what do you think about using paper plates for snacks /meals..

[MindingMum]

I've been watching the programme 'Jon and Kate plus 8' - (basically set in US about a couple who have 6 year old twins and 3 year old sextruplets) and at meal times Kate always uses paper plates for the childrens snacks and meals.

At first I thought 'I'd never do that' ' how lazy/common is that?' and 'what a waste!' but the more I've thought about it, the more I feel it would make sense for our family.

We seem to use mountains of plates - 5 DC's of my own and I'm a childminder so sometimes 7 children at breakfast and 10 or 11 at teatime, X two courses = loads of plates and a dishwasher that never stops.

Would you consider paper plates or is the idea off putting?

yes sparkles, I would look even sexier then (I take it you mean wear them as a hat at the same time as serving dinner off them?)

or you could make paper dolls out of them, whilst wearing the pants

now this is getting interesting - maybe I will have to go out to buy more wretched paper pants so that I can do all these things with them? Surely that defeats the object of my post lol. at the thought of my paper pants mountain hijacking a thread

TBH I hadn't thought of the enviromental issue of producing them but thought that I could burn them in our wood-burning stoves or even compost them?? - saw some biodegradable ones at the wholesalers yesterday.

Agree it's not nice for adultd to eat off but surely children wouldn't mind?

milknosugar and meemar - kids in our house do an awful lot of of jobs and wouldn't have a problem with washing them if I asked them but feel paper plates would be so much quicker and easier

just serve their meals up on one big platter and problem solved

I've seen a few programmes about Americans with families and they've all done this

They need the 4-bags-a-fortnight rule brought in PRONTO

lol with LARGE families

yes, and it's always 'God's will' that they are 'blessed', not the irresponsible fertility treatments they paid a bomb for.

the fact that these wasteful moles on the epidermis of humanity are glorified is pitiful.

maybe I'll just invest in a new whiteboard for the kitchen to write the washing up rotas on!

I'm sure in one episode Kate explains it they use paper plates for one (or was it two?) ,meals a day and run the dishwasher twice a day with the plates from other meals, cutlery and cooking utensils, she started off running the dishwasher more then opted for paper plates, but fgs the woman mops the floor six times a day and couldnt find a cleaner who met her 'standards' so she must need a break somewhere

I am the same littleducks - I clean morning, noon and night, change bedlinen and towels daily and feel justified in using paper plates if I want to.

All my DC's and the mindees use/used to use terry nappies and I recycle everything I possibly can. I would prefer to use paper plates and only run the dishwasher once a day than not use them and run it 3 times

snooks
hot glue gun
sequins...
need I say more??

Mindingmum, I also wash pots in the sink (you'd be amazed how many pots a sinkful of soapy water will wash) so don't need to use the dishwasher every time. Don't let the pots build up. Wash every so often throughout the day.
I also clean morning, noon and night (and everywhere in between). Although changing the bedlinen every day seems a bit excessive and I don't do that. Towels get changed when I deem necessary, too.
I appreciated that if you are childminding you might need to be a bit more particular with the towel changing. A friend c/m of mine reduced her washing by not using full sized towels but put out several large face cloths for her mindees to use.
Personally can't see any justification for paper plates on a regular basis. And if it offends adults sensibilities to use them, why treat children with any less respect?

Paper plates at home? Really lazy and wasteful.

Dishwashers are hygienic and economical, if run when full only.

No that is a terrible idea.

How old is your oldest DC - could he/she wash-up for pocket money to help you out?

You "change bedlinen and towels daily" ??? Why? That's insane frankly.

And using paper plates is a terrible idea.

my mum only has her, my 17 yr old brother, and my stepdad at home, and she uses paper plates for almost EVERY meal (except the few she bothers to cook with gravy! the few proper plates she uses she washes in the dishwasher. I on the other hand, use plastic plates for everyone (2 people with epilepsy in the house, only so many china plates you can buy with them getting smashed due to seizures before you give up ). The two eldest will happily wash up, chores count towards their spending money, other 3 can't reach the kitchen sink yet! Don't own a dishwasher, and would have nowhere to put it even if I did, everything is washed up in a sink, even with 7, it only takes 2 sinkfuls of water to wash plates from all day. I personally would not use paper plates except for a birthday party, we have a STRICT limit on how much rubbish we can have, and they wouldn't be able to be recycled as food waste would contaminate the whole recycling box & it wouldn't be taken. So they would have to go in with normal rubbish, why put more than you need to in landfill when you can wash and re-use normal plates? I run the washing machine enough, wouldn't want to be running a dishwasher as well, think of the water bill!

Loudmouthmum, best place for a chat is to click on Active Conversations (see top of page), then join in whatever's going on currently (not a lot at this time on a Sat nite). Looks as if you are reactivating a lot of dead threads - look at the dates - and not getting any replies.
Then you can get into more current stuff about larger families, special needs or whatever's intersting to you, or even post your own threads.

I really don't think anyone (OP included) with the size families we are talking about is likely to be in any way lazy and tbh even if they were I'd have no problem with it.

However I do think using paper plates all the time is quite wasteful and despite the fact that it appeals to the lazy person in me I don't think I could do it as I'd feel too guilty about the waste/environmental effect.

What I might do is allow myself one or two meals a week where I did use paper plates just for the break IYSWIM. I'd buy the compostable ones which I think are quite expensive so wouldn't be tempted to do it too often.

I think for snacks you could buy a couple of very large trays and put the snacks directly on those so the children can help themselves.

As others have said some meals could be done like that, eg past, rice, pizza, sandwiches where the children have a fork/spoon each and eat off the same plate.

I posted on this last time - I had a different name then

Thank you catinthehat! Might help if I'd have realised I could look at the dates .

Oh dear - well I'll just quietly whisper that ido use them sometimes yes. We often have children's friends over for supper /tea and I can be feeding sometimes 10 childrne. It is so much easier yes to throw the paper away afterwards than to wash it all.

However, I do have 5 kids of my own and they nearly always eat on proper plates that are washed - it sonly when numbers go into double figures that I chicken out.

Agree wiht all comments on environmental tertorisim and also that it teaches kids to be wasteful etc which is why i don't feed them all the time on plastic although would sorely love to!!!

There have been studies done, and the environmental impact is very similar between using paper and washing china.

We only use paper when we have loads of people over, but then we use good quality Chinet. I cannot stand flimsy paper plates that cannot support the weight of the food.