Pudding after dinner?

[tuliplily]

If you have small children, do they/you have pudding after dinner? If so then what? Do you have the same thing?

DH always had dessert as a kid but I only had it on a Sunday ( usually crumble) after a roast.

My toddler has fruit and yogurt but rarely anything else.

AIBU:

Yes- of course we have pudding
No- rarely or never

There is always fruit on the table. The DC sometimes have a yogurt. There are biscuits and chocolate in the cupboard if they want them. We rarely eat pudding like crumble though I will sometimes make cake or pancakes.

@WorraLiberty Well of course it's possible to eat crumble for breakfast, or as a snack, or indeed my preference, as dinner rather than as a pudding after dinner.

I did make the assumption that people saying "my children never have a pudding after dinner" aren't people who will knock together a pavlova for a morning snack, or produced steamed pudding and custard in the middle of the afternoon. I can see that it is possible that they may do this, but I strongly suspect they don't...

@LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow - my DC would heartily agree with you about yoghurt!!

I remember v clearly when DD was about 5 and asked "what's for pudding... And don't say yoghurt!!"

I'm with you on the pudding front- I enjoy cooking them and my family enjoy eating them. A lot healthier than all those enormous coffees that many people consume regularly.
We eat a healthy dinner followed by home made pudding most days and no one is overweight. DH can get through two helpings and even at his advanced age he's very slender (but he doesn't snack or even have lunch most days when he's at work).

Life's too short to miss out on puddings!!

I wonder what the Venn diagram of people who have snacks between meals and people who have pudding after meals looks like.

When I was growing up, there was absolutely no food outside mealtimes, even fruit, and all meals should be eaten seated at a table, or if a picnic, on a bench or blanket if no table available - my mum is utterly horrified by the thought of walking along drinking coffee out of a takeaway cup. Meals were generous though, and always included something for pudding.
And there were 4 meals, as tea (i.e. biscuits, or buns or bread and jam with a cup of tea) was a daily occurrence.
DH's family were similar.

I generally follow the same pattern now, no snacks between meals, no helping yourself to fruit or biscuits at random times. We try to all sit down together to eat where possible.
(But I am happy to picnic just sitting on the grass, or eat an ice cream in the street).

Kefir and chia seeds most nights for DS and DD. Sometimes some chopped fresh fruit. The chia seed up the protein as I struggle to get them to eat much protein, and the kefir is great at keeping their gut healthy, particularly when we have to resort to antibiotics.

DS has a sweet after dinner like mini bag of malteasers, or one of those mini bags of haribo, milky bar etc. I have a choc bar and cuppa usually.

DD has fruit after her evening meal and a yoghurt too. As adults we only have pudding occasionally, if it’s been someone’s birthday and there’s cake we have that for a few nights and I’ll do a pudding if I make a Sunday roast but otherwise we don’t bother

Yorghurt or fruit- or sometimes both. I bake a lot but prefer them to have that in the daytime (like a dessert at lunchtime) so they eat all of their dinner and don't expect a baked good. 4yo sometimes has a rich tea if she wants one but she's good at regulating how much she wants so we don't expect her to demand it.

9 year old hasbit of choc or some sweets every night
2 year old a strawberry or baby biscuit

I know some adults who feel they absolutely MUST have 'something sweet' after any savoury meal or they feel at a loss and incomplete, because they were raised having dessert after each meal. So I wouldn't want to get DC into that habit personally, it's a lot of extra calories each day!

If he's still hungry after lunch or dinner (toddler) I'll give him a piece of fruit to round it off but that's it and doesn't happen often, I wouldn't class that as a specific pudding I don't think.

@spottygymbag

Kefir and chia seeds most nights for DS and DD. Sometimes some chopped fresh fruit. The chia seed up the protein as I struggle to get them to eat much protein, and the kefir is great at keeping their gut healthy, particularly when we have to resort to antibiotics.

Chia seeds are amazing, absolute powerhouses of nutrition! Have you made chia pudding? That's a big hit here. Chia seeds, coconut milk and a banana or strawberries in a blender, leave in the fridge to set for a while. Kinda like angel delight but much nicer.

Why do so many people think you have have sweet tooth because a) You've always been denied them as a kid and therefore can't control yourself if you happen to access them freely, or b) You've always been given pudding after each meal? Humans are genetically designed to like sweet food. That's why breast milk is very sweet for instance. Sweet flavours tend to indicate that something is 'safe' to eat (such as berries), whereas bitter things are often toxic. time.com/5640428/sugar-kids-vs-adults/

@LimeCoconut That’s how it is for me. The day’s eating never feels ‘finished’ without a dessert after dinner (not lunch, though...)

@spottygymbag

Kefir and chia seeds most nights for DS and DD. Sometimes some chopped fresh fruit. The chia seed up the protein as I struggle to get them to eat much protein, and the kefir is great at keeping their gut healthy, particularly when we have to resort to antibiotics.

Jeez, sounds fun...!

To be fair I used to hide Chia seeds into almost anything I could of ds as we struggled to get protein into him.

It doesn't have to be either/or with pudding and snacks. I don't have puddings OR snacks.

My stepkids would have pudding after breakfast if they were able to. They're obsessed with sweet things and don't see it as a full meal unless they have pudding after. Often while still eating dinner they will ask whats for pudding. I've raised it with DH but him and their mum aren't bothered so I've let it go.

@spottygymbag Kefir and chia seeds most nights for DS and DD. Sometimes some chopped fresh fruit. The chia seed up the protein as I struggle to get them to eat much protein, and the kefir is great at keeping their gut healthy, particularly when we have to resort to antibiotics

Sounds like a laugh riot

The children always have pudding and would feel very short-changed without it, though usually it’s fruit/plain yoghurt with honey/maybe jelly/a piece of cake if we’ve baked. DH and I don’t usually have anything, except on Sundays when I’ll make a proper pud - crumble, pie, profiteroles, pavlova, cheesecake etc.

Food is one of the great joys of life. You travel all over the world and it's all different and amazing. You can have great experiences with just savory but you're missing an entire world of puddings. There's no prize for never having anything sweet. If you dont like any of it then that's your taste, but there is no shame in enjoying a sweet.

The issue really isnt having pudding or snacks or none at all; its portion control. The suggested porition size from a trifle or a sweet pie is far too much in my opinion. We'd have half what would be considered a slice, but we enjoy pudding all the time. Couldnt do that having huge slices.

@LimeCoconut

I've just been to the shops to get chia seeds, coconut milk and strawberries! Going to try that tomorrow. I'm afraid it's an incredibly unhealthy tres leches tonight though!

Does no one else have cheese and crackers after their meal, with an apple?Just me then.

I guess for us as a one child family it is also that making/buying a 'proper' pudding is that we would need to eat the same thing all week to use it up. But ds knows very well what pudding is, never fear - school dinners fill in that gap, and when we eat out he has free reign on the dessert menu. But doesn't go mad, and he could add yogurt etc to the shopping list if he wanted, and will usually eat fruit by choice after school even though he could have a biscuit etc as they are in the cupboard

When my boys were small we didn't offer pudding but there was always something they could have if they wanted it. Fruit, yoghurt, chocolate mousse or an ice lolly or something, very occasionally I would do something with custard. Now they rarely have pudding (although as growing late teens they could eat a whole meal then have a sarnie half an hour later 🙄)

DH almost always has something after his meal, usually cheese/crackers but sometimes fruit and yoghurt. I rarely have anything except the main meal.

Jesus Christ, I knew the minute I saw someone mention chia seeds they’d get a few posters falling over themselves to be a prick about it. People like and eat different things. How fucking insecure do you have to be to jump on someone for eating something you don’t?

Here’s another one for you: toddler DC has flaxseed, hemp, ground walnuts and ground almonds in his breakfast every day. What a hoot eh? And... (hold onto to your hats before you explode @PollyPepper and @Horehound) he often eats lentils too!

Seriously though what’s with the snobbery about what other people feed their children?