Do you eat the same food at the same time as your children - everyday?

[McDreamyGonagall]

This has got me thinking after reading another thread.

I really want to increase the amount of times we do this. DH prefers to eat later as he has quite a late lunch but I feel we are missing out on enjoying time with the children, teaching them manners etc.

We do eat with them 2 or 3 times a week, just not every night. Also I tend to cook something different on the nights we don't eat with them. What do you do?

lol - this thread is mad!!

Erm, I am the one who said I hated courgettes. I didn't say therefore how can I expect my children to like courgettes. They may like them when they are older - who knows, I don't care tbh.

What did I miss Pointy? Not the bit where you were trying to suggest I had an eating problem because I didn't want to offend my dp's 90 year old grandmother by not eating her bloody horrible fish? The bit where you were trying to compare your deliberate misunderstanding of this to my not deliberate misunderstanding of MB's son refusing to eat a biscuit because it was the wrong SHAPE to be an issue about control? Right, loads of similarities there.

Mercy, take heart from the fact that I love parsnips and my parents thought they were the veg of the devil

Not that it really matters

What?

i think martainbishops method is ok. Pateince is a virtue, some of posess some dont. Mealtimes are not a battleground and new foods are available and offered on a regular basis and they are mostly eaten. End of.
Its when children know they dont have to try something new because mummy will give them something they do like. This encourages only a limited dietary intake so that you end up in a rotation of the same foods over and over, then its the sitting down together as a family that gets disrupted.

How ridiculous MB, you told me off for commenting on the example you gave of your individual son. Off course generalisations are helpful because they're generally true. If parents who are concerned about their children's eating habits changed their own attitude to food and family mealtimes they might find in general that their children's eating habits would improve. There's nothing wrong with saying that.

i work in a nursery and when i,v told parents what they have had for lunch or tea. the shock on there faces they reply by saying thay wont eat that at home. its amazing what the children will really eat when there parents arnt around i think half the time they just play up for the parents till they get them somthing different

This thread started with the issue of family mealtimes and their value. I return to my original points IN GENERAL it is desirable for family relatinships and children's attitudes to food to have meals as a family. In general eating as a family encourages healthy eating in children.

we enjoy our family meal at the end of the day its a time were we all talk about our day and what we have been doing

So true Tassi.
My darn kids do still try it on from time to time!

tassi - agree with that. DD's school has a very tradition mealtime system. All children have to stay for lunch. There is one choice for main choice (veg option only is prearranged). They eat or they leave. Then dessert is offered to all: traditional pudding or some fruit. Child choses, they eat or leave. there are no alternatives given. DD used to claim she did not like curry. At school she eats it as "there is nothing else so I'd be hungry mummy". She is still not keen, but she will eat it. She will eat it at home if served up also. I do know it isn't a favourite though. A few of the mums at school were worried about how their child would cope with the system as they felt their child were fussy eaters, etc. Suprisingly how quick the children cottoned on to eating what was offered when there is no alternative ever offered!

now were making sense surely?

I don't think may people would disagree with the eating together thing. Some people disagree with children having to eat something they don't like with no alternative offered. I offer an alternative, others don't. I don't judge them for it.

well i thought we were

lol

just when everyone was agreeing, sagger

its difficult when its in your face. ie, my sister and my best friend, i just want to shake them sometimes! They obviously wont try something new when theyve just had a load of buscuits or fruit or whatever because they didnt eat lunch! I just want to shake my sister and shout, stop the snacks ffs if they dont like what youve given then dont make an alternative, that is why you cant get out of the kitchen and everyone calls it the caf.

We all eat together at the weekends but in the week hubby and I eat after the kids have gone to bed as he isn't home until 6.30 and the kids eat at 4 onwards.

oh FFS is this still going on?

and I don't know why my name is being bandied (is that a word?) about

ooooooh cheese sandwich as an alternative to an upset child at a playdate? SOMEONE PHONE THE POLICE! Quick! We can't be having choice, heaven forbid.

tonight my children had pasta with tomato sauce, grapes and an apple, dd1 then had some feta cheese, both then had a carrot and houmous whilst watching the tv

we had our meal later (cold noodle salad with tuna steaks, that ok?)

Saggars nobody but nobody has said that children should be forced to eat what they don't like. What many people have said is that children should be encouraged to try new foods.

And that when you start pandering to children's ideas of what foods they like and cooking up alternatives etc rather than encouraging a child to eat what everyone else is having you actually start restricitng a child's tastes and encouraging fussy eating.

As I've said and as is confimred by expert witnesses (nursery workers, other parents etc) when children are given positive reinforcement for trying new food and eating what's on their plate and fussiness and food refusal is ignored and eating is seen as a social thing many children will actually turn out to be not so fussy after all.

oh and dd2 also had some chocolate covered raisins

I had to bribe her so I could clean her head up (she split her head open at the weekend)

are bribes allowed in a medicinal capacity?

oh I don't do bicuits/snacks. Dd doesn't eat them lol. Alternative is offered for consumption at the table with the rest of us. I cook it alongside. 'Tis little extra effort.

oliveoil. I used your name because it was forced out of me. Sorry.
Truly i am!

If your kids eat most things infront of them then there is no problemo! Its those that have a limited diet because they refuse to eat a varied diet just because they can get away with it that annoy me.

NAB3 - thank you for answering the OPs question. Unfortunately a food fight seems to have broken out on this thread so watch out for flying quiche.

IME bribes are essential for nit clearing. That and a dvd.