How do YOU decide what everyone else will eat?

[Divvy]

Its just never worked in my house!

I dont eat what dh eats. Kids have never wanted what we have

Do you all eat the same things? What do you do if like my family you dont like the same stuff?

I did find that when the children where alot younger, I just cooked what was going. Its when they started deciding, fancying something else, that things changed.

Are we right to give a choice? Or should I say eat it or go without? I have tried both, and they go without then have a bowl of cereal later.

Would you let teens of 14+ do there own tea?

Mine are still little (5 and 2) so they don't get a choice usually

They pick what they want for lunch (sandwich, beans on toast, eggs) but not dinner

And I'm not going to start cooking or preparing separate meals for people

DP and I eat later, but at weekends we'll all eat the same

I used to cook my own stuff as a teenager, I think it's good that a 14+ would want to cook independently from time to time

80% of the time we eat the same as each other

ut I am aware of their tastes and if I choose soemthing I know one of them hates- for example ds2 and prawns- I just serve the same dish amended, so a potato sa;ad with some sausage in instead.

I don't ever make several meals from scratch, and i don't cater to sudden whims either

Mind it works both ways; tehre are a few emals I don't like very much- pizza for a start- that everyone else does so I eat them occasionally.

Mine are still young but I try to give us all a variation of the same thing so everyone is happy but I am not doing totally different meals. For example take fish, myself and ds1 like proper fish but ds2 and 3 and dh are not so keen but will eat fish fingers. We all have the same potatoes and veg but soem have fish and others fish fingers. Jacket spuds are quiet good you fould offer a few different choices of topping to suit peoples tastes. Dh loves curry, I will eat it and so will ds1 but the other 2 won't so I take the left over meat from a roast and make a curry with some of it and the 2 that don't like curry will have it cold with chips and salad.
They don't get to choose what we have but i always work with what people like and don't like. Too much choice means you will end up wasting thing I think.

It varies with us - we do all eat together, and only really have one (very) fussy eater (DC3).

Some meals everyone eats the same, or at least variations of the same (DC3 will eat rice with curry sauce, but not the chicken in the sauce, for example), other meals I cook what I feel like for most of us, and have my standby pasta for the younger ones - I make huge batches of pasta sauce and freeze portions. But then DH is like a small child with vegetables, and I love vegetables so again I tweak accordingly, DD won't eat fish which is a pain in the neck.

I don't give options really other than to say it's either XXX or pasta. Some weeks DC3 will eat pasta 5 out of 7 nights.

Older DCs do have the option of cooking themselves something when they're around, but on the condition that it's when I'm finished in the kitchen - they work around me, not vice versa. I do discourage this though, because they tend to use up all the nice stuff I've been saving for a specific meal.

Can they not make the family tea? I did from about 12 - it was my turn about twice a week and I'd make jacket potatoes,salad or pasta with a homemade tomato sauce -nothing exotic.
If they end up having cereal twice a day they're on the special k diet!
If them getting something else later works for you can you let them make scrambled eggs or something?
I have an asd child with food issues and a dh who only ate yellow food before I met him- so i do know where you are coming from!

Mine all eat the same thing, i eat with them sometimes.

When dh is home we tend to eat later.

I am very strict with meal times though, eat or starve.

you arent strict with chocolate mousse though

Only have a little one but when I was a teenager we had a little meeting type thing ]probably in the adverts for the simpsons or something...] and all suggested stuff to eat that most of us liked [fairly generic stuff: pasta and tomato/veg sauce, chilly, eggs, stir fry etc.

We then experimented - a few months we just rotated what we ate each day and few months we took it in turns to choose. We all took turns to cook from when we were about 13.

This thread has scared the crap out of me.... at the moment my husband [poor suffering get that he is] and 2 year old eat whatever a throw in front of them [usually what ever is in the reduced section cooked with veg from garden!]

We eat almost same as each other. But mine are little and not very fussy. (8 and 3)
If yours are older then why don't you try sitting them down and planning a menu for the week?

We eat all the same (90% of the time) and all together. I meal plan in advance and buy what is needed for the meals so there is no deviation (although I always have a stash of pizza and nuggets just incase).

When I am meal planning I do ask for imput / ideas so that there is something everyone likes.

There is no way I would spend ages in the kitchen cooking different meals for different people at different times!

No choice in this house over what is dished up at each individual meal - it's the same for everyone, however I do take into account everyone's tastes when planning my shopping list - and try to ensure that everyone has at least one "favourite" meal each week.

All 4 of them love corned beef hash - I'm not really a fan - but I still make it reasonably regularly and put up with it.

Stick a menu up at the beginning of the week of what you have planned - if they don't like what is on the menu they buy and cook whatever they do want to eat.

You will soon find they either aren't there and have planned dinner at a friends house or they decide to eat what you have.

Oh, you have to say you are buying so many boxes of cereal a week and so much bread and if they want to eat that instead of a proper dinner there will be no more until you go shopping again.

We all eat the same here apart from a Friday night when it is a quick tea of what everyone fancies - egg on toast, beans on toast, bacon buttie which is due to the fact that I am on my way out to work and DS2 has a guitar lesson at 6.00pm.

I wouldn't give a choice, but I do ask them what sort of meals they would like when I am doing my online shop. DS1 asked for fajhitas (sp) last saturday night which we all had.

My DS's are 12 and nearly 10.

There's only two of us which makes things easier and neither of us are really fussy.
DD's not keen on beans, neither am I really but they are cheap so I eat them, but if we're having, say wraps, I'll defrost a portion of chilli beans for me, and one of spag bol for DD.
She doesn't like my homemade quiche (it tastes of egg apparently, and she doesn't like that, despite liking eggs), so I'll give her some ham, or a couple of fishfingers with the salad instead of the quiche.

I won't cook two meals from scratch though.

No alternatives here. I make sure there is at least one thing each person likes in the meal. This might mean a child may eat just carrots or just rice for their main course.

But we usually have bread and cheese and fruit/yoghurt based dessert so they still get a variety of food at each meal and plenty of chance to fill up their tums.

Too young to be cooking their own meals so we'll see.

John everyone knows chocolate mousse has it's own rules...