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?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

I eat brekkie and lunch with my dc's but they also have smaller snack meals in between - and they have tea about 5pm unless they can hang to eat with dh and I later. They are 15m and nearly 3 so things will start changing as ds go's to pre-school then school....

[maisemor]

I don't see why you can't eat with your children because your partner/husband is not back until later.

Will he refuse to eat if you don't eat with him?

You can still talk to him, actually you get to say a lot more if it is just him eating .

I am sure the children would love to eat with you and there is less chance of your children ending up eating fishfingers, chicken nuggets, chips etc.

[OrmIrian]

Dinner - about 3 times a week. Lunch twice a week. Breakfast - rarely.

[Clary]

Ah yes flum, I love it when we do eat together that everything is done and I don't have to turn around from swimming, pyjamaes, teeth and bed to cook the tea fro me and DH! All washed up by 8pm that's so fab isn't it.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

I don't see why I automatically will feed crap to my kids if I don't eat dinner with them - maybe I am being dense but I don't see an automatic correlation there

They generally have similar to what I and dh eat later... I am up for longer (sometimes) so am hungry later.

[Clary]

Maisiemor I don't eat with the children because my children's tea is very frequently a couple of ham rolls, a handful of salad, an apple and an orange at 4.30pm. No really what I am wanting actually.
If I cook a proper meal then yes I will eat with them as logn as it's late enough (5pm too early for me to eat).

[maisemor]

I said there was less chance of it happening. I did not say you would automatically feed them crap if you did not eat with them.

[LucyJones]

Crumbs no, I can't stand turkey twizzlers and fruit shoots

[hurricane]

But, IMO, if you feed DIFFERENT food to your kids regardless of whether or not it is healthy you are sending them damaging messages.

If you say I wouldn't want to eat what they have then why the hell are you giving it to them??? And why shouldn't/wouldn't your kids want to have 'adult' food??

[haychee]

We eat together approx 3times a week. Dh works long irregular hours as he runs his own business. If we are all here together then we will eat together. If Dh is going to be late home i wait to eat with him and dc eat earlier. Our tastes are also quite different from what they like, for example there is no way my kids will eat chicken jalfrezi! But myself and dh love it.
I do endeavour to eat at the table altogether but it just doesnt always work out that way.
Also, when im working and dh is in charge of the children he will always make them something different to himself, they are allowed to eat in front of kids tv on the sofa and he sits in a seperate room watching something on tv that they cant watch (sci-fi channel usually). I dont approve of this but while the cats away!
They dont seem in anyway damaged for the way this all happens. They have very good table maners and can use knives and forks correctly etc.

[3madboys]

yep the boys eat the same as we do everyday

we all sit down for dinner at 6pm, sometimes a bit earlier or later depending on dp's shift work, and when he is on lates then its just me eating with the boys.

but since ds1 was little we have always sat and eaten at the table together for all meals, and i think they eat better for it as a result.

we do occasionally give the boys something simple like pasta etc for dinner and order take away for ourselves as a treat when they are in bed, maybe once a month?

oh and when the weather is nice, we eat at the table in garden etc, or occasionally have an easy dinner like pizza, with potatoe wedges, and veg sticks and dip in the living rm with the boys. but we do all eat the same, sod cooking seperate meals for the kids and then dp and i.

[coddy]

3madoboys
go i really find it hard eating iwht my kids


i HATE IT - i LOVE food and hate being hte last to sttart and all the haggling and disiplining

[maisym]

have dinner every night with my kids - my dh eats later as he comes home later. At the weekends we all have meals together - apart from breakfast which depends on the time people gets up!

[coddy]

"And why shouldn't/wouldn't your kids want to have 'adult' food?? "

COS THYE DONT LIKE IT

me fo lunch tirkish mezze and pitta

kids sandwhiches

[Oblomov]

I think it depends on which agegroup your children are in.
I am astonished at the kinds of foods ds's nursery provides :
home made chicken curry.
Bread sticks with home made houmous, tarramasalata, tzakiki, pitta bread.
Thay have all sorts of poncy aubergines and anchovies.
So cods lunch would be much more prefered to sandwiches.
I find it bizare that I cook curry and rice for ds and he loves it - then I add a tiny bit more heat for dh and I.
It all so poncy

[hurricane]

But when are your kids going to learn to like proper food if you don't give it to them?? Are they going to go into a 5* restaurant and ask for fishfingers and beans? I cannot stand it when people come to my house for dinner and I have to do some kind of crap food for their kids because the parents have not trained them to eat decently.

For dinner today the dds and I ate tuna sandwiches (the dds squirted a blob of mayonnaise in and mashed it up), salad, cherry tomatoes, grated carrots (the dds grated them), marinated artichokes (a particular favourite of dd1 and she kept sneaking into the house to get some more) and for pudding sliced nectarines with a blob of creme fraiche, blueberries and a little drizzle of honey. We prepared the food together. We ate it outside so it didn't bother me at all when some of the bread found it's way on to the floor.

[hurricane]

It's an interesting point about nursery. My dds' nursery manager once told me that parents are always saying things like, 'Oh I can't believe that little Jimmy eats peas at nursery. He never touches them at home,'. She said it's because meal times are social things. The kids are given a plate of food, they see the other kids eating it and they eat it. Confirming my suspciiousn that by and large kids will be fussy if you let them. It does them no favours in the long run.

[Oblomov]

Sorry, I didn't mean poncy. I mean their tastes are so diverse.
But at home I still cook basics, beef wellington, lasagne, sheppherds pie, lamb chops - new potatoes - 2 steamed veg, chicken kebabs with pita.
It all depends on the parents food. And it does make a difference if the child attends nursery, I think.

[Oblomov]

I agree with hurricane. Nursery atmosphere at mealtimes. And they are always encouraged to at least try a food.

[elliott]

It is true that there are things we now don't eat because the kids wouldn't eat them - we have sort of had to meet them half way. I like the idea of grown up only suppers, just can't be bothered to prepare them!

[hurricane]

And when a kid refuses food it's very rarely cos they genuinely don't like the taste as proved by those of you who say things like, 'my child would never eat potatoes when he was 3 and now he's 4 they're his favourite food,'. So why do you pander to them about food and worry about it and make it stressful when you wouldn't do this about crossing the road or getting dressed or brushing teeth or anything else.

[oliveoil]

well mine get 'adult' food put in front of them all the time

and have done since weaned

they don't eat it though



they sit and poke it about, moan, whinge and then get down from the table when me and dh have finished

it is like pulling teeth

they have snacks later of crackers, fruit, houmous or whatever to fill up

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

Can I object to the word 'train' - I find it wierd to say I am training my kids - it is leading by example - eating together and offering a range of foods but tastes vary between adults as well as children, I enjoy introducing new flavours but sophistication of tastes is a lifelong process.

I train my cat not to pee in the house but I fed my children I don't train them to eat - but tis all semantics I supose.

[oliveoil]

hurricane - do you have a halo above your head and what do you use to polish it?

mine got v tarnished so I lobbed it in the bin ages ago

[Gobbledigook]

No, because dh doesn't come in till around 7pm and mine are bathed and ready for bed by then.

They get 'adult' food (whatever the devil that means!) but they don't always eat it.