Snack plates for dinner

[Goodnightelizabethgoodnight]

I'm sure it's just an older generation mindset of needing 3 hot square meals a day, but my gran was shocked ( 🙄 ) that my 3 year old had a snack plate for his dinner.

Plenty of nights we do have a hot meal together but I'd say at least once, sometimes twice a week, he happily sits and eats a little snack plate in front of the telly. He's been at nursery 9-3, outdoors for much of the time, he's tired, and he just wants to chill. I know the feeling myself! So after two helpings of curry with rice for his lunch at nursery I don't think it's a problem to have a snack plate for dinner.

He's having the same snack plate today as he did yesterday which has breadsticks, oatcakes, humous, salami, smoked cheese, raspberries, strawberries, chopped cucumber and peppers. He might have a small bowl of soup after too. Tbh I think he's living the best life with his little platter in front of the telly and I think it's great 😁

Breakfast was porridge, lunch was curry and rice, tomorrow for dinner we're having chicken risotto, and the next night we're having spaghetti bolognese.

Anyone else do the same with their kids?

I know...just my little joke.

But she replied to perfection.

What a crazy thread. Why on Earth would anyone be so obsessed about a child having a plate of nibbles in front of the TV, that they would argue for hours with strangers that it was so terrible and bad? There’s zero chance that the occasional plate of cold mixed finger food in front of CBeebies is going to harm a child in any way, or stop them developing good table manners and conversation in later life.

I completely agree.

It's either trolling or seriously low self-esteem. The key to going on and on about it for pages is to repeatedly say you're not bothered one way or the other. Then people know you're super chill and don't actually care.

You’ve probably commented more than anyone!

Well people keep replying or mentioning me and it keeps pinging up! I've tried to unwatch this cursed bloody hideous thread and it won't stop watching me!!

I never said that sitting in front on the tv stops the child's development. I simply said that sitting at a table surely must promote it. An occasional tv dinner I'm assuming is fine it's just not something I've ever done with my own, which people seem to find unacceptable.

I've insisted on at least one table meal a day for other reasons mainly which is to catch up with everyone together face to face. I do have a foreign mother so perhaps that wholesome approach is cultural. Is it so bad that I get bullied and abused on this thread?

Remember the whole thread is predicated on the OP being mean about her granny, inviting everyone to say her own way is great in all areas and getting angry with anyone who disagrees.

Right. I am now completely coming off this thread and if I hop back on please just tell me to (in the words of the OP's son's fave show, Father Ted) to feck orf!!

Christ, thank fuck for that.

😎

“Wholesome approach” 🤣

An occasional plate of crudités and breadsticks in front of Charlie & Lola must be the slippery slope to dancing in strip clubs or getting an ASBO presumably 😆

The salami makes it a straight line to a juvenile detention centre, with kidney failure no less.

No need for 2 hot meals a day. A square meal is one covering all the food groups....we've had sandwiches as a meal for decades

I can only presume that @Hoppingabout has experienced very poor eating habits ,table manners with her own children that she has now become rigid and obsessive and meal times !! I hope your children enjoy mealtimes and do not dread them .
All sounds a bit regimented and inflexible. My children would have hated meal time interrogation every single day.

I am not sure why @Hoppingabout is being castigated here. Just because she has a different approach to mealtimes doesn't mean her way is rigid or controlling, or a horrific experience for her children. It is perfectly possible that they enjoy sitting round the table, chatting over a meal. My kids certainly did, and still do, now they are adults.

Different does not necessarily mean bad, when it comes to parenting approaches.

Posters are taking issue with her passive aggressive, smug, and goady tone. She knows what she's doing and is enjoying it. Whatever gets her rocks off.

We also enjoy eating at the table and talking to each other. We do that most nights of the week. We also don't do iPads or phones during mealtimes. But I'm not going to smugly tell other posters who do sometimes use iPads that I would "never do that to my child" as though it's tantamount to neglect.

Her faux naïveté is obvious. She knows that however, she's just getting her kicks winding people up.

I hadn't read her posts that way, @Goodnightelizabethgoodnight - but that is definitely subjective, and I accept other posters have got that tone from her posts.

@Hoppingabout

are come on now, there must have been times that you missed mealtimes with your kids. Like if you’re out with your friends and the kids are at home or you’re having to work late or whatever. It’s fine!

@Hoppingabout

”I have never done that to my children”

lol, you say it as if it’s subjecting them to something awful. You sound quite twee, are you?

I liked us to eat together as a family most of the time. But one of my children in particular sometimes needed a breathing space, and a snack plate in front of the TV recharged his batteries so that he could happily carry on with the rest of the day. Otherwise, we tended to have floor picnics when we had snack plate dinners. We loved a floor picnics.