To think a 10 year old should eat crusts

[PenguinPizza]

My stepson is 11 in a few months and only eats the middle of his sandwiches and then is hungry 1 hour after lunch and grazes on snacks all day. I don't understand why, at nearly 11, he is having his crusts cut off or being allowed to leave them. Is this normal? Do lots of people leave their crusts? Fyi he doesn't have any problems with swallowing or have any allergies.

silencebeforethebleeps I was also brought up to eat things I didn't like. I would actually vomit some foods back up (I have never in my life managed to keep down a banana or a parsnip).

Needless to say I don't do that to my children.

Crusts on your average sliced loaf are not nice, I don't blame him.

Yes, it wouldn't occur to me not to. This is how I was brought up

I was brought up like that too. Which is why i DONT force my children to eat things they don’t like.

The only foods I am unable to eat as an adult were those I was forced to eat. (And did vomit back up one one memorable occasion). Foods I hated as a child, but wasn’t forced to eat, (eg olives) im actually fine with as my tastes changed.

YABU. He's not leaving half the sandwich, crusts make ul a small amount og the toast.

I also don't like crusts,, they are boring to eat i'd much rather just have another piece of toast

My husband is 48 and doesn't eat crusts.

Some people just don't like them. He also won't eat crusty rolls, only soft ones.

Would you force a child to eat something they don’t like
Yes, it wouldn't occur to me not to. This is how I was brought up.
I’m sorry your parents abused you, but you could have stopped the cycle and educated yourself.

Another, several decades under the belt and not fussed with crust. I love crust on freshly baked bread but if at the end of the day, any older or supermarket bread, forget it, never going to happen. The way to save a lot of the sand which is to cut the crust off. When you eat it, you do tend to leave a lot of bread while ditching the crust but if you cut them off then you eat the majority of the bread.

My primary school years are tainted by the school insisting on an empty plate at lunch times. Not so much for me, I remember not liking it but managing to force it down. But there was one girl who looking back must have had phobias or sensory issues, and she regularly vomited over the dinner table. So of course none of us wanted to be friends with her because then we'd have to sit beside her at dinners.

Poor thing.

I think step mothers should stop mentioning the step part of the relationship when they post here.

If the OP had expressed her frustration that her SON only ate the middle of his sandwich and then demanded more food later, this thread would have gone very differently.

gahd i don't think i could cope being in the presence of all these people who don't eat crusts. what a waste.

I think step mothers should stop mentioning the step part of the relationship when they post here.

I can see your point but part of the problem is is that as a step parent, they feel they have little or no say in the matter because heaven forbid a step parent should step on any natural parent's toes. Even when they're right.

Honestly, I couldn't get worked up about my child, or anyone else's child not eating the crusts on their sandwich
Particularly if it was a step child, I would rather they had a positive experience then get worked up about something so small.
I would never force my children to eat anything. If they don't eat something that I know they like, then they are only allowed plain yoghurt or fruit afterwards. If they have tried something new, I don't mind what they eat afterwards. I just never want my kids to have issues with food.

My mother is horrified if crusts are left on sandwiches. Born 1927.

I only like chewy crusts on a freshly baked bakery loaf. Your standard boring loaf from the supermarket - bleurgh. I won’t eat them either. They’re dry and taste burnt.

Maybe you should have a look at your food issues yourself OP? Did you grow up poor? DH grew up with very little money and hates wasting food. It drives me nuts, and I tend not to make issues around food with the kids. Eat what you like, leave the rest. It’s really no big deal.

It’s because of this kind of shit that I hope dh and I never split up.

I don't eat mine and in my 50's.
Why don't you like him, it's pretty obvious.
Do you have to parent him, or does your oh parent his child.

My children eat what they want to eat, they aren’t forced or expected to eat anything they don’t like just as I don’t eat foods I dislike as an adult.

I don't like crusts on bread or on pizza. I think it's because they don't have any filling or topping on.

A few years ago I would have been like you, thinking they should be eaten, but actually my husband will quite happily eat them for me so no harm done!

Loads of people don’t like crusts. If he doesn’t like them, he doesn’t like them. Why make a big deal out of it? Sounds like you need to feed him more food!

I don’t like sandwiches, don’t even get me started on crusts!

I saw another school mum leaving the pizza crusts at a meal out yesterday and thought it was odd but clearly she is not alone! Fussy eating of any kind gives me an irrational rage if I'm doing the cooking/prepping. If I could never cook a meal one member of the family disliked we would eat separately every day. To those saying no-one should ever have to eat something they don't like, I think there has to be a degree of compromise. If I was at a dinner party and someone served a food I disliked, I would eat it to be polite and, in the absence of allergies or a specific diet, if an adult or teen left food I had cooked because they 'didn't like it', I would find that rude.

That said, this is a battle for his dad, not you.

Some of you are very , very petty people.

I leave my crusts. Always have they're horrid like slithers of stale bread

Why don’t you just buy him crust less bread so there's no arguments.

I’m a fan of kingsmill no crusts. Life’s too short to be forced to eating food you don’t like

YANBU. Depressing how little people care about food waste. And is it so terrible to suggest that kids should eat something they dislike? In our house if they don't like it, fine, they don't have to eat it but they certainly won't be getting snacks later on. I've had friends of DC do this at my house, I don't comment but I do judge their parents! Never met an adult who didn't eat their crusts, that's pathetic.

It worries me that people are this stupid. Use a bit of logic. If the OP buys a loaf of bread and uses the whole loaf to make sandwiches for her stepson, she has used one loaf of bread. If she makes the same sandwiches but cuts the crust off, or ‘lets’ her stepson leave them, she has used the exact same amount of food - one loaf of bread. What is so hard to understand?

Of course food waste is an issue. But if you’re concerned about it, lobby supermarket chains who order the disposal of perfectly good food to give it to the homeless instead. Lobby the government to pass a law forcing supermarkets to donate unwanted food, as already happens in France. Don’t force children into eating food they don’t want on the premise that anything else is ‘a waste’.