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?

thats your choice if you enjoy spending time cooking or making a few different meals, but we have alsways eaten the same meals with no problems so im not going to change while its still going good

Oh, mine are used to family meals, they're just six and four.

But then the whole idea of families makes me shudder and retch, so there you go.

I'm right with you haychee and the thing that really really annoys me is people like your sister and mine who don't realize that their kids are fussy and eat a restricted diet because that is what they are giving them. So they're letting their kids manipulate them into giving them a less nutritionally rich diet than is good for them. I really don't know what these parents would thing would happen to their kids if they ended up in a country or indeed a family without white bread processed cheese sandwiches or whatever!

why are you so arsed what other people do though?

what does it have to do with you?

I couldn't give a crap personally what anyone else does

When it comes to playdates and other people's children I would never force them to eat something they say they don't like. I will offer a simple healthy alternative such as a sanwich. It is not my responsibility to change another person's child's eating habits, etc.

ooooooh that a bit harsh

I do plain chicken when the rest of us are having curry that sort of thing. It's not a completely different meal. To me 'encouraging' a child to eat something and the refusal that follow often results in upset for both parties. I'd rather not have it. The curry or whatever is always offered so the child can try it if they want to.

It bothers us because we are faced with it on a regular basis by those around us. Its frustrating to watch going on when the rhemedy is so easy. My sister and my friend both get very fed up with cooking because they family do not always or hardly ever eat it. Its not their cooking, my sister is a fabulous cook, its just easier for the kids to choose the same old something because they are familiar with it.

EXACTLY Hulababy!

small child, in new house. Given unfamiliar food. Doesn't want to eat it, is hungry and sad

give sandwich - happy child
ignore and say eat squid or else - sad child

we are talking about children of 4 or 5 fgs

I agree my child eats the same as us but if one her friends came round and didnt like what my husband had cooked we would make a healthy alterative

Just chill, hurricane/haychee - they're your sister's (who whoevers) children, not worth getting het up over. Each to their own.

another friends children come here on a weekly basis and i explained to her that my rules apply at my house and hers apply when they go to her house. This we agreed was fair for all rules we may have. This means when hers come to mine they have to eat what i provide, there is no alternative. This is something they are not accustomed to. They put up a fight at first but now after a year of comming to mine they are used to the rule. My friend is pleased because they will eat different stuff at mine rather than the same old stuff they rotate on at their house.
A playdate who is unfamiliar is treated differently. I would of course ensure the plan for that meal encompassed the things that they are used to.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it, my nan used to say

Oooer missus. lol.

just chill isnt an option! My sister can be quite upset at meal times and that upsets me and her whole family. And its all because of the picky eaters!

I have a friend who is vegetarian, but not enforcing this on her children. But by her own admission she is crap at cooking non-veg meals, and is very happy when her son comes to my place and eats chicken, sausages, meatballs and what not. It has given her ideas for simple meals she can prepare for her son. But to start with, he was very unaccustomed to "our" sort of food, and would be hesitant. Easy going soul that he is, he soon started digging in and loving it.

I would ensure the plan for the meal encompassed what they are used to

This isnt entirely true, if someone was visiting who would only eat total crap then id probobly either avoid having this child stay for a meal or offer a reasonable alternative along similar lines as to what they normally ate that we can all eat.

Why do I care? I know someone whose child at 2 is massively overweight so much so that she has difficulty walking. Her mother has eating problems herself (she rarely eats at all, doesn't sit down to eat, never eats with her family etcetc). My sister suffers from all the things we've talked about (excessive cleanliness, sterile house, hates mess, never sits down to eat, assumes kids will not eat vegetables etc) and has kids who are fussy and rude when eating at other people's houses and also regularly ill (not necessarily because of the faddy eating but they do suffer from lack of iron, lack of vitamins, lack of energy etc). As a teacher I see kids' lives ruined because of their diets. Sent to school with no breakfast or obese and victims of bullying etc. And consequences not just physical but psychological. Kids frightened of getting messy etc. One kid told my dd1 that she shouldn't bite a grape in two because it was messy!

Good eating habits are so easy to get right but so many parents get them wrong and don't realize the lasting consequences for their kids and their kids.

my sisters dd2 will only eat a penguin for breakfast because she insists (and has done since she was 2 is now 11) that she doesnt like cereal or toast or any other normal breakfast food.

my daughter wont touch ceral but she hates milk it makes her ill we have tried soya but its very sweet so she has a banana and yoghurt for her breakfast

and penguins must be a bugger to source in the uk. and all that plucking.....

rofl

I think we won! hurricane and tassi!! Theyre not fighting us, its all gone quiet, oh so quiet!
Hoorah, well done chaps (am slapping you on the back) a job well done!

here,here

All meals with the children, except on a Friday night when we have it later and enjoy it

Usually cook seperately for 4 year old who basically lives on plain pasta

the 1 year old eats what we eat

I like getting all the washing up etc. over and done with by 7pm so I can arse around on Mumsnet or work