Porridge as evening meal for DC?

[Smithson85]

DC7 is a bit of a 'basic' eater and quite often just asks for a big bowl of porridge for his tea if we're at home - which I'm generally happy to give him.

But I'm getting a bit of judgement from the in-laws that we're not making him have a meat-and-two-veg style meal every evening. My thinking is that porridge (with milk, seeds and honey) is a pretty complete meal option, he has plenty of fruit and veg during the rest of the day, and he will eat 'proper' meals on other nights - but just seems to prefer the porridge a couple of times a week.

AIBU letting him have what he wants?

I LOVE the bath picnic idea!!!

That's just such a brilliant thought - no crumbs, no spills and I bet they loved it.

As long as you make it using real oats rather than the instant, it's fine

Porridge is ridic healthy

If you think about it porridge isn't really that different from soup, or pasta/noodles in broth and those are all considered dinner foods.

I often do porridge as a bedtime snack for my DS1 (he is at the always hungry/sports every night stage)

Totally fine OP. It’s hardly Coco Pops.

I used to regularly give DD porridge for dinner (with banana, a nut butter, flax/chia and a few seeds, sometimes a dollop of yoghurt). I just used to give her egg or beans on toast for breakfast instead of porridge so she wasn’t eating it twice. She finally started sleeping through as it filled her and banana is good for sleep right? (Avoided berries due to vitamin C but she eats loads all day.) If she had more of a meat and two veg kind of meal for dinner, she wasted it then would wake up. She had a big appetite lunch time after doing activities all morning so was less fussy lunch time.

Purple porridge was always a hit when DD was young (blueberries for the colour).

Now we have it with mixed frozen berries or banana, plus seeds and nuts. It's filling, you can easily customise it to suit each person and the washing up is minimal. What's not to love!

I don't agree that certain foods are for certain meals only, as I have always struggled to eat breakfast so, as a child, DM would let me have anything that was going just so that I would eat something.

Different cultures eat different things at different times...food is food!

Yeah another vote for absolutely fine from me. My in-laws are a bit the same about breakfast; they seem to think that anybody planning to do anything more active than lying in a coma during the day to come requires a gut-busting fry up that a sumo wrestler would struggle with.

Nothing wrong with porridge! I like chopped banana with mine - would he accept something like that? Or any piece of fruit alongside it? Just to add in more nutrients.

Some of these toppings sound amazing! I’m another that says it’s a good, healthy, balanced and nutritious thing to eat whatever the time of day. As oats are soporific they’re probably better in the evening than the morning!

It’s a healthy choice ( be thankful it’s not a request for cocoa pops every night ! ) and there are bigger hills to die on with your DC than them wanting a healthy option a couple of nights per week rather than another pizza with chips 🙂 Personally I would ignore / grey rock your in-laws.

Sorry to tangent but I'd love to hear more of your stories like this if you'd be willing to share!

I had my first porridge of the season for breakfast this morning from the work canteen. I’d forgotten how much I love it! Raisins, dried banana for a bit of crunch and maple syrup. It was delicious! DS eats a ridiculous amount of the stuff during the winter, he’s a strapping 16 yr old cross country runner and can easily do 2-3 bowls a day - breakfast, after his run and sometimes another one before bed. He’s as fit as a fiddle. There are far worse dinners you could feed him OP.

Even if it was instant it would still be fine.

Ahh, there is no secret! Other than to cut corners on the boring stuff and grow a rhino hide so as not to care if other people judge you for it. Ironing school uniform is overrated, as is hoovering, and cooking meat and two veg dinners every night. Baked beans on toast (or fruit porridge) is an entirely adequate dinner. Value your own time and energy over other people's judgment.

Use the time to do the fun stuff. Read the stories. Listen to their terrible attempts at telling knock-knock jokes and tell some of your own. Let them wear the tasteless clashing crumpled clothes (unless it's a funeral or great-Aunt Mavis's 90th). It doesn't matter if all their friends are three levels ahead of them on the reading scheme, it all comes out in the wash. Let them get them up in the middle of the night to watch the lunar eclipse. If your dh is away for weeks at a time (as mine was) build in some treats - on Fridays I'd take mine out to Giraffe restaurant, they'd play with the plastic giraffe stirrers (this was the late 90s or early 00s, we weren't up to speed on disposable plastic in them days) while I sank a glass of white and then we'd head back home all feeling happy, with no washing up to worry about.

If you're there to listen to the endless saga of what George R. said to George T. behind Miss Wilson's back while they were collecting the hoops after PE, then eight years later you might get to hear all about which Y11s are smoking weed, who's selling it, who's doing MDMA and why your dc thinks this is all a very bad idea.

Honestly, none of the trivial primary-age stuff that people get aerated about actually matters. Be there. Talk. Listen. Be silly. Enjoy them. Let them know you're on their side (but obv also teach them that sometimes you have to suck up things you don't like). Do the stuff you would have thought was amazing when you were seven. Value your time and their time and use it well - it's the only thing you can't get more of.

Thanks all, am glad that everyone agrees I'm not being too neglectful over here

And what lovely stories @PollyPhonic- will definitely be stealing a few of those!

In some countries porridge is a dinner food
There's no reason why it can't be eaten at any time

I would say it’s not very filling.
it takes half a cup of porridge oats and a full cup of water to make my morning porridge. That half a cup of oats is not much. And if it’s sweetened I’d say it’s not a great meal imv. But depends on how well they’re eating the rest of the day.

I had porridge for dinner tonight. Was delicious!

It's a good option.

@PollyPhonic we do bath porridge if the kids have been too overstimulated to eat that day! Only one giant bowl so they compete (increases consumption).

OP, on a tired night we have porridge or pasta. Mine are more likely to eat a balanced meal before 4pm. The other choice is mcdonald’s, not the yummy balanced meal that they’d ignore

My 2 year old is like this. We always offer him main meals we know he likes along with whatever we are having so he can have a taste. Quite often he will refuse both. However he never turns down a bowl of porridge. If he's not in the mood to eat the options we give him, I'd much rather him have porridge than go to bed hungry.

I do this once a week with my fussy eater especially if they have a club. It's non upf, quick, filling, slow release energy etc. So think it's fine

On a slight tangent, how do you cook your porridge?

Stove or microwave?

It's National Porridge day on October 10th.

I add chia seeds, peanut butter, frozen berries, sliced banana and some nuts to my porridge, it’s very filling and nutritious.

It’s fine, but where’s the protein?