"Eat your crusts" is a pointless argument

[MaMaD1990]

Making my daughters lunch and she has started peeling the crusts off her sandwiches. I remember being told to eat my crusts when I was little and "it'll make your hair curly" encouragement yada yada. AIBU to think this is a battle not worth having if your kids don't eat crusts? Does it matter?

I was just thinking about this the other day! My nans used to tell me "All the goodness is in the crust!" I liked my crusts and my brother didn't and I remember feeling ever so smug.

I think it is an argument worth having, as food should not be wasted.

@CuthbertDibbleandGrubb

I think it is an argument worth having, as food should not be wasted.

No need to waste crusts, cut them off, make into breadcrumbs, no arguments needed.

People who create unnecessary arguments with young children need to have a think about why they choose that path.

@CuthbertDibbleandGrubb

I think it is an argument worth having, as food should not be wasted.

But as I said, forcing kids to eat crusts doesn’t stop waste. Two slices of bread have been used either way. All that’s ‘achieved’ by forcing the issue is that the kids eat something they don’t want; they get no benefit from it.

I LOVE crust on fresh bread, it’s my favourite bit. Once that bread is a day old the crust is just blergh though, I’m not choking it down.

I had one crust refuser, who also did the one bite out of the middle thing. There was certainly less waste if I just cut the actual crust off before serving, then they either got chucked outside for the birds, or taken to feed the ducks (or eaten by dc2 who quite liked them ) I remember it really bugging me at the time, and I made a much bigger deal of food than I should have done. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have chosen that hill to die on.

My 60+ year old mother leaves the crusts from everything, leaves veg, leaves salad. It always seems very childish to me and odd to do it as an adult, just a bit annoying if small.

Why does it annoy you?

I got so fed up of crusts being brung back squished up in the packed lunch bag that I now buy a crust less loaf specifically.

It's only a waste of food if you're chucking it out and replacing it with something else. If you don't want to eat the whole sandwich I don't think that's an issue. I'm not a big fan of crusts but I'll eat them if I'm hungry. I'll leave them if I've had enough.

Definitely cut the crusts off if you want to minimise waste. Fussy eaters will leave a lot more than you cut off.