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?

Yes I can imagine, and that is wrong. You can cook things that everyone will likely. So everyone likes roast chicken here. They all like different veg, so I make different veg they help themselves too.

And occasionally we have a takeaway and everyone gets to choose what they like.

My MIL does this and she is in her 80's and Swedish so I guess it is neither a new thing or a UK thing.

We don't do it (never have) but our kids would rather eat blander foods on the whole.

I get irrationally annoyed when out with people who get a main meal and a spare plate for their children. The only family I
Know who do it feed their children tiny portions and it’s like their giving scraps of their food to the children. Only the 11 year old is allowed a child meal, the 7 and 4 YO just eat a bit of mums. Grim

i think people just get annoyed with this negativity towards Britain/the British (rude white British with obese children, apparently) from people who have moved here from other places.
I mean presumably they didn't move here because it was rubbish.

My kids have always loved my food more than there's, even when we have the same.

I am British - most places I go kids food is just a smaller helping than the adults portions (and cheaper).

I think it's maybe your friends that are unusual.

I have to say I wish my kids didn't like calamari so much - the greedy bunch eat too much of it and I end up fighting for any.

If we eat out we always ds something 'safe'. He gets overwhelmed enough by being there so we stick to very familiar foods that we know he will recognise.

I don't know anyone who cooks separate food for their kids. I certainly don't have the money or time to do that. And when going out I think the kids menu is because they eat less. My 3 year old loves his food but wouldn't manage an adult portion. Most places I've been to offer the usual fish fingers, chicken nuggets etc but also pasta, smaller portions of adult food, jacket potatoes etc and always offer vegetables with them. But then I only eat out a few times a year due to cost so doesn't really matter if that one meal isn't perfectly balanced anyway surely.

I have also lived in several other countries in Europe and ME and not noticed Britain to be any different at all in this respect.

It's a British thing.

My MIL and FIL fully expected me and DH to feed our child earlier and put her to bed... then we would have an adult meal. I said no, we eat as a family... she eats what we eat. IMO it has helped her with trying new things and eating what she is given... rarely does she not eat what is given to her at meal times. They are British.

My DH and I were at play gym a discussion was started about meals... one dad said he found it so exhausting to feed, Bath and put children to bed... then go and have his dinner. We were asked what we do... we explained they all looked a bit "wow" that works etc etc.

I'm not British in my household we all ate together... food was prepared accordingly to accommodate as much as possible small children so nothing overly spicy, sweet or salty. You could always adjust to your liking at the table.

I find the British way very backwards as I believe the aim is to get variety in... with varying textures and flavours.... mush is just mush.

|| www.google.co.uk/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/10/kirstie-allsopp-british-approach-childrens-food-frankly-idiotic/amp/||

It's a British thing

Nope. No matter how many times you try and insult British people by saying this, its not true. I'm not British. It's the same everywhere.

Once I was flying down to visit my dad with my 12 mo. You're allowed to take 'baby food' through security and for ds this included a tub of greek yoghurt. I was questioned over it as security had a list of baby foods allowed - petit filous were on it but not greek yoghurt It took me a while to convince him it was for ds.

Im Australian and I think it's definitely a British thing. OH's family are all into feeding the children (something horrendous) first then sitting down to an adult meal afterwards. I've stopped MIL doing it when we visit because it's important to us that our kids eat with us and eat what we eat. I think it teaches children that there are "foods that kids don't eat", when actually ours will eat most things that are put in front of them.

i don't care what Kirstie Allsop says, she probably has a cook and a nanny anyway.
I have never cooked separate meals for my children, and i am `100 per cent Brit. well except for the Irish bit.
All this 'the British are like this or that' really pisses me off, especially off some posh bint who doesn't even live in the real world.

still not a british thing. Kids menus exist all over Australia

I can remember there being a children’s menu in the Berni Inn way back in the 70s and 80s. We were quite a privileged family so went abroad every year, often twice a year, always self catering so we could eat out. There were children’s menus all over Europe, we didnt have to order off them because they’d do a half portion of something off the main menu. It was quite handy for my brother, however, who actually got to eat something (usually beige) without my father barking at him that he would sit there until he’d eaten what my mother had put in front of him. We never had anything my dad didn’t like though, strangely.

When DS1 was 3 he’d eat anything, DS2 was a fussy little toad. Now they are 21 & 23 and it’s DS2 who will eat more or less anything and it has been that way for quite a few years

But you honestly can't see that for some families cooking a separate meal for their kids might be easier due to their lifestyles? Or just cause then the child will eat if they have sen etc. I don't think you can lump anything under the 'it's british' I think it depends on different families. My mum cooked tea for 5pm everyday no matter What, my dad had his left in the microwave as he works later than that. Still now with no kids she does this. Different families eat differently.

My DS was extremely fussy. Had a preference for beige foods and no sauces. Did my best to expand his palate, but also had a job to go to as well so ended up with default of easy dishes that I knew he'd eat to cook when I got back from work.

Suddenly at the age of 11 his tastes have expanded enormously. Over the past few months - since we went on holiday to Italy - he decided that shellfish are his favourite thing and a trip to our Mussel Inn was a recent treat for him. Meanwhile my BF's DD who as a DC happily ate most things and her favourite sandwich was salmon and avocado, will only eat junk food.

I'm not exactly sure what point I'm trying to make, except that you sound a wee bit smug. Sure it's great if your DC will eat everything from a young age, but I remember angsting so much about the lack of variety in DS's diet, and feeling guilty about my bad parenting, and now I'm delighted that he's eating more foods.

Definitely not just a British thing. I have lived in 4 countries too, and have been in Italy for 24 years.

Italian children eat just as much junk food as other kids, trust me. And many Italian mothers will feed their kids pasta and tomato sauce every day of the week because it's what their kids like.

In restaurants children will be served their pasta and sauce first, while the adults dip into the antipasti. I've rarely seen childrens' menus, true, but that's because the parents will say "he'll have a bowl of pasta and sauce instead of...."

My dp was a chef in a tourist resort and it was very common for mothers to bring their own pasta and insist on cooking it themselves in the hotel kitchen.

A friend of mine wouldn't give her child spaghetti till she was about 10 because she was terrified she'd choke.

When dd was about 10 months old, she loved cauliflower. I was told she'd die a terrible death (virtually) because everyone knows children can't eat cauliflower till they're about 12.

She's now 14 and hasn't touched it since she was about 3 so I'd say to all the "my 11 month old eats everything" that that's great, but hubris can be a sobering thing, and the minute they realise they can say "no" then they'll start exercising the right to do so.

I'm not a native brit, its not a british thing, I also travel the globe with work and it's a lot more common than you think and has been for decades.

My DH and I were at play gym a discussion was started about meals... one dad said he found it so exhausting to feed, Bath and put children to bed... then go and have his dinner. We were asked what we do... we explained they all looked a bit "wow" that works etc etc.

Yep, those disbelieving looks you get are definitely at your amazing and original advice, not at how patronising you're being...

For fucks sake. Can we stop assuming a whole nation has exactly the same habits?
I’m British. We eat with our children and they eat the same food as we do. Every single one of my friends does the same with their children. Guess what? They’re British too. I can’t believe we’re a rare exception to the ‘rule’ that all British children only eat bland, beige food.

We go to France a lot and many places have a kid's menu (not just tourist towns). Have seen many French families ordering chicken nuggets and frites so it's not just a British thing.

DullAndOld I agree! What’s with all the ‘British people are ignorant and backwards’ comments...I’ve seen this on so many threads. Leave us alone, us Brits are quite nice you know!

Gosh just looking through this thread. It’s quite racist!