To think this is a fine dinner for 5 year old?!?

[Abneyandteal19]

Older DS had swimming until 6pm one day of the week.
Usual dinner time is 5pm.
Younger DS swims 4:30-5 but then has to wait until 6pm for older one then by the time he gets dressed and home it's 6:30 which is when younger DS has story and wind down for bed at 7pm.

So rather than 'waste' the time he has to sit around and then have a late tea/bed I have started to take his dinner to swimming so he can eat whilst older DS swims.

Today it was spag Bol (in one of those keep warm flasks) a large size fromais frais, pot of strawberries and a biscuit.
So a bit more sugar than usual but he has just swum and it's only one day per week.
He seems happy with this!

Older DS eats when we get home as he doesn't go to bed until later.

Family members are telling me this is awful- he can't eat dinner in the swimming pool cafe (!?) and it's really weird behaviour! there's no option of buying a fresh dinner at pool as it's only a Starbucks type cafe.

He gets so tired if he stays up late and also doesn't eat well when tired.

What do you think? AIBU??

Wow, one of my favourite memories is eating dinner in the swimming cafe while waiting for my brother to finish his lessons! Ignore them, it's a fine dinner - it's a good variety of food, and it breaks up the monotony of 7 home tea times a week.

It’s pretty health tbh!

I don’t understand their issue at all

Seems ideal to me. Perhaps the idiots sniffing their noses at you can pop down with their dishes of culinary delights to offer your son?

Just laugh at them.

Yeah it's fine. Although I am finding it weirdly funny thinking about someone eating a full dinner of spaghetti bolognese and afters in a Starbucks

We have lots of evening meals in flasks as we drive to/from gymnastics at awkward times.
That sounds like a perfect meal.
My two have just have chicken pesto pasta from their flasks then a slice of leftover birthday cake as a pudding for one and some apple slices for the other - their choices.

When mine have swimming lessons we get a McDonald’s drive thru on the way home !

Surely its compulsory to have a big bowl of chips after swimming.

Sounds great to me. I don't understand what your relatives are grumbling about.

Why are you listening to these family members? It’s one meal a week and they’re your kids, do what you like. You don’t need mumsnet approval. Or do you want everyone to bitch about these family members?
Why are you doubting the smallest of decisions for your own children thsg seems to suit them? This wouldn’t register with most people.

So, we have a mother taking her children to an essential activity and providing a decent dinner to her child at a time he is hungry? Yet still they come at you. I'll tell you truthfully, had I managed to be organised enough to do that and get my DC to eat that balanced a meal I'd have been very pleased with myself indeed.

This is totally normal - it’s what I did with all my 3! Bolognaise is a great post swim meal👍

Yeah exactly, I mean we aren't exactly going to come on and have a go at the op for giving a child spag bol once a week so I don't understand the issue here - don't tell relatives what you feed your kids or if you do don't listen to shitty comments! Surely you know you're not doing something awful here

"faints"

How do your family members even know? And why do you care - it’s utter nonsense? It’s not like the nutritional value of food suddenly nosedives if you eat it at a leisure centre and not at your home dining table. Of course they’re being unreasonable, I’d not have judged you if you’d said that you gave him a fast food tea those days. It’s once a week to keep his routine in line AND he’s just swum so he’ll need to replace all the energy and sugars he’s just expended.

You must have the patience of a saint to even entertain criticism from your family for this.

That sounds like a very nice dinner! Much better to feed him earlier while his older brother is swimming rather than wait til you get home and he's worn out!

Agreed and then tired and grumpy when no food is actually right!

sounds a lot better than the vending machine wheat crunchies I used to get after swimming.

we often eat dinner outside - either in the local park in the summer or DH and DD have even been known to sit in the train station eating dinner watching the trains come in and out when I work late. I think it’s nice!

Anything goes after swimming. If you bought him chips with a side of doughnuts, that would be fine, because fat and sugar consumed while your eyes are still stinging from the pool chlorine don't count.

Why did you need - firstly your family members and then the whole of Mumsnet to tell you that feeding your child spag bol was an acceptable thing to do, op?

One of mine has dinner in the car 2 evenings a week on the way to sports club. Typically its pasta bolognese, veggie chilli & rice, biryanni, and Maternal Guilt Sandwich if its been a particularly chaotic week. She gets in from school, gets changed, gets put the door whilst I get in from work, microwave the leftovers, and jump in the car with her. Rural living...
She's 13, so the perfect age to drop physical activity. Im happy for her to miss 2 "proper family meals" in favour of competitive team sport those evenings.

Is it ideal? No. Is it a problem? No.

If we have tea at the pool, it's normally a rollover hotdog. Spag bol sounds much better.

So much better than my DDs who had 'picnic tea' for YEARS due to their various evening lessons. On the evenings in question, we'd set out with a full packed 'lunch' for each of them. They'd eat their way through it, sometimes having more or less depending on who had a lesson first. The café did have a 'no outside food' policy but we sat far away from the till or sometimes splurged on a packet of crisps...
I'm just grateful their granny didn't read me the riot act.
On they whole, they prefer sandwiches and cucumber anyways!!

Of course the dinner is fine.

The unreasonable element of this situation is that you're even giving this any headspace at all.

Don't involve family members in what you're feeding your children (and other minutiae) and ignore unsolicited opinions on the matter.

No, no, this is awful. You should definitely wait till you get home so he's overtired and grumpy and won't eat anything, to make sure dinner time is miserable for everyone.
Your family are weird. Stop sharing.