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?

You just have to look at a typical UK supermarket's seafood section to see the limited variety of seafoodyuck
But they still all stock calemari (well iceland, Tesco and Sainsbury's do) because it's NOT considered unusual or exotic here, AND we have fishmongers here, supermarket fish isn't great but it's not the only place to buy fish

I buy all mine online Jamie, but any decent fishmonger will have live shellfish and lobsters. So they're not exactly a rarity.

Yes calamari is just as shitty as chicken nuggets.
THATS MY POINT.
So why is one thing seen as an adult food, and one thing seen as a kid food. That it’s my point.
If I ask my Russian or Japanese friend, name me some kid food, they will think I am strange. Because food is just food. But I’m britain if I say, tell me kid food, I would get a long list of food that is seen as childish.
I’m not criticising, it is an observation I have made and I don’t understand. I am trying to understand why I get nasty comments for one item of food and not the other. Why I am seen as smug for ordering one thing but not the other. You see?

Bloody hell. Just about the only thing I think you can take away from the comments here is that clearly, what your child eats is highly emotive and it's simply NOT POSSIBLE to make a statement about that, regardless of what your child does eat, without some people taking it as a personal affront to their own parenting/children.

OP, you've been very graceful under some rather twattish comments. For what it's worth, I'm half British and half Another-European-Country , and when we go on holiday there, children's menus are pretty much unheard of unless you're in a really crappy touristy joint, or McDonalds. Both of which we have to patronise at times, because to my lasting sadness, DS1 is massively fussy about new food and I have to bribe him to try a bite of octopus/shellfish/etc on holiday, and DS2 is severely autistic and mostly subsists on cut up cucumbers, crisps and apples on holiday.

Whether children's menus are a 'British thing' I couldn't really say, but they're certainly not so abundant in the places I've been abroad.

Children’s meals are a lot cheaper than adult meals. How were you splitting the bill? Was there a chance they were complaining because it meant effectively you were ordering two adult meals?

I fancy calamari and chips now.

No we had one meal that we shared. We pay our own bill.

Children's menu's so annoy me with their lack of variety....and don't get me started on the fact that places say they provide a children's menu but then the kids have to eat with teaspoons because it's beyond the restaurant to actually have the right size cutlery

my kids are Japanese /Scottish, and I totally get where you are coming from. Even though there is okosama-set in Japan, there generally is more veg etc included and kids are introduced to a wider variety of food earlier. Certainly no pandering at school / nursery / kindergarten! when we came to Scotland dd struggled with the limited kids options on menus or school dinners, and I've had parents say its weird she eats spinach/fish/pickled plums but not baked beans or British sausages. Like we're bizarre for feeding her veg?! It's just a totally different culture.

I am trying to understand why I get nasty comments for one item of food and not the other

Because you've chosen nasty company
Chose better company and it won't be an issue.

I've had people abroad find me a little odd for NOT raising my babies on nestle branded baby products, but they were never nasty about it as I have nice friends

Like we're bizarre for feeding her veg?! It's just a totally different culture

You're so right, no British child has ever eaten a vegetable, or fish, or anything that children in other countries do.

Do you people hear yourselves?

Some of you must know some really unusual people. Curry, for example, oft citied as something the public are SHOCKED to see toddlers eating, is commonly served in nurseries, schools and available as toddler ready meals. And let’s not pretend your children are on the bhuna when it’s basically chicken in a light sauce anyway

And as for shock at vegetables... what about the well known parental angst at a child who won’t eat vegetables then?

We always gave ours the same sort of food we eat. But the vast majority of our friends went down the route of plain pasta, margarita pizzas, chicken nuggets, white bread etc.

We now know a lot of fussy, limited teenagers.

So true Cherrycokewinning, Annabel karmel does a chicken tikka masala ready meal!

They were politely baffled though
Yes . I would describe my overseas friendship as "pleasantly bemused" by our differences.
I'm sure there were people there who would have been nasty about it, but I wouldn't chose them as lunch companions (and wouldn't judge the whole country in their behaviour!)

P.s. I kept being told (in a helpful suggestion way) to dip the pacifier in sugar....they didn't think that I might not even have dummies never mind not sugar dipped ones LOL

I agree it's probably a class thing in many cases

The children in my family don't have a very broad food spectre but that's because they aren't really exposed to much variety

Hang on!

The NHS produces some pretty strict guidelines on children's food.

You CAN'T feed children a lot of the more interesting food- because it's too high and salt and very bad for them.

I'd love to give my 16 month DS prawn cocktail or rare steak. However, the first is too salty and the second is not recommended due to risk of parasites.

I'd love to give my 16 month DS prawn cocktail or rare steak. However, the first is too salty and the second is not recommended due to risk of parasites

Really? Mine haven’t had prawn cocktail I don’t think (I don’t like it) but they definitely ate medium/rare steak as toddlers.

Well you can. But 16m is tiny anyway, it’s not like prawn cocktail Is something you’d go out of your way to whip up.

My DC had medium steak from a year. I had assumed they wouldn’t particularly like it rare but wouldn’t give parasites a second thought- we’d all be catching them
If it was a risk wouldn’t we?

they ate whatever we ate as soon as they wanted it
except for very hot chiles/lots of spicy foods from all over the world

calamari is not fish

it is squid
it is mollusk
quit calling it fish

when we came to Scotland dd struggled with the limited kids options on menus or school dinners, and I've had parents say its weird she eats spinach/fish/pickled plums but not baked beans or British sausages. Like we're bizarre for feeding her veg?!

Course she did And you clearly love people commenting on her love of pickled plums so you can act all bemused about it, and British sausages are just sausages ffs