AIBU to wish people would stop using flour for play dough

[Outtedagain]

Just that. Some people, like me, want to cook with it. I have just worked out (correctly I think) from Facebook feeds featuring play dough recipes that this is contributes to there being no flour.

Yabu. I used half a cup of play dough for my son and for what it's worth the flour was bought from a zero-waste refill shop where tons of flour goes completely untouched so it's hardly like I pinched the last bag from the supermarket shelf and deprived someone.

Half a cup - that's it. And it's providing lots of entertainment for my toddler and not to mention important fine motor development in a time when he isn't allowed to attend a single play group, play date, library trip or anything!

My fiancé is a paramedic who is putting himself at great risk to keep us all safe. If it's not ok for him to have his child play with a bit of play dough then really what has the world come to.

Better made into play dough than going off at the back of a cupboard.

I bought self raising flour from asda this morning. They also had the small bags of plain in. I am baking more now but only cos I have the time and enjoy doing it. The shelves were pretty full of most stuff

I already had a big packet. I'm making salt-dough handprints tomorrow and plan to bake them, paint them and keep them for years.

I’m with you OP, I don’t think food (especially one that is in demand) should be used as a sensory/toy at the moment

Don't think you can argue when a toddler has not many means of joy at the moment.

I think you can when people need food to eat. That trumps a toddlers fun tbh.

Hmm.... it's tricky but food waste really does need to be avoided right now.... our supply chains are shaky! A few hundred grams of flour isn't much on its own, but it adds up when replicated throughout a population.

I'm not a puritan, I'm all for kids having easter eggs, and people buying themselves treats like cakes or wine etc. But I'm against food waste normally and I think conserving food is even more important right now.

I can see that play dough is easy, but maybe people should try to do crafts that don't use food if possible? Clay, plasticine, Fimo etc.

@receptacle I wish you would tell my MIL that , just chucked 6 ‘healthy’ muffins in the bin she’s baked for us

Love the warm charitable vibe on this thread, I don't care ..I can do whatever I want.
Makes me all warm and fuzzy.

And...? I would be keeping the child too.

I'm howling at this response

I’m with you OP, I don’t think food (especially one that is in demand) should be used as a sensory/toy at the moment I don’t think food, especially one that is in demand, should be used to make unnecessary cake or biscuits.

Still pissing myself over this one

"No more gems or snot than the child playing with it."

Again where has OP or me or anyone else said they want to use it for cake, you are all just assuming.

I use flour a lot as stated above for pasta, bread, pies etc., for meals which I can then freeze, pisses me right off when I can't get any in the shops, pisses me off more when I see people wasting it for fun.

But yeah, I'm the selfish one

I think you can when people need food to eat. That trumps a toddlers fun tbh. nobody needs cake and biscuits. And even if they did, there are plenty in the shops.

In fact perhaps if people weren’t so insistent on needing flour for cake there would be enough to go round for some cake and some play dough.

Or did it occur to some that many are buying flour to make cakes to entertain toddlers? Why is there a difference between entertaining a toddler with playdough and entertaining one by baking cakes which will probably end up in the bin anyway.

God forbid anyone have fun.

Wow OP, I don't know what's happened to MN, but the vitriol...

No you're not being unreasonable. I'm sorry for all the shit that's been thrown at you in this thread. People are just scared and stressed I suppose.

I do know where you can get some online. I'll check they still have stock and send you the link in a message x

Well this thread has shown who the selfish fuckers are hasn't it.

Who is that then?

Eating is vital seriously? do you live on just flour and nothing else then?

People always need a scapegoat to blame for anything. its not just that the supply chain is disrupted, its some poor mum or dad keeping their kids occupied thats to blame because thats the easy option. And the culture of blame is spectacularily magnifying over the last week, especially on SM.

Anybody can buy anything the want in a shop (rationing permitting) and what they do with it is nobodys business but their own. A parent using it for playdough when its already in their cupboard and they may actually regularly bake with it anyway, (how would anyone else know?) is NOT stopping anyone else from buying flour. The supply chain is. It will catch up soon.
Baking cakes is not more important than anything else.

Anyway the one thing that supermarkets never seem to have ran out of are cakes! There are always plenty on all my local supermarket shelves.

Keep your beak out

@ UnfinishedSymphon but you can buy bread, pasta, pastry etc. Having no flour doesn’t mean you have to go without, it just means that you might have to do something different from the norm.

I had a kg of chicken in my freezer for making chicken stock, but actually I figured it was better placed cutting it up and making pasta and pillar rice with it and buying stock cubes.

It’s all about the compromise.

And...? I would be keeping the child too.

Perfect repsonse

Crikey someone suggesting clay, plasticine or Fimo instead?

How does that fit in with all the shrill seeking threads about unnecessary purchases, think of the warehouse staff/delivery drivers yada yada?

Hypocrisy much? By the same token anyone who wants to make bread, pasta, pastry can just buy it, surely?

Oh, and as a rule I have to make stock because of the salt content in cubes *a 3rd of your daily allowance in one cube) but at this point in time I need to compromise on that because the vegetables I have are far better to be used in soups,pasta dishes etc.

The responses about not wasting food at a time like this make it sound like we are starving in sub Saharan Africa. There's less choice but we are hardly struggling for food.

I rather think that the lack of choice is less panic buying (altho there is def some) and more a change in life style. My shops are now epic. Not because I'm hoarding food, more because the kids were getting their snacks and lunch at nursery/school five days a week, I usually bought a sandwich out for lunch as did hubby and we usually had a treat out at the weekend. Thats six extra meals and snacks I need to find. I am using five times the amount of flour I usually would.

So no, its not the playdough makers, just a change in habits overall. We are not starving and kids development is important too!

I think it's unreasonable for people to use it for play when there is shortage.

I've not been able to get any flour for weeks in any of the big supermarkets. I rarely use it and had about 400gms left .

The shelves in Waitrose are devoid of it and when I put some in my online order from other stores it disappears as 'sold out' before my delivery date.

I don't use it only for cakes - it's for thickening sauces or coating chicken or fish sometimes when cooking.

Likewise,cornflour was in short supply.