocolate for tea and it's a meal of some kind I really don't mind. It's nice of them to offer to have my child and feed them!

Unihorn · 07/02/2017 11:46

When I was a child I hated pizza, pasta and chips! Thinking about it now I have no idea what I used to eat... We were very much a Birdseye/Heinz family (shock horror these days I know) and I disliked most food until I was about 11.

Tinned hotdogs used to be one of my favourites but now I really dislike them. I wouldn't be at all bothered about my child eating them now and again though.

Iwantacampervan · 07/02/2017 11:51

All of a pig can be eaten (except the squeal!) - none of it is 'bits left over'.

KitKats28 · 07/02/2017 12:04

I don't understand why pesto pasta is held up as some sort of health food on here. It's white carbs with green grease. It probably has less nutritional value than a hot dog 🙄

Clandestino · 07/02/2017 12:05

Can't believe some crap. White pasta is bad, hot dogs are bad, whatever is bad. What's left, hummus and avocado?
Seriously, get a grip. If you are so bothered, provide a list of requirements when sending a child to a playdate. Only free range/organic, no processed food, vegan, whatever. And if you are lucky, your child will still get invites to playdates. I personally wouldn't invite such a child anymore, not because we like eating crap but because I'd be afraid that I will become a subject to a stupid discussion on an internet forum by some precious Mums.
Unless the child has an allergy, it's a playdate. They can have chocolate, cake, hot dogs, pizza, whatever. I can't see the occasional junk food damaging my child forever.

SasBel · 07/02/2017 12:10

I would applaud your good sense! My 3 would not touch the beans but would all eat hotdogs! DD would also scoff any olives that you have available.....Grin DS is a total food refuser so I would be glad that you fed him anything tbh.

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