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?

@PyongyangKipperbang that's very lovely of you, but we are right down south! I've said on another thread but do have a mum willing to drop us food, but it's a 3 hour round trip and we're waiting for clarification on whether this is even allowed or classed as essential as it's such a long way.

(FWIW I don't mind if people are using food to play with, whatever gets you through lockdown, I know my comment wasn't entirely relevant to the OP!)

i get more worked up by people buying expensive supermarket birthday cakes or bottles of gin when there is a food bank collection next to the checkout.

Why? It’s more than possible to buy the gin AND contribute.

I think it is ok. There isn't actually a shortage of food, just a supply and demand issue.

There's this wierd competitiveness about how unhappy people should be while in quarantine. Suffering isn't a virtue.

Toys and activities are essential for dc's mental wellbeing.

Not really. There’s no food shortages.
Why shouldn’t people use it for those purposes?
No one NEEDS flour to make food anyway. Eat something else. We aren’t running out of food.

Some of these parents have children with learning difficulties who "mouth" and sensory food play is safest.

than plastic toys.

I’ve been very grateful for the plastic toys that I and my siblings played with as children, that then were given to my cousins, then did a ten year stint while my mother was a childminder and are now being made great use of by my own preschoolers.

Today talked my 17 year old out of using cornflour mixed with silicon as a moulding medium for an art project - I'd never heard of it before but it's actually very good gets a very detailed impression; I was impressed - I didn't mind her using the half-used tube of silicon but the cornflour I drew the line at. We settled on using a bag of scone mix that is at least two years out of date and was bloody awful even before.

@LaurieMarlow well, obviously, as I do both, but I can't get worked up about a bit of flour being put to good use. My DM used flour and water to make glue during the war.

There are so many food issues to get worked up about which are more serious than making homemade play doh. I guess it's all relative though and some people just won't want to use food for anything other than human consumption.

Laurie exactly!

I actually didn’t know that kids made pasta necklaces etc till I started working and I was amazed anyone could afford to waste food like that.

I’m pleased to say the plastic alphabet I played with as a child is enjoying a third generation with mum’s neighbours grandchildren.

I have a big bag of flour, bought months before this that I only use a bit of weekly or every other week for a specific thing. There's no way in hell at any point that I'll make my own bread or even need to. So if DD wanted to make salt dough so be it.

It's not like someone else would use my opened bag of flour anyways.

No one NEEDS flour to make food anyway.

WTF!? Do you just live out of tins?

I need flour. I make scones, parathas, egg pasta, my own pizza bases, cheese sauce for mac and cheese, gnocchi, dumplings, crumble toppings, pastry and so on. Christ on a stick! I'd be lost without flour in my kitchen.

Beep the only thing I can offer to post is soap, I have an unopened bar of Pears. I also have quite a few stamps my late father bought (!) so I could post it without having to go to a Post Office.

If that would help you, DM me your address and I’ll post it tomorrow.

A bag of penne is 55p at Tesco. More than enough to eat and play with if you're so inclined.

Princess “ It's not like someone else would use my opened bag of flour anyways.”

My shop was out of flour last time so I totally would. Run out of yeast as well though....

LynetteScavo - no sadly. We used the shell of one that had been eaten as a boiled egg and lots of children told DS that he would be disqualified because the egg wasn't there (he wasn't). If they do it again next year, I will definitely object.

Run out of yeast as well though....

Mine expired in 2017... still unopened. If I make any plans to leave the house and go past a post office I'll let you know.

👏👏👏 I can't for the LIFE of me find flour to BAKE or COOK with.

Some people have more money than sense.

If any of you live near foreign shops(turkish,eastern european etc) that are open, give them a go. When things when completely bonkers the first time OH found them fully stocked... bread, tins, cured meats, pasta (£1 tho) ,flour etc.

Is this satire? 😂

It's no more irresponsible than usual, as there is no shortage of food, just supply issues due to people buying more than usual.

I'm not sure what I think. I don't like to waste food, but I can see how most people would see a cup or two of dried pasta as acceptable, given it would last as a toy for years. It's no more a waste of the earth's resources than any other toy.

....I have a now three year old tub of dry tube pasta dyed with food colouring, for necklace making. In the next year or two I expect to cook and eat it (not due to famine, but as a matter of course, as it becomes an unwanted toy). Pasta gets stood in boiling water to cook it, that will deal with any residual toddler-cooties.

But there really aren't shortages in some areas. My local Sainsbury's had everything fully stocked on Sunday, and apparently the other local supermarkets are the same. They were low on pasta, but that was only a problem if you are fussy about the shape. There wasn't massive amounts of tinned soup, but again it depends how fussy you are. The only thing they didn't have was turmeric. Maybe these play doh making wasters live near me.

Are the people low on food in remote areas?

If it isnt to keep you alive then it isnt essential

I hope you are only eating lentils, bread and carrots and drinking water. And not reading books or watching TV. Only the essentials for life at this time.

I was in Asda today, their baking section was fully stocked so I saw nothing wrong with nabbing a bag of the cheapest plain flour for cloud dough and some cornflour for ooblek, great playtime activities.
I didn't do it last week because there was only a few bags left on the shelf and I felt guilty taking it for play if others needed it for food.
Supermarkets round here are fairly well stocked now as they are limiting the amounts of things people can buy, there was never a food shortage, just an idiot surplus.

I think it's perfectly fine to use food for play, just don't go posting it on Facebook, that's when you become a nob!