AIBU to find using food as play material really irresponsible at the moment?

[Gabilou]

Just as the title says really. I keep seeing people making salt dough decorations using half (!!!) a bag of flour. That's over 2 sour loaves... also painting pasta, using it for sensory play, along with flour. It just seems there is a shortage of those ingredients and people aren't even using them for food! Am I being an unreasonable grump or is that just plain irresponsible and wasteful?

offs, letrs hope they are not regretting it soon.

yanbu.

Well if you have a lot in then I don,t see the prob but def do not go out to specifically buy food for sensory play.

I would assume they're using food they had in anyway, or that was bought for play and they wouldn't make anything with it anyway.

But I agree with you - buying food for play at the moment is irresponsible. Find a substitute. Your child won't be taken in care or spend their entire adulthood in therapy if you have neglected to make a pasta necklace with them.

People probably have a surplus due to panic buying and that's why they are suddenly so keen on making playdough etc.
A hideous waste when others can't buy these items. A few pointed remarks on their social media should help them realise the error of their ways

You make a very good point.

If they have that much extra food lying around that they can play with it perhaps they should donate some to a food bank.

I'm actually one of those mums! 🙈 I wanted to make some sensory play for my little boy tomorrow. I already have the pasta and Im happy to forego having it if it means something he can use again and again. And I didn't stockpile...

YANBU my kids school sent home a salt dough related activity with no flour in the shops, good one guys. I’m keeping mine for actually eating!

Yes, I wanted to do printing with the DC. Very briefly considered potato printing but decided no, food is precious and we are trying to shop as infrequently as possible

It's the volume that is shocking... Using s cup of flour to make dough is very different to using half bag, or even a whole bag. Or a handful of pasta.

I've stepped away from all the social media 'ideas for lockdown' nonsense... It's competitive parenting, and I have no idea how some people will sustain it!

I guess it depends. Some of my friends are using the lockdown as an opportunity to sort through the depths of their cupboards and they’re finding some hilariously out of date stuff. If it’s things they wouldn’t use anyway and haven’t gone out specifically to buy loads of, then I’d say it’s OK.

Oh FFS. What did you expect by asking this question? Of course it’s fine and it’s hardly the crime of the century. Someone making salt dough is not depriving someone else.

What’s with the competitive deprivation of any kind of pleasure?

Actually, scrub that. Get in the corner, kneel on sharp stones and stay there till June.

It depends really, I found an old bag of flour at the back of the cupboard that went off in 2016 and a bag of cornflour that went off in 2012. I figured they were no good for eating so used the cornflour for messy play. I was going to make play dough with the flour, but I realised we have no salt so that's not happened. Maybe people are using old flour like I've done?

We have a tub of pasta that's been played with for years, we'd need to be on the brink of starvation before I'd eat it, knowing all the grubby hands that have been over it. Irresponsible to buy new just for playing with at the moment though.

What’s with the competitive deprivation of any kind of pleasure?

Suggesting using food to play with, that’s difficult for many to buy now, is stupid & selfish is NOT deprivation of any kind of pleasure!

Jesus there’s plenty kids can play with, without using FOOD that other people need to FEED their families.

The shops here are fully stocked. Panic buying is over.
We are not having a food shortage just some idiots buying too much and now some people needing support getting their shopping.
We have enough food to feed us.
We just need to make sure everyone has access to it.

Yabu. There isn't a significant food shortage and shouldn't be. Times are desperate enough as it is without joy vampires

They are only depriving themseleves.

You know these people Are these people going and stock piling flour to play with?

You know it's not out of date, or they never bake or bought to do something different with their kids?

Do you monitor how people use loo roll as well?

YANBU.

I’ve never been able to stomach painting rice for my child to play with.

There is not a shortage of food. What there is is twats panic buying. If you have plenty of food in why would there be a problem

As someone who has at times had to make food stretch as far as it can go, food waste is anathema to me so the salt dough thing was something I always struggled with. But now, its down right stupid to do it when potentially we could be looking at food shortages simply down to a lack of deliveries etc.

I am embracing my grandmothers view of make it tasty but make it last and never throw anything away!

But there isn't a food shortage

I've got about 4 half bags of flour in my cupboard, I haven't actually bout any in weeks, just grab it when I can't remember if there any in the house. Most of it is probably inedable anyway.

If you focus on what you are doing right instead of focusing on what others are doing wrong, life is much better for all of us.

We don't need to constantly do this to each other.

I agree with you but I think it's ok if done thoughtfully. We had some jelly my eldest daughter wanted to make and put into cup cases and then discovered it was past it's best before and refused to eat it. One or two a day to play with has lasted a while. And it would have been chucked otherwise. Lots of veg ends and peelings to make 'soup'. The odd bits of leftover cooked spaghetti. A couple of handfuls of oats which were reused for a few days and then ended up in the bath for my toddlers chicken pox. It's doable without major waste. And it's one of the few things my youngest loves to do. I need some things like that to get me through some days to be honest. I know that sounds quite pathetic but we're normally really busy and outdoorsy. She's needing lots of extra entertaining 😂

If you have plenty of food in why would there be a problem

Because if there is an increase in lockdown restrictions, plus an increase in cases, it may mean that there will be a shortage in deliveries, so what you have has got to last. It needs to go as far as it can.

This country has a shocking record of food waste anyway, surely in the current climate its socially and economically the responsible thing to do to make it last and not waste it? If only because it means less trips to the supermarket.

If it isnt to keep you alive then it isnt essential, therefore a pasta picture and salt dough hedgehog is not essential. Anyone who would suggest otherwise is a fuckwit.