Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Adult and child foods? A British thing?

717 replies

StandardRussian66 · 27/01/2018 16:15

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?

OP posts:
limitedperiodonly · 01/02/2018 15:56

That's all well and good. At the same time, I don't think there's anything wrong with wishing the average kids menu aimed a bit higher than chicken nuggets and chips.

LaurieMarlow I guess these things are on the children's menus of so many restaurants because they are popular and the place is trying to turn a profit.

There is nothing to stop you going to a restaurant and asking for a starter from the main menu for a child if you're worried they'll waste a big plate. I often order starters to share with my dining companion if we want a taste but don't want to spoil our appetites for the main event. Same with desserts - my friend is a big ice-cream fan and I'm not. We always order a plate to share and they eat the lion's share because otherwise they'd go without their treat out of awkwardness.

It's also common for people to order a selection of starters because they don't fancy any of the main courses. I've never been in a restaurant that's found this a problem.

I don't have children and don't often eat out with them so I can't vouch for the experience of parents of children with adventurous taste buds.

But the only place I've ever encountered a rigid approach to the children's menu - as in 'your daughter is 10 so she has to eat the chicken nuggets' - was in a restaurant in Sweden. As Sweden is a liberal paradise, I guess that was an aberration. The girl and her dad were Italian. We were in a group of English (me), German, French and I think Dutch. Anyway, we argued successfully for her to eat off the adult menu

limitedperiodonly · 01/02/2018 16:03

I'd support that charity TitaniasCloset.

The main thing I hate about people condemning others for relying on junk food is their wilful ignorance of the cost of buying, preparing, storing and cooking cheap nutritious food when on a budget and/or in difficult living conditions. That cunt Jamie Oliver is their god.

TitaniasCloset · 01/02/2018 17:11

Yes limited. Plus if you don't have much money when you go out to eat you are less likely to order something unfamiliar or go to a really amazing restaurant in the first place. Especially if you are feeding kids. Because if they don't eat it you won't be able to afford the chicken nugget replacement.

LinoVentura · 01/02/2018 17:34

There really are some ridiculous posts on this thread. And I've not even read most of it.

I find this thread very rude. Classist and racist. If white British people are so bloody rude and awful why live here with us?

I find your comment very rude and awful. And it makes no sense either. The OP gets criticised for not feeding their kid processed garbage made by multinational corporations, wonders why people would criticise her in that way - and in your opinion that means the OP is insulting the British white working class and needs to repatriate herself.

I think you've been reading the Sun and/or Daily Mail too much.

LinoVentura · 01/02/2018 17:50

I think it's a universal trait that people of all ages all over the world prefer the food of their own country, whatever it may be. However here in the UK most people don't actually eat traditional British food that regularly. That's a big change that's occurred over recent decades, e.g. my British grandparents only ever ate traditional British food. I imagine their diet was quite similar to that of their parents (disregarding changes in food production). The same with other British people I knew of that generation. Very very few people now have a similar diet. I'm pretty sure other countries have not disregarded their culinary traditions to such an extent.

I'm also pretty sure that chicken nuggets, turkey twizzlers and fish fingers are relatively recent additions to the canon of British cuisine.

TatianaLarina · 01/02/2018 17:57

I think it's a universal trait that people of all ages all over the world prefer the food of their own country, whatever it may be

Don’t think that’s true at all. I quite dislike a lot of British food - roast red meat, pies, fish and chips, Yorkshire pudding, sausages, baked beans, stodgy bread etc

Love Japanese food though.

BarbarianMum · 01/02/2018 18:31

Good God no! British cuisine is way, way down my list. I mean, I like a good roast dinner occasionally or fish and chips by the sea by give me spicy, unboiled veggies any day.

LinoVentura · 01/02/2018 18:33

Me too. But I'm not normal.

Indeed maybe nowadays, what with people being generally more well-travelled, we're in the majority. Nonetheless it's still a common sentiment.

Original poster
StandardRussian66 · 01/02/2018 18:40

If white British people are so bloody rude and awful why live here with us?

This politest way of being told “fuck off back where you came from” I ever had Grin

OP posts:
BarbarianMum · 01/02/2018 18:48

Yes foreigners should feel honoured to be here and must never complain about any xenophobic attitudes they encounter, didn't you know? That's cause this is the best country ever with the most friendly, tolerant people you could ever hope to meet. Wink

sixteenapples · 01/02/2018 18:51

Really OP you are not being very nice about your friends - you have criticized their culture, their food choices, their conversation and seem to think that you are in some way superior. You have given the same impression on here. And as for the Japanese connection ... are you sure the Japanese attitude to childrearing is so perfect?

Sounds like everyone was having a nice time. I hope none of them reads this

TheElementsSong · 01/02/2018 19:02

Oh dear, what an unfortunate juxtaposition of posts Grin

Justanotherlurker · 01/02/2018 19:02

Yes foreigners should feel honoured to be here and must never complain about any xenophobic attitudes they encounter, didn't you know? That's cause this is the best country ever with the most friendly, tolerant people you could ever hope to meet.

I think the xenophobic part was assuming that mushed food and kids menus is an inherently a british thing, despite many people saying otherwise.

LinoVentura · 01/02/2018 19:09

Oh dear, what an unfortunate juxtaposition of posts

Grin
Original poster
StandardRussian66 · 01/02/2018 19:36

sixteen

I have done none of those things. 🙄

OP posts:
Original poster
StandardRussian66 · 01/02/2018 19:39

I observed thing I have only seen in Britain, on many occasions.
I only ask a question.

OP posts:
HarrietSmith · 01/02/2018 19:39

I gather that it is the Industrial Revolution that is responsible for a poor British diet. People were removed from the land into crowded urban housing - working long hours and often forced to buy adulterated food from factory-owned shops. A tradition of cooking with fresh produce and passing on skills from one generation to the next faded away.Later, with increased income, people became targeted by more sophisticated advertising - for convenience foods and 'special' jars and pouches of food for babies.

Original poster
StandardRussian66 · 01/02/2018 19:41

*Really OP you are not being very nice about your friends - you have criticized their culture, their food choices, their conversation and seem to think that you are in some way superior. You have given the same impression on here. And as for the Japanese connection ... are you sure the Japanese attitude to childrearing is so perfect?

Sounds like everyone was having a nice time. I hope none of them reads this*

Actually this post really make me laugh. Clearly you can not read.
They criticise my food, rude to me, but that is my fault?

OP posts:
SheGotBetteDavisEyes · 01/02/2018 19:48

OP, were you brought up in Japan or did you spend your own childhood there?

TitaniasCloset · 01/02/2018 19:50

You all can take my posts any which way you feel. By all means stereotype me as a sun and daily mail reader. Really couldn't give a shit. But I sensed a feeling of superiority and a classism in some pp so I responded to that because it pissed me off.

I also posted some nice constructive things, but yes ignore those too. The working class British woman is clearly a racist.

Get to fuck!! Carry on.

Original poster
StandardRussian66 · 01/02/2018 19:50

I grew up in Russia. My mother is Japanese. My father is German. Moved to England when I was 10.

OP posts:
TitaniasCloset · 01/02/2018 19:53

I think there is a way of speaking to people and listening to them, if they feel you are being superior they might just be very rude back. Especially British people, we aren't loud about national pride like Americans, but if we feel someone has crossed a line most of us do get sensitive and butt hurt.

TitaniasCloset · 01/02/2018 19:54

Wow! What a combination of races and identities. That's amazing. I'm sorry I assumed you weren't British.

Original poster
StandardRussian66 · 01/02/2018 19:55

Why you think I am being superior? I asked my kid what she wanted o eat and she told me. When the food arrived everyone make comment about it. I have already said this many times.

OP posts:
TitaniasCloset · 01/02/2018 19:57

Oh I wasn't talking about you OP in that post, but previous posters who I felt were being rude. Then wondering why I was rude back to them.