What's the obsession with what our kids eat??

[LiteraryDevil]

Every time I look at MN there's a post asking if x,y and z is suitable for dc's breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever. Said posts are usually full of healthy ish foods and anything like crisps or chocolate is said to be an unusual addition because of course no one in their right mind would feed their DC "unhealthy" food
What's with this obsession with what our kids are eating? Are parents passing on their own unhealthy obsessions onto their kids? Or is it a way to boast about what a good parent you are because you only give your child healthy meals and fruit for snacks? Haribo have obviously never passed their lips
Is this just a case or MN versus RL or am I being unreasonable to find it so bloody annoying?! (And yes I know I don't have to be here or read them)

I'd say it's obviously good to feed your kids healthily and not give sweeties, etc everyday but that on MN threads about kids food take on some weird competitive parenting vibe and I doubt all posters are 100% truthful.

Validation

Reckon you've started another one OP

I agree OP. Why the confusion anyway, don't people know what healthy is? There's enough boring tv programmes about it these days.

I always feel slightly guilty when those discussions come up. My ds eats a pretty boring diet of fish fingers, sausages, cheese, pizza and tomatoes. I can home cook fresh veg, cottage pie or goulash every day of the week but he won't touch it.
My only claim to good parenting is he doesn't like fizzy drinks.

I salute people who get their dcs to eat a perfect diet but mine just isn't interested.

Agree with OP. Couldn't give a shiny shit what people think of DD's food, she eats well, isn't overweight and is rudely, rudely healthy. She gets plenty of veggies. And plenty of sweeties.

Bumble the point is I really don't want to know what every one else feeds their kids. It's akin to listening what diets your work colleagues are on. My eyes roll to heaven and glaze over. It makes me think that Why Mummy Drinks is aimed at MN posters

Actually OP I find the exact opposite to you! I've posted today about how surprised I am that many mums here are still putting choc biscuits, crisps, Hoola whatsits etc into lunchboxes.

Isn't this a TAAT?

I wouldn't ask MN about whether food is healthy. You get 45% competitive orthrexics, 45% competitive over feeders, and 10% vaguely normal people who get ignored. I don't give a shite, DD had a Happy Meal for lunch today.

What's with this obsession with what our kids are eating?

The horrifying and costly (in human and economic terms) increase in childhood obesity?

Many people (rightly) realise they don’t have a good handle on ‘normal’ and want to get an idea of what others do.

Others are no doubt competitive and sanctimonious. But it’s really not that much of a head-scratcher as to why people are worried about what kids are eating.

To show how wonderful they are compared to normal people who have better things to do than seek validation from a bunch of strangers by bragging about the fact their kid loves broccoli and boiled fish.

It does seem a bit obsessive. So long as kids are healthy and eat a reasonably balanced diet it shouldn't matter too much. The obsession about what type of bread a 7 year-old's sandwich is made from or the debate over full-fat or semi-skimmed milk is a bit over the top. Yes, we should try to instill healthy habits but being too controlling over food intake is as likely to conjure up future problems as not exerting enough control.

Maltesers my best lunches were the ones my dad made which was a rarity but they always contained extra chocolate biscuits. I used to have club biscuits back in the 80s or a single twin finger. If he was doing my lunch I'd have 2

Ive had the usual m/c concern over my kids food. However I've got friends who think it's really odd to worry. Her kids get crisps and chocolate bar every day in lunch. Often cake after school and kids are slimmer than mine and healthy. Has made me question whether I worry too much

Don't read them then...

For me I've always been worried and make comparisons not to boast but to help me feel like I'm doing ok, so as a PP said, for validation - but only because I want my child to eat normally, have a balanced diet and not get any weird food issues, so maybe it's paranoia as well

Before school promoted healthy eating and banning certain foods my children's packed lunch consisted of

Sandwich or wrap
Small yogurt
Pkt crisps
Apple, banana or grapes (which were eaten at 10.30 break)
Small kitkat/penguin/viscount biscuit
Carton of squash

They would eat whatever I made for dinner and we always had a takeaway on a Saturday night. We even ate at McDonald's and pizza hut sometimes.

None were overweight. All were active and they all made it to adulthood - Phew!

Schools invented the healthy lunch regime because of parents who consistently sent their kids to school with a lunchbox consisting of 2 packs of crisps and a mars bar or the equivalent.

You are right op, the posts about whether little Freddie has enough heathly food in his lunch box drives me round the bend. I feel it is just another form of competitive parenting and makes the parents of fussy eaters feel like crap. If either of my DC ate as much fruit, veg and mung beans a day as some posters claim they would have the chronic shits.
I also find it a bit weird and slightly obsessive.

DD had a perfect breastfed/organic puréed start in life, long before the days of ‘baby led weaning’ I gave her little bits off of my plate whilst she finger painted her high chair with her puréed carrots. Then she turned 3 and refused everything.....for no reason. Until she was 9 she lived on weetabix, milk, bananas, spaghetti hoops, toast, wotsits and chocolate. There was nothing I could do to change this. She grew and thrived despite this. The turning point came when she was 9-10 and she starting trying new things. If there had been a mumsnet then I would have been panicking and terrified that she had some sort of eating disorder or I was a terrible neglectful parent.
DS gets his 5 a day in one form or another and I’m more than happy with that, he’s active, slim and as healthy as he can be.

I once took DD to a birthday party, it was in a field, brilliant idea, it was a warm sunny day and the kids played rounders and hide and seek, it was really lovely. Then the covers were taken off the party food. No cake, no biscuits, no crisps, no doughy mothers pride white bread sandwiches. It was carrot sticks and various other boring delicacies, the kids faces dropped. It was a party for ffs.

If parents in real life really obsess this much about what their kids eat on a daily basis I’m jealous of them because I have far more serious things to worry about.

Also I’m sure a 6 year old is able to open his/her mouth and say I’d like more lunch/snacks tomorrow because I was hungry today.

Rant over.

I hate all the ‘eating’ threads on MN. They are always full of folk who seem to think that the ideal is to not actually consume calories at all (‘Gosh, a slice of cucumber? I’d only be able to manage half of that! It’s no wonder you’re having to squeeze yourself into a size four if you’re stuffing yourself with empty cucumber carbs. It’s people like you who are putting pressure on the NHS.’) or who have to eat four large pizzas for breakfast (‘But I’ve always been slim and run 75 miles a day.’) The children ones are just as bad, (‘My DD eats one tomato a day and is lovely and slim. She did get a bit of a tummy so I swapped her tomato for a cherry tomato and she eats it whilst running laps of the garden.’)

Fucking ridiculous.

Glad it's not just me!

Well well, what the hell is the point of an online forum if people don't ask for opinions? Out of hundreds of posts a day possibly, a few pop up about what to feed kids, I bet a load of posts are about should I leave my husband, and why do people discriminate against trans people, does that irritate you as well op?

bobstersmum....... I find these posts irritating because the poster knows full well that their child is eating a healthy diet already, why ask thousands of strangers on the internet if there’s enough food in their child’s lunch box, surely nobody knows their child better than their parent? It also depends on the child’s activity levels and their build which we obviously don’t know. Also why not just ask your child if it’s enough bloody food!!!
It’s nothing but a shameless stealth boast, not only claiming that their child eats very healthy but as parents they can afford the good stuff, many parents can’t. If you have £2.50 in your purse to feed yourself and 2 DC you are not going to buy a pack of blueberries.
If you have a fussy child there is actually nothing you can do, you can’t tempt them with anything, my DD turned down everything, the kid even refused McDonald’s! This was back in the 90’s and I did speak to my health visitor who informed me that she will eat when she’s hungry, that was it.
If there had been all this angst back then about bread, milk, exotic fruit and vegetables I would have been a gibbering worried wreck and feel that I had failed her.
It’s parent (usually Mother) shaming which is why I don’t like these sort of posts.

Ok sorry I have misread the point of the post, you don't just mean people asking generally what to feed their child. I understand, I think the threads you are talking about, if they are just goady mums, we should ignore them then!