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“Pretentious Foodie” New Mom Doesn’t Understand Why Kid’s Menus Exist, So Parents Hilariously Explain It To Her
You make a lot of promises when you become a parent. To dress their tushies in the finest cotton, to get their hands on age-appropriate toys for learning, and to eat organic whole foods with none of that GMO crap. Fast forward a few mental breakdowns, and your child is devouring a chocolate Easter egg from last year he just scraped off your car’s floor mat. So when a new mom who’s also a “pretentious foodie” publicly declared her precious one won’t be eating from kid’s menus, tempered parents from all over the internet started bringing her back to reality. Scroll down to check out what they had to say!
(h/t scarymommy)
A new mom who’s also a “pretentious foodie” publicly declared her precious one won’t be eating from kid’s menus
Image credits: Emily Burnett (not the actual photo)
So tempered parents from all over the internet started hilariously bringing her back to reality
Image credits: quiddle (not the actual photo)
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My favourite line from the ones above 'I remember what a great parent I was before I had kids...' Good luck mum, you are going to need it.
That's my favourite too. Also very relatable. I'm now raising a very ambitious non existent child. âĽ
Totally agree...
My favourite was the vaginally steamed kale, but that was a close second
Absolutely. Printed out, framed and hang it on the wall above my desk.
BP Comment sections are FULL of experts with no kids. I'm pleasantly surprised by your upvotes!
It's expensive to eat off the adults menu, so if you have a picky toddler I imagine the kids menu is more economical. You can still work on feeding them something better at home, but when it comes to eating out I can see why the kids menu (more a toddler menu in most places) would appeal. My main issue with kids menus are that they often are a plate of things in various shades of brown (hot dogs, chips nuggets, etc).
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Empowered women making excuses for themselves, as usual. Can't accept that not everyone is as useless, and that their excuses are just excuses. "One of us. One of us."
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Lazy, useless, empowered women making excuses for themselves, as usual. "One of us. One of us."
Funny though some of these replies are it strikes me as a bit odd that these children are so picky. You eat what you are given as a child and develop your own likes and dislikes over time. It seems the parents in these replies gave up too early and gave them junk food. A lot of the replies seem to miss the real stupidity of the 'pretentious foodie mom' in that it's a complete waste of money ordering from the regular menu for a child as a lot of it will be wasted. If you really loved food and where it came from you wouldn't allow such waste.
And if a kid doesn't like something, that's not the hill you should die on anyway. As long as they're willing to taste everything you give them, it's a Good Thing. One paediatrician summed it up this way, "No kid ever wilfully starved itself to death." ...///... My mother absolutely refused to cook different meals for different people in the house. She was too busy for that nonsense.
'and if a kid doesn't like something, that's not the hill you should die on anyway' - I really like that phrase! It's so true. We ate the same things as our parents. The only exception made that I remember was because I wasn't keen on sausages in general and hated the heavily peppered ones my family liked. So my mother went to the butchers for sausages and got the horrible ones for them and a plain sausage for me. I still had to eat sausages but she made it one that I didn't mind. Didn't eat in restaurants much as children but when we did they weren't fast food and the children's menu was usually just smaller portions of the same food. I remember her telling me that she encouraged us to eat sprouts by telling us they were dolly's cabbages so there was obviously some refusals but she just stayed relaxed about it all.
Exactly. There are two choices: eat this, or don't eat.
The choices I had at home too, JD. At most I was allowed to not eat the things that literally made me nauseous (after I had tried them for enough times to convince my mom I was physically incapable of swallowing it), but other than that, I didn't even put the food in the plate myself, whatever was in it is what I was gonna get. I was allowed to pick one dessert if I ate everything, and my mom would decide on the amount.
I usually agree with not allowing children to turn into annoying little shits, BUT. As a kid, I was called everything from fussy to a brat. I was a horrible child for not eating whatever was put out in front of me. There were even food items, where I threw a mighty tantrum if it was forced down my throat. Older relatives and complete strangers would suggest a good dose of corporal punishment, since I was clearly a hysterical brat and a liar, hence why my stomach was constantly hurting. At 21 I've developed IBS and was given two lists. One contained food I was allowed to eat, the other food that is to be avoided. When my mother checked the list, it turned out that every last item on the list that is prohibited was something I wasn't willing to eat as a child without putting up a significant fight. Turns out that rather than being a brat, my stomach simply couldn't digest those stuff.
I'm allergic to peanuts and hazelnuts, my mum didn't believe me, until I got myself tested after a particularly bad reaction to a dish. (I was 18 at the time)
I have 2 kids. One will eat absolutely anything and everything... the other one is so picky that he is seen by a dietitian. Some kids are just picky and would rather starve than eat. Also, even my kid that eats super well has some days when she'd rather just eat apples and then the next day "she doesn't like apples" (that is until the following day again!)
I have been pretty particular about what my kids should eat/not eat. I fed them all the right things, didn't let them have anything with sweet until their first birthday cake. I still refuse to cook seperate meals, but you'd be surprised at how some kids would rather starve than eat what you've put in front of them. I wonder how my daughter even grows sometimes, because she is so extraordinarily picky; yet I have 2 other children who, although were a bit fussy early on, will try almost anything now. They even love veggies, which is a plus. You can't assume these parents don't try and expand their kids palettes, you could offer gourmet every night, and the kid will still only want to eat cheese.
My kids went through phases. Both spent their early childhood in Japan, where they ate whatever was put in front of them. When we came back to the US, they changed. All they wanted was cheese, noodles, and chicken. At home, they would sit at the table staring angrily, often for hours, at food they used to enjoy. The Grandparents indulged them, and it just made no sense in restaurants to order something they would not eat. And it is not like what they wanted was bad for them. But I don't know how we could have done much better, or that it would have been worth it to make a giant big deal out of it. It was a phase, and it passed harmlessly.
When i was a kid it was eat or go hungry, as 1 of 7 siblings we soon learned to eat whatever was on the table and eat it fast. Not a picky eater at all so maybe that helped.
I agree with a lot of what you say but I what I would do when my daughter was little was have her share the same meal I was having. Portions are far too large most of the time anyway and this way there was no waste.
At age five I went to Disney World and only ate hot dogs, hamburgers and French fries. I was five and on vacation. I argued while on vacation I could eat what I want. My parents caved.
So how did it go with your kids, Marcus?
It went well. Our son likes and dislikes certain foods of course but he was never a chore to feed.
You don't have any kids either, do you? Kids are pretty much hardwired to be picky. Pediatricians know kids are usually picky, which is why they recommend parents relax and look over the entire week what their child ate as opposed to one days worth of meals. And most kids outgrow their pickiness if you don't make a big deal about it.
So how many times do you force a kid to eat something they truly dislike?
This comment has been deleted.
Marcus obviously doesn't have children. They eat. That is all that needs to happen.
I have to ask... are you a parent Marcus?
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The replies are ridiculous. It's the same reason we have participation trophies in today's age. Parents are far to soft on their kids and they grow into adults that can't cope with something not going their way. Whatever I was given for dinner, is what I would eat. If I didn't eat it for dinner, guess what I had for breakfast? I was not allowed anything until I ate the food that had originally been made for dinner. I never starved, and I never was given something different from everyone else. But I did eat a lot of cold dinners in the mornings and although it tasted much worse, I didn't go hungry.
Sorry, but thats just horrible parenting.
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"you eat what you are given as a child" there's one comment in there that is JUST for you. Lets see if you can figure out which one
Eh?
People freak out about what kids will eat. I know several kids who have never eaten off the kiddie menu and happily eat what their parents are having. NOT ONE of these parents ever did anything different. These parents don't have garbage like Kraft dinner in the house. They don't buy preprepared frozen anything. When they go out to eat, the kids can pick what they like off the menu and no one drops dead because there aren't any chicken fingers at the French restaurant. ...///.... ONLY American parents feed their kids garbage instead of adult food. That's twisted. Having spent a lot of time in France, I have to say that whenever I see a kid melt down in a restaurant, it's with an American family.
This describes my parents. You ate what was cooked - it didn't even occur to us (5 kids) to ask for something else. The only 'battles' were over peas. We all hated peas. Mom gave in on that one and the rotation was broccoli, carrots, corn, (yeah I know that's not a great one), salad, and zucchini. We didn't go to nice restaurants often, but when we did we were excited because we got to have steak and sometimes shrimp. On the other hand, breakfast was bad: Allllll the cereal full of sugar because we could fix it ourselves, or packaged cinnamon rolls that didn't require anything heat related. I was excited when I was allowed to make toast, which I promptly doused with butter and cinnamon-sugar. LOL If my oldest sister watched us while the parents went out, it was burgers and rice-a-roni. We loved that shit.
I never had packaged cereal as a child -- not until I moved out on my own. Mom always made a scratch breakfast. The onky thing I would not eat was grits. I still hate grits. BTW, i grew up on a farm. We ate what we grew.
Cinnamon toast is delicious. I still make it at 45 and drink it with a cup of hot chocolate. My girls eat it the same way, too. Sometimes breakfast. Sometimes a snack.
holy bat poop I thought I was the only one as a kid that ate cinnamon toast (wayyyy tooooo much sugar to cinnamon ratio). Other childhood favorites include banana sandwiches (I am allergic to peanuts and couldn't have the peanut butter and banana sandwiches my brother got), pasta with butter and ketchup, hotdogs, and macaroni and cheese (mom style, not kd style). To the woman in the article, have fun staying away from kiddie menus.
If you think only American families feed their kids junk, and the only kids you see melting down is an American, you need to open your eyes. I don't know where in France you've been hanging out, but you need to travel more.
Think before you speak, the families who serve microwaveable dinners tend to be low-income families. I grew up with frozen dinners as a kid not because my parents were bad at parenting, but because we were poor. Get over yourself.
Fresh veg is cheaper than frozen dinners. Being poor is no excuse to feed children junk.
It doesn't have to always do with price, Marcus. It often has to do with time. Poor families with both parents working full-time often don't have time (or energy) to make three square meals a day. Again, think before you speak, do a quick Google search and educate yourself. There's also other factors: (1) https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-singh-food-deserts-nutritional-disparities-20180207-story.html (2) https://www.scarymommy.com/this-is-why-we-need-to-stop-telling-poor-people-to-just-cook/
Oh come on. You don't need an expensive kitchen with lots of tools and $700 blenders to cook. A potato masher so you can make mashed potatoes? Seriously? There are lots of fresh, nutritional one pot meal recipes out there. For most of the stuff I cook I just need a knife and some pots/pans. You can also eat salad without a salad spinner. And for the no-argument: Save money from the food and buy something else to say yes. Or give them a better meal than frozen stuff and give them a little bit bad stuff for desert to say a yes.
Well I can understand that if you work multiple or long jobs and still don't have much money you can afford the vegetables better than the frozen food, but don't have the time or power to prepare them. So what you need then are fast but fresh dishes and there are plenty. On the other hand if you don't work or not so long and have the time, there is really no excuse.
Uhm, no ... most restaurants have kids menus. Smaller portions and usually fried things without vegetables.
Lamps, I would suggest then that these 'poor' families who have jobs that leave them so exhausted that they don't have time to peel some veg and cook a chicken shouldn't really have children in the first place. What is this strange condition they have that leaves them so tired they have to crawl to the freezer to get out a ready meal before they pop it in the microwave and collapse back onto the floor? I will not do a quick Google search to educate myself which consists of reading articles that agree with you. Read the majority of answers to this post. You are in the minority with your bleeding heart opinions.
I like how you say only Americans do this like youâve seen every country in the world to prove this
omg, why do i feel like you are talking about my parents? i eat just about all cooked food, i just have a few select dishes and a couple veggies i refuse to eat. other than that, i pretty much can eat anything (vegetarian) i just hate bitter guard, bell peppers, bananas and thats about it :)
You must see my son's kindergarden menu.. balanced.. a lot of differents vegetables every week..vegetables soup, fish ..vegetables balls..meat.. sometimes Pizza Margherita .. every morning break with fresh fruits, I've never seen something as fried chicken or chocolate milk (only water) as American school.. they are all from 18 months to 3 years old and I have seen them sitting and eating everything with no problem..
pizza margherita is cheese pizza.
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Thank you. Those parents think itâs because sheâs a new mom. No. Itâs because they donât care about their kids nutrition.
My favourite line from the ones above 'I remember what a great parent I was before I had kids...' Good luck mum, you are going to need it.
That's my favourite too. Also very relatable. I'm now raising a very ambitious non existent child. âĽ
Totally agree...
My favourite was the vaginally steamed kale, but that was a close second
Absolutely. Printed out, framed and hang it on the wall above my desk.
BP Comment sections are FULL of experts with no kids. I'm pleasantly surprised by your upvotes!
It's expensive to eat off the adults menu, so if you have a picky toddler I imagine the kids menu is more economical. You can still work on feeding them something better at home, but when it comes to eating out I can see why the kids menu (more a toddler menu in most places) would appeal. My main issue with kids menus are that they often are a plate of things in various shades of brown (hot dogs, chips nuggets, etc).
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Empowered women making excuses for themselves, as usual. Can't accept that not everyone is as useless, and that their excuses are just excuses. "One of us. One of us."
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Lazy, useless, empowered women making excuses for themselves, as usual. "One of us. One of us."
Funny though some of these replies are it strikes me as a bit odd that these children are so picky. You eat what you are given as a child and develop your own likes and dislikes over time. It seems the parents in these replies gave up too early and gave them junk food. A lot of the replies seem to miss the real stupidity of the 'pretentious foodie mom' in that it's a complete waste of money ordering from the regular menu for a child as a lot of it will be wasted. If you really loved food and where it came from you wouldn't allow such waste.
And if a kid doesn't like something, that's not the hill you should die on anyway. As long as they're willing to taste everything you give them, it's a Good Thing. One paediatrician summed it up this way, "No kid ever wilfully starved itself to death." ...///... My mother absolutely refused to cook different meals for different people in the house. She was too busy for that nonsense.
'and if a kid doesn't like something, that's not the hill you should die on anyway' - I really like that phrase! It's so true. We ate the same things as our parents. The only exception made that I remember was because I wasn't keen on sausages in general and hated the heavily peppered ones my family liked. So my mother went to the butchers for sausages and got the horrible ones for them and a plain sausage for me. I still had to eat sausages but she made it one that I didn't mind. Didn't eat in restaurants much as children but when we did they weren't fast food and the children's menu was usually just smaller portions of the same food. I remember her telling me that she encouraged us to eat sprouts by telling us they were dolly's cabbages so there was obviously some refusals but she just stayed relaxed about it all.
Exactly. There are two choices: eat this, or don't eat.
The choices I had at home too, JD. At most I was allowed to not eat the things that literally made me nauseous (after I had tried them for enough times to convince my mom I was physically incapable of swallowing it), but other than that, I didn't even put the food in the plate myself, whatever was in it is what I was gonna get. I was allowed to pick one dessert if I ate everything, and my mom would decide on the amount.
I usually agree with not allowing children to turn into annoying little shits, BUT. As a kid, I was called everything from fussy to a brat. I was a horrible child for not eating whatever was put out in front of me. There were even food items, where I threw a mighty tantrum if it was forced down my throat. Older relatives and complete strangers would suggest a good dose of corporal punishment, since I was clearly a hysterical brat and a liar, hence why my stomach was constantly hurting. At 21 I've developed IBS and was given two lists. One contained food I was allowed to eat, the other food that is to be avoided. When my mother checked the list, it turned out that every last item on the list that is prohibited was something I wasn't willing to eat as a child without putting up a significant fight. Turns out that rather than being a brat, my stomach simply couldn't digest those stuff.
I'm allergic to peanuts and hazelnuts, my mum didn't believe me, until I got myself tested after a particularly bad reaction to a dish. (I was 18 at the time)
I have 2 kids. One will eat absolutely anything and everything... the other one is so picky that he is seen by a dietitian. Some kids are just picky and would rather starve than eat. Also, even my kid that eats super well has some days when she'd rather just eat apples and then the next day "she doesn't like apples" (that is until the following day again!)
I have been pretty particular about what my kids should eat/not eat. I fed them all the right things, didn't let them have anything with sweet until their first birthday cake. I still refuse to cook seperate meals, but you'd be surprised at how some kids would rather starve than eat what you've put in front of them. I wonder how my daughter even grows sometimes, because she is so extraordinarily picky; yet I have 2 other children who, although were a bit fussy early on, will try almost anything now. They even love veggies, which is a plus. You can't assume these parents don't try and expand their kids palettes, you could offer gourmet every night, and the kid will still only want to eat cheese.
My kids went through phases. Both spent their early childhood in Japan, where they ate whatever was put in front of them. When we came back to the US, they changed. All they wanted was cheese, noodles, and chicken. At home, they would sit at the table staring angrily, often for hours, at food they used to enjoy. The Grandparents indulged them, and it just made no sense in restaurants to order something they would not eat. And it is not like what they wanted was bad for them. But I don't know how we could have done much better, or that it would have been worth it to make a giant big deal out of it. It was a phase, and it passed harmlessly.
When i was a kid it was eat or go hungry, as 1 of 7 siblings we soon learned to eat whatever was on the table and eat it fast. Not a picky eater at all so maybe that helped.
I agree with a lot of what you say but I what I would do when my daughter was little was have her share the same meal I was having. Portions are far too large most of the time anyway and this way there was no waste.
At age five I went to Disney World and only ate hot dogs, hamburgers and French fries. I was five and on vacation. I argued while on vacation I could eat what I want. My parents caved.
So how did it go with your kids, Marcus?
It went well. Our son likes and dislikes certain foods of course but he was never a chore to feed.
You don't have any kids either, do you? Kids are pretty much hardwired to be picky. Pediatricians know kids are usually picky, which is why they recommend parents relax and look over the entire week what their child ate as opposed to one days worth of meals. And most kids outgrow their pickiness if you don't make a big deal about it.
So how many times do you force a kid to eat something they truly dislike?
This comment has been deleted.
Marcus obviously doesn't have children. They eat. That is all that needs to happen.
I have to ask... are you a parent Marcus?
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The replies are ridiculous. It's the same reason we have participation trophies in today's age. Parents are far to soft on their kids and they grow into adults that can't cope with something not going their way. Whatever I was given for dinner, is what I would eat. If I didn't eat it for dinner, guess what I had for breakfast? I was not allowed anything until I ate the food that had originally been made for dinner. I never starved, and I never was given something different from everyone else. But I did eat a lot of cold dinners in the mornings and although it tasted much worse, I didn't go hungry.
Sorry, but thats just horrible parenting.
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"you eat what you are given as a child" there's one comment in there that is JUST for you. Lets see if you can figure out which one
Eh?
People freak out about what kids will eat. I know several kids who have never eaten off the kiddie menu and happily eat what their parents are having. NOT ONE of these parents ever did anything different. These parents don't have garbage like Kraft dinner in the house. They don't buy preprepared frozen anything. When they go out to eat, the kids can pick what they like off the menu and no one drops dead because there aren't any chicken fingers at the French restaurant. ...///.... ONLY American parents feed their kids garbage instead of adult food. That's twisted. Having spent a lot of time in France, I have to say that whenever I see a kid melt down in a restaurant, it's with an American family.
This describes my parents. You ate what was cooked - it didn't even occur to us (5 kids) to ask for something else. The only 'battles' were over peas. We all hated peas. Mom gave in on that one and the rotation was broccoli, carrots, corn, (yeah I know that's not a great one), salad, and zucchini. We didn't go to nice restaurants often, but when we did we were excited because we got to have steak and sometimes shrimp. On the other hand, breakfast was bad: Allllll the cereal full of sugar because we could fix it ourselves, or packaged cinnamon rolls that didn't require anything heat related. I was excited when I was allowed to make toast, which I promptly doused with butter and cinnamon-sugar. LOL If my oldest sister watched us while the parents went out, it was burgers and rice-a-roni. We loved that shit.
I never had packaged cereal as a child -- not until I moved out on my own. Mom always made a scratch breakfast. The onky thing I would not eat was grits. I still hate grits. BTW, i grew up on a farm. We ate what we grew.
Cinnamon toast is delicious. I still make it at 45 and drink it with a cup of hot chocolate. My girls eat it the same way, too. Sometimes breakfast. Sometimes a snack.
holy bat poop I thought I was the only one as a kid that ate cinnamon toast (wayyyy tooooo much sugar to cinnamon ratio). Other childhood favorites include banana sandwiches (I am allergic to peanuts and couldn't have the peanut butter and banana sandwiches my brother got), pasta with butter and ketchup, hotdogs, and macaroni and cheese (mom style, not kd style). To the woman in the article, have fun staying away from kiddie menus.
If you think only American families feed their kids junk, and the only kids you see melting down is an American, you need to open your eyes. I don't know where in France you've been hanging out, but you need to travel more.
Think before you speak, the families who serve microwaveable dinners tend to be low-income families. I grew up with frozen dinners as a kid not because my parents were bad at parenting, but because we were poor. Get over yourself.
Fresh veg is cheaper than frozen dinners. Being poor is no excuse to feed children junk.
It doesn't have to always do with price, Marcus. It often has to do with time. Poor families with both parents working full-time often don't have time (or energy) to make three square meals a day. Again, think before you speak, do a quick Google search and educate yourself. There's also other factors: (1) https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-singh-food-deserts-nutritional-disparities-20180207-story.html (2) https://www.scarymommy.com/this-is-why-we-need-to-stop-telling-poor-people-to-just-cook/
Oh come on. You don't need an expensive kitchen with lots of tools and $700 blenders to cook. A potato masher so you can make mashed potatoes? Seriously? There are lots of fresh, nutritional one pot meal recipes out there. For most of the stuff I cook I just need a knife and some pots/pans. You can also eat salad without a salad spinner. And for the no-argument: Save money from the food and buy something else to say yes. Or give them a better meal than frozen stuff and give them a little bit bad stuff for desert to say a yes.
Well I can understand that if you work multiple or long jobs and still don't have much money you can afford the vegetables better than the frozen food, but don't have the time or power to prepare them. So what you need then are fast but fresh dishes and there are plenty. On the other hand if you don't work or not so long and have the time, there is really no excuse.
Uhm, no ... most restaurants have kids menus. Smaller portions and usually fried things without vegetables.
Lamps, I would suggest then that these 'poor' families who have jobs that leave them so exhausted that they don't have time to peel some veg and cook a chicken shouldn't really have children in the first place. What is this strange condition they have that leaves them so tired they have to crawl to the freezer to get out a ready meal before they pop it in the microwave and collapse back onto the floor? I will not do a quick Google search to educate myself which consists of reading articles that agree with you. Read the majority of answers to this post. You are in the minority with your bleeding heart opinions.
I like how you say only Americans do this like youâve seen every country in the world to prove this
omg, why do i feel like you are talking about my parents? i eat just about all cooked food, i just have a few select dishes and a couple veggies i refuse to eat. other than that, i pretty much can eat anything (vegetarian) i just hate bitter guard, bell peppers, bananas and thats about it :)
You must see my son's kindergarden menu.. balanced.. a lot of differents vegetables every week..vegetables soup, fish ..vegetables balls..meat.. sometimes Pizza Margherita .. every morning break with fresh fruits, I've never seen something as fried chicken or chocolate milk (only water) as American school.. they are all from 18 months to 3 years old and I have seen them sitting and eating everything with no problem..
pizza margherita is cheese pizza.
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Thank you. Those parents think itâs because sheâs a new mom. No. Itâs because they donât care about their kids nutrition.