Adult and child foods? A British thing?

[StandardRussian66]

I got bitched at yet again today by the group I meet with for lunch occasionally.
They find it very strange that my 3 year old eat “adult food”.
I have lived in 4 countries and have only ever come across this in Britain.
It is very strange?
Why would child’s only eat plain food?
My DD had calamari, for reference, incase that is odd. I am part Japanese so she is no stranger to fish.
Aibu to find it equally strange that some toddlers were still being fed mashed food?

Seriously it's ok to come on and say I hate british culture but it's not ok to say well you don't have to participate if you hate it so much.......

I have seen it in many other places than Britain too. My sister always orders from the adult menu for her children but they never eat it, but we are still expected to go halves on the bill. (ie, I sub the uneaten food) in those cases I would prefer they had a smaller, cheaper kids meal. —to not eat— but she is being smug about how grown up their tastes are.

I don't usually quote things in their entirety but this, from Argeles, is worth it:

I’m British, and I detest this attitude towards food that is so ingrained in many others here.

My DH and I love eating and cooking food from a very wide variety of countries, and are definitely of the mindset that our DD will try eating a bit of everything that we do. She has eaten a variety of spices, flavours and textures as a result, from as soon as she was able to eat solids. She can also eat with toddler chopsticks, say ‘itadakimasu’ and ‘Bon appétit.’

My DD who will soon be 3 years old, has tried food from the following cuisines: Pakistani, Indian, Japanese, French, Persian, Eritrean, Chinese, English, Turkish, Lebanese, Greek, Thai, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Afghani, Iraqi, Bosnian, Swedish, Croatian and Moroccan.

We’ve travelled quite a bit with her, and live in London with a plethora of cuisines all around. We have friends and family from other countries who we recipe swap with, and I also have a wealth of recipe books from many countries.

Fucking awesome. I weep.

Yes I hate this British culture. I resent paying for a meal out as a treat and there only being chicken nuggets/fish fingers/burger on the menu for children

Do you only dine out in crappy roadside service stations?
decent British restaurants will do small portions of anything.

It is very different to say that you don't like a belief or attitude (cultural or not) than to say you hate the whole culture.
It's not like op has offended great warriors or ancestors or religion by talking about the prevalence of bland foods. Op also says she has no issue with menus for children just the attitude displayed to her today and that she does not understand it. I don't understand why everybody is defensive about that.

I must admit I did get annoyed at my brother's 'no children' wedding where the few children that were there had to sit at a little table by themselves, eating sweets and junk that made them go hyper...so that everyone could say 'oh look at those naughty children'.

however I don't think my then 4 year olds would have eaten steak dripping with blood that the rest of us were served with.

I used to live in a very Portuguese area, and often saw multi generational family groups out for a meal together, and thought that looked really cool.

or said that everyone wants to be British

Cherry rather insinuated that with the comment that the OP’s children would have “desperate gratitude you decided to settle here instead”. Ie people long to settle here and are grateful for it, as the pp said.

But pretending that the UK's (real and obvious) political problems are in any way equivalent to the ongoing human rights abuses in Russia and China is just being contrary for the sake of it, and pretty insulting to those campaigning (and often risking their lives) for change in Russia and China.

Which no-one actually said that if you read the posts properly.

@MargaretCavendish saying " we just eat dinners together because we can't bothered to deal with the stress of feeding... bedtime routine then to make our own food sit down and eat and clean up again" patronising how?

Wow... I thought it plain common sense for our family to do things this way as it meant everything was done and dusted in the evenings.

And I have lived in several countries myself... it's very British and countries that are heavily British influenced do the same too.

When I lived in China and other Asian countries I noticed people ate meals together as a family and everything on the table was offered. You also noticed the different attitudes children hold towards food in these countries.

It's not an insult to say it's British. If it makes it better I'd say it's a very western cultural norm to feed children first... then adults will eat later.

We don't eat bland plain food... but I am a SAHM so there is time to follow recipes etc. DH is resigned and is now a student so is here to cook as well and he does most of the cooking etc as he enjoys it.

eating sweets and junk that made them go hyper

sweets and junk don't make kids go hyper, its a myth.

Where have I said that I think I am special? I just ordered what we wanted to fucking eat at the time.
You talk about calamari as if it's alien to British children. It's not, it's pretty common.

Crappy kids meals are great for food refusal stages, I would rather they NOT eat crappy beans and chips than not eat and waste good fresh food.
The rest of the time they eat what we eat

My 3 year old eats what we eat and I try to get her to eat a variety of foods, however, she seems to be getting fussier which is frustrating. I find it difficult allowing my 8 month old to eat what we eat at times due to the salt issue so often have to make adapted versions with baby stock etc also we eat a lot of curry and some of it is too spicy for a baby weaning I feel.

It wasn't the OP that said she hated the culture it was another poster. I actually don't think the ops friends should have judged her but other posters have come into say 'I hate the culture' 'it's ridiculous to have a desperate children's menu,only the British would feed such bland food' those things are rude and also not at all true which is why other posters have got annoyed

I think it has very hateful undertones to suggest that you cannot complain and should be greatful to live in the uk to the point of shutting up if you don't like something. Britain has good things and bad

Indeed.

Tatiana you’re clearly desperate for a fight. Been at the vodka? 😭😂

I agree, DD (4) eats what we eat.

She loves blue cheese, any sort of meat/fish and fruit and veg.

She’s a bit of a food snob! When she has friends over for tea and I serve up baked beans, chicken nuggets and chips she gives me a look as if to say ‘WTF is that mum?’

" sweets and junk don't make kids go hyper, its a myth."

well I would rather deal with a four year old that hadn't been stuffed with sugar and coca cola, myth or not.

Why is it so hard to believe that someone got 'bitched at' for their child's eating habits? I came across it when DS was younger because he's been brought up as a vegan.
People get weird when things aren't the same as what they'd normally do.

Tatiana you’re clearly desperate for a fight. Been at the vodka

Nope, I just don’t have much patience with xenopbic twattery. I’d get back to the cherry coke if I were you.

The OP has chosen bitchy friends, I don't disbelieve that. I don't think it's a British thing though, you can have shit bitchy judgey friends anywhere.

In Mexico, kids aren't given spices until age 2/3.

I don't think it's British. We're an international family and don't find a very different approach in the UK/Europe/India... As for kids actually eating everything... Chill out people, I was goady too when my first was 2yrs old and was eating everything I put in front of her... Then she grew up... At school she eats everything (same at nursery) but is very fussy with us... My 3.5yrs is following suit although they do differ in some ways... Last time we went to India my second child was 18 months and was stealing from my plate the whole time... I doubt she'll do it this time round... They go through various phases but the 'crappy bland phase seems quite common no matter how people parent...

You’re like a brick wall. You still haven’t managed to evidence any actual xenophobia. I don’t think you really understand what it means

What you mean is you don’t understand the implications of what you said. And round your way, perhaps it’s acceptable.

Having once sat in the middle of an argument about the provenance of the beef - Uruguayan v Argentine - I can vouch for the British tolerance for good food so long as it eventually gets on the table.

It was Argentine, btw. But a big river divides their countries and cows can swim.