To expect kids to eat bbq food?

[whynowe]

DH has invited his uni mates for a bbq at our house tonight. it was planned a few weeks ago.
However yesterday a few have asked if their wives and DC can come too. Of course we said yes.

We had plenty of food for everyone. Beef burgers/ chicken burgers/ chicken drums/ sausages & halloumi on the bbq + quite a few salads/ potato salad/ fries/ pasta salads etc

So I assumed the 3 DC (aged 5-12) would eat the same food as us

two wives( mothers of the children) got all emotional on me as I didn’t have anything “acceptable” for their children to eat. “Oh they can’t eat any of this!! “
They said next time I should ask before having children over .. but they will forgive me because I’m not a mum yet (I’m 32 weeks pregnant with our first)

Anyway the 2 wives left early and will HAVE to stop at McDonald’s on the way home as the children are starving. We had burgers too not McDonald’s ones though 😂

I said to DH I don’t want to ever see them again. He agrees they were rude to me and kept using “you’re still young, we will forgive you on this occasion”
I’m a little younger than any of them in this group.
AIBU to have expected the kids to eat same as the rest or should I have asked in advance? I thought there was plenty of choice between meats/ cheeses/ veg/ breads/ potatoes/ pasta etc 😅 not sure what else I could’ve done.

They sound rude and ridiculous.

Ignore.

What twats

You're far more restrained than I would have been in that situation, especially at 32 weeks pregnant in this weather!

I would have send them to the maccies and further after the first rude moan

yanbu!!

My kids would have been all over bbq food. Nando's is always busy with primary school
ages kids too.

That food is absolutely fine for kids and miles better than McDs. They sound like rude arseholes.

We had a barbecue as a Jubilee street party and the kids 3+ were happily eating bbq stuff like sausages and drumsticks.

They sound really wierd. BBQ food of the type you describe sounds to me very standard child-pleasing fare.

They are rude OP. My child would have eaten that food at any age.

YANBU unless you made them eat spicy relish in their burgers or chilli in the potato salad

Barring some kind of allergies/SEN issue, ignore them. Sounds like there were loads of suitable options. Children aren’t aliens, they can eat these things. Even the fussy ones (like mine 😬) usually like sausages or burgers.

So bloody rude.

I hope dh tells them to f off if they expect to be asked again. That's plenty of beautiful food. One of mine is a fussy eater but he would still eat bread and so on and I wouldn't say a word except that the food is beautiful.

Very rude, I would never cater separately for DC at that age, the food sounds totally appropriate - maybe if you'd served only oysters and lobster they might have had a point..... if they had a food allergy or serious dislike the DPs should have bought something with them.

And extreme patronising of them of them to say 'you are still young .. we will forgive you'.

Out of interest, what did they expect you to serve their indulged DC?

What insufferable cows. They knew it was a BBQ so they should have contacted you ahead of time if their kids won't eat totally normal BBQ food. It's not as if you said "Come over for pizza" and then served oysters!

So rude. What you served was perfectly fine. And to accuse you of not catering properly when they weren't actually invited in the first place. What arseholes.

They sound bonkers.

My kids would have been in their element with what you offered.

They were terribly rude so I wouldn't want to see then again.

However, my 4 year old wouldn't have eaten anything from your bbq either and my order 2 probably wouldn't have either until around 8/9.

Not all kids are great at eating food like this, despite parents trying to increase the type of food they eat, some kids are just really fussy!

This would have been a good moment to ask for advice: "What did you do that made your dc so fussy that they can't eat any of this? I'd love to know where you went wrong so I can benefit from your experience."

My children are terrible eaters which is my problem to fix. I’d have taken food and apologised for my fussy little buggers.

They sound like complete pricks.

My kids won't eat it either. But then I wouldn't take them to a BBQ.

YANBU

Blimey wtf was she expecting them to eat? Sausages/burgers/salad are about the most kid friendly food you can get?!

They’re not normal ignore them.
they won’t eat bbq food but they’ll eat McDonald’s? Fuck off!!!

I don't know what they expected you to offer the children. Are they vegetarian? If not and they eat at McDonald's I don't see any reason why the children couldn't eat what you offered.
They don't sound like very pleasant people and extremely rude.

They were condescending and rude. My kids would have eaten pasta, potatoes and some of the meat unless it was spicy and as we are Asian a BBq usually is. The onus is on them to check there was stuff their kids would eat, if not as parents they feed them before they get to yours.

Ah thanks everyone

I did think it was appropriate food too and that's why I never considered asking for preferences for the DC
They don't have any allergies.

They did ask if I had fish fingers they could have or a pizza. The unfortunate answer was no.

Maybe I could've offered to pop to the shop but I'm soo pregnant and hot I just couldn't be arsed 🥲

DH said to me privately they were extremely rude and will approach the subject maybe at some point with his mates but not tonight as we still have quite a few guests.