“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)
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. ♥
Load More Replies...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.
Load More Replies...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 s**t.
Load More Replies.......Maybe it's just me but it always weirds me out when when parents start talking about how their children are so picky about food. My parents didn't tolerate that. They were never super controlling, but that's one thing they didn't compromise on. It helped that they are both good cooks. They did let us order whatever we wanted at restaurants though.
It is all about balance. Food is not about force, but it surely is about appreciation. And, most importantly, you need to be a good role-model. Parents who all day long chew on Cheetos and have Mars bars for dinner should not expect that their children will be brocoli-lovers. "I am the adult, I decide" is a rather weak argument after all.
Load More Replies...Most of the world doesn't even understand the concept of a "kid's menu", because the kids eat what everyone eats, period. Here in the West we are doing our children a disservice by kowtowing to their whims of addictive, carb heavy, sugared up instant gratification meals. It pains me to see kids live in such a culturally diverse area and have never eaten anything other than McDonald's and fried chicken fingers. Speaking from personal experience, I know a 12 year old that won't eat anything other than macaroni and cheese, bean and cheese burritos and Top Ramen. And I mean that quite literally. He acts like trying a new food is like being tortured and everyone lets him get away with it. He's probably going to be diabetic before he enters high school. https://nationalpost.com/the-kids-menu https://blog.asha.org/2014/07/03/three-reasons-why-kids-get-hooked-on-kids-meals-and-how-to-change-that/
If your Kid doesn't like a thing , you don't need to give fast food. There are a lot of different healthy foods. I have 3 Kids. Maybe they don't like this or that, that's normal. I think it is actually very good, that this women doesn't want to give fast food to her child.
If they won't eat something, there's no point making it a fight. Just move on to something else. Giving in and making separate meals for everyone in the family is sheer idiocy, though. It's just not worth the fight.
Load More Replies...That's a lot of fuss over a mom who hopes her kid won't prefer chicken fingers and mac and cheese to more wholesome food. Naive, but really not worth the backlash.
If the kid never sees a chicken finger, she won't want them, will she? Why would you even have that c**p in your house? Kids don't "need" ridiculously over price processed garbage, so don't give it to them in the first place.
Load More Replies...My dad was a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese for most of the war, went from two hundred and ten pounds to ninety pounds in the first three months after being captured in the fall of Manila. There was very little talk about what we liked or didn't like around the dining table. "Hey look, it's not a rat!"
I'm from Germany, so ma grandparents as well as my parents knew/know the times when food was a problem, and not because there was so much of it that you couldn't decide what to eat. So our parents were a bit like that, too, "Eat what's there as long as it's there and be happy that there's real food at all." We weren't/aren't picky when it comes to food. I was born in 1990.
Load More Replies...cant believe all these moms feed their kids so much c**p. That's child neglect in my view. Surely they can figure out a way of ensuring their kids get the nutrition they need.
I have a feeling these parents are exaggerating for comedic effect. Surely their kids eat other things too, or else they probably wouldn't be alive.
Load More Replies...I think trying to get kids taste everything is the key. My 3 year just refuses to even try a new food item. Most of the times I insist till he tries, and many times he starts liking a new dish.
At three, you can make a deal with him. Ten minutes of extra TV or an extra book at bedtime if he has a good solid bite of the new food. Kids that age LOVE to bargain. It makes them feel in control.
Load More Replies...While I disagree with the people claiming that ALL childs will be very selective about food at some point, the problem her is that she imposes on her (very young) child how he or she should behave. The key to any healthy diet is to do it because you want to – and it should be a pleasure. But it fits to the "start solids next month". Actually, the baby will start solids when he or she is ready for it. It is extremely important to be educated about nutrition. It is equally important to not be ideologic about this.
My niece was a bit slow in coping with solids - would choke on any lumps in food. The health visitor (in the UK) said 'oh but you must get her to chew solids NOW otherwise she won't learn how to speak properly'. What utter garbage - and cruel too as this ridiculous health visitor scared and upset my sister so much. Instead of saying 'don't worrry and try again in a few days' which would be far more sensible. If it had been a long time past the expected period when babies eat solids then okay, worry, but it wasn't. Of course my niece was fine. She was eating solids a mere week later and speaks fine!! She wasn't behind in anything ever after that. So Hans - I totally agree with you.
Load More Replies...Why are other parents offended? Not all kids eat c**p. My five year old NEVER eats McNuggets or mac 'n' cheese. If you don't feed them garbage, they don't eat garbage. Parents need to take responsibility for allowing their kids to develop a taste for junk foods in the first place.
Back in the day you ate what was cooked for the entire family, the advent of "children's menus" are recent. Picky eaters are not the innate, rampant child phenomenon parents make it out to be, its very much a created problem in the Northern hemisphere. Western food culture and parenting has made every kid a "picky eater" dulling down their palettes and treating kids like they are physically incapable of eating "adult" food...here's and interesting write up is anyone is interested https://nationalpost.com/the-kids-menu
I remember when we ate what our parents put in front of us because that's what they happened to be eating and we didn't have a s**t hemorrhage about mac n' cheese or grilled cheese because mom wasn't going to f**k around with special meals. Call me old, but damn. What's wrong with the kid dealing down with what s/he's going to eat, instead of negotiating with parents.
My moms a Michelin rated gourmet chef and I grew up on the adult menu... but the second i had hot dogs in Mac and cheese at a friends house I began my rebellions. It started out small like a little ketchup with coq au vin but then as I grew up it got wild and now I cook pasta with bbq sauce.
Honestly, I get one aspect of why she wants kids' menus to burn in hell; the food on them is always crappy; chicken nuggets or a baby burger or mac n cheese. If they actually bothered to put better quality; like maybe grilled chicken and rice or something? noodles? soup?
Exactly. I would love to have real food on the kids' menu in a restaurant. Yes, my three year old likes real food. She even eats broccoli if sufficiently encouraged. Try finding a kid-sized portion of any sort of real food with real veggies in it at a restaurant.
Load More Replies...When I was a child the rule was we had to try a bite of everything mom or dad cooked, if we truly did not like something we could pass on that item. However, we had to eat a serving of vegetables. Every time we had venison I had a pb&j sandwich with a side of spinach or broccoli. This rule came about because my mother developed a serious eating disorder which doctors attributed to her parents forcing her to eat even when she was not truly hungry. It took her years to have a healthy relationship with food.
Younger children (5-8 months) give us a false pride; we see them actually eat tomatoes or scrambled eggs and we think we're in for an easy ride. Then, they develop more distinguished taste buds, I guess, because soon it's pasta. That's it. We created the rule; you must eat 3 bites of everything on your plate. It took away the fighting and complaining because there was an actual rule. If a tantrum started, we just finished when it was over. My son still doesn't like a lot of foods, but he eats what he needs to.
Pickiness is not the only reason kids' menus exist. Adults can easily pack away a kilogram of food in a sitting. Children's stomachs tend to be smaller. Kids' menus typically contain portion sizes more appropriate for them.
Depends on the menu. I saw kids menus and menus for the elderly at places, where the only difference was, that the portion sizes were smaller and the food was a bit less spicey. But most "normal" places only have pasta with tomato sauce, pizza margaritha and french fries with fried meatstuff.
Load More Replies...I don't get it. Your kids eat what you give them or they don't eat...they learn very quickly to eat what is placed in front of them except for special occasions. My sons got whatever they wanted on Fridays but other than that they ate whatever I cooked...
My kid was on a peanut butter diet for about a year. How he managed to grow I couldn't say.
is this a cultural thing? a country thing? when I was a child I never had junk food options to begin with, if I refused to eat my mom would take the food away and I would go play and when I asked her to give me food later she would just reheat the food I refused to eat in the beginning, no junk food options, no special menu options either. It seems that nowadays parents take the easy way out, giving them junk food because it's easier for THEM not for the good of their kids.
oh the memories of raising kids...love all the comments in the post, but yeah, the favorite one was 'I remember what a great parent I was before I had kids' i didn't have illusions about raising (starving?) mine, but caught on quick and learned that they WILL eat when they get hungry. the not wanting to eat at all was the hardest for me
I’m so freakin’ lucky to have two boys (11 and 12 years old) who eat almost everything. How did I accomplish that? I have absolutely no idea, but I’m really happy about it.
My child never ate from a children's menu - its garbage. Children are perfectly capable of eating the same things we do - parents need to get a clue. In many countries, e.g. Foodie France there is no such thing as a "childrens menu". Teach your child to eat properly. Its a nightmare taking many of my daughters friends out to a restaurant now they are older as they have never been exposed to anything on the menu and won't eat anything. Ridiculous.
It's evolutionary right that kids refuse to try new food. Every new food may be a threat. It's unknown and seems wierd for a child. So before you make them try something forcefully (which they won't without tantrum or someting like that), let them play with it: to touch, to smell or even to crash and squeeze it with fingers etc. Eventually you will succeed without force: something potencially dangerous will become well-known and they will try to taste it on their own will. :)
Yes! Thank you for being in 'natural survival' instincts.
Load More Replies...I was a healthy diet mom. I remember sending a lunch to school with egg salad sandwiches with homemade bread, carrot sticks, an apple, a homemade whole wheat brownie and a brief loving note on a paper napkin. Turned out the kid was trading his lunches for Lunchables.
I'm 18, and my mom sometimes tries to get me to order off the kids menu because I'm overweight and vegetarian. Honestly it's weird that I'm overweight because I was raised vegetarian. Inb4 anyone says a child cant be vegetarian, vegetarians drink milk and eat eggs.
I am not vegetarian, but my mother in law is. Not so weird to be vegetarian and overweight if you eat a lot of things like bread, rice, potatoes. She eats mainly vegetable dishes and soups, yogurt and fruits in between meals and despite having really hectic schedule (she is ER nurse), she still has healthy weight. But indeed, it is strange if your family eats the same and they have normal weight, while only you are overweight. You are still quite young and growing, but if you still haven't maybe you should go for an extensive check up (just in case) - check your hormones, blood sugar levels, thyroid, etc. I hope you don't take it as being mean and judgmental, it's just advice. I won't judge anyone on weight and diet, as I don't manage them quite well myself, so I have a few more kg then I would like.
Load More Replies...My kid only ordered Steak and eggs, steak and potatoes , steak and steak. The other french toast, toasted cheese, and french toast. Breakfast, lunch and dinner in that order. The nice thing about it was people watching a six year old eating medium rare steak and ask if she could have another one. We did eat out a lot because I was the only cook and I was ill a lot but those kids ate what THEY ordered without us asking them to . Then is was chocolate ice cream or chocolate cake.
As a senior, I sometimes order fron the kids' menus because (a) not huge portions of food that doesn't travel well (b) less expensive. I love getting a small nicely cooked hamburger that hasn't been sitting under a heat lamp, or a smaller portion of pancakes.
I have a Horse-in-law...oops I mean a sister-in-law that said she will never use disposable diapers. She also said her children will go right from the breast to an actual cup. I still laugh at her years later.
How long ago did she make those comments? I ask because my mom surprised me when I was in my mid-twenties with the revelation that I was cloth diapered as a baby, when I was absolutely certain my parents would've used the disposable stuff, and I was born long after the introduction of disposable diapers to the marketplace (i.e. in the final months of the 1970s)! My parents didn't do it for pretentious reasons, so, you know, there are normal parents who do opt for cloth diapers. The other thing about "go[ing] right from the breast to an actual cup", OTOH, is a laugh riot and a half AND is completely delusional.
Load More Replies...The response comments are hilarious! I remember when my step-daughter had a slight digestion problem and couldn't eat anything with a tomato based sauce because of the acidity. What was her favorite food at this time? Spaghetti with red sauce or tomato soup. She was 12. The food made her throw up EVERY time, but it was still her favorite! Thankfully that digestive issue has cleared up now that she's older.
1. My kids were never going to play with toy guns because I found (and still do) boys running around and jamming them in your face going "PEWPEW" obnoxious. 2. My kids were never going to grow up with every electronic in the world and were going to have screen time limits. 3. My kids were never going to play violent X-box games like Call of Duty! Oh....those were the days. When every kid in the neighborhood is having water gun or nerf war fights...you ultimately give in and get them one after the neighbor kids give them pity broken ones...when the neighbor kids (and their dads) all have every gaming system and every violent game on the market...your kids just go over there and get them, so at some point, you discover that your husband has bought one for them too...when you realize FaceTiming your now 14 and 11 year old boys to come downstairs so you don't have to scream and scream from the kitchen...very useful. We all go through this phase to some extent at the beginning ;P
My father arrived for his yearly family scrum and took the 28 of us to lunch at a nice restaurant'. With 10 kids ranging from 3 to 18, every single one of them ate off the kids menu.
You can get your kids to eat almost anything if you drop it on the floor near their highchair and put them down where they can "find" it while you clean the tray.
My oldest nephew was probably two when he went through a six month phase of pretending he was a cat named--I don't even remember. He would only eat if his plate was put on the floor so he could eat off of it like a cat. That's my favorite memory of all my nieces and nephews because my mom was "horrified" every time he did it. My girls, nieces, and nephews love it when Nanny is overly dramatic and tells them crazy stories.
Load More Replies...hmmm...…my children were not allowed to choose what they wanted for dinner. I made them dinner and they learned to like certain things....no tantrums or no dinner! Only happened once!
We went to dinner with my 5 year old. She said she wanted Mac and cheese. She can read and we let her tell the waiter herself, and after it came she was upset and began to loudly cry because she didn't have noodles and she wanted spaghetti. Good luck lady and trying to have a "quiet dinner with a toddler "
Thing 1 had a meltdown and wouldn't eat his ice cream because 'The bowl was too Oval'
My nephew wouln't eat anything but custard for 3 years. His mum, my sister, was so worried she took him to the doctor, for years. Every time he was fine. Now he is a chef, a very successful chef at a premier division football club (uk). Must have needed custard.
omg, my "kid" is now 26, but I'm still wheezing I laughed so hard at this. I remember those mac 'n' cheese with a side of mac 'n' cheeze 'n' gummy worms stories only too well . . . I can now officially report that he's back to eating anything, and he did survive his childhood!
Childrens menu items are not really a common thing in regular restaurants, usually only chain type styles and we do not have a lot of those in Australia, just the main Maccas and KFC , Pizza Hut , Dominos and some Chillis there may be a few more now but nothing compared to the abundance of chains in the US .... So this usually means to take out kids to a restaurant in Australia means ordering what an adult would order in maybe an entree serving (our entrees are the first dish smaller not the main ) but not usually fried kiddie food. However while someone may feel that kids menus are beneath them, take into consideration that often SENIORS will use the kiddie menu to be able to have both smaller portions as they do not eat as much and the lower price point, so regardless of what your kids tastebuds are going to be like, it will come down to what is possible in the moment.
I was not one of those kids who refuses to eat anything more exotic than burgers or pizza; I loved trying new foods. What I HATED was kids' menus! As far as I was concerned those were for babies, what the grownups were eating always looked way more interesting and tasty to me!
I am picky, but at least I eat half of the tomato on my burger.
I ate pretty much everything as a kid. I still get a bang out of trying new foods. The stranger the better.
I love the article about CPS trying to take away the parental rights of two learning disabled adults because their children were born normal and they said the parents were incapable of taking care of them properly. When the social worker from CPS testified before the judge, she cited that the parents were feeding their 4 year old an unhealthy diet. When asked for more detail, she said "They feed the child chicken nuggets instead of boiled chicken." Excuse me? What planet are you from that any 4 yr old would willingly eat boiled chicken over chicken nuggets? Heck..the majority of adults I know refused to eat boiled chicken! SMH
Well there are a lot of people out there who want to see parents in prison, who feed their kids with healthy, homecooked and nutritous vegan meals.
Load More Replies...How are these kids so fussy I always ate what other people had the fussiest I became was with vegetables. My mum didn't use the kids menu either she used to order her food ask for more than usual to be put on bring out my little plate and share the meal
Future tweet from that mom will be bragging her kid only eats "Boeuf and pasta in a delicate sauce" but we all know that's just Spaghetti'Os with meatballs
1st time I took my 5 year old to a Mexican restuarant, he insisted on having a burrito from the adult menu. When they brought him his foot long loaf size burrito he burst into tears. He said through his tears "I cant eat all that" & refused to touch it. His dad took the burrito & gave him 1/2 taco & some beans & rice. Go ahead get your kid the adult food...
welp, she kinda put it in a really b****y way but i get what she is saying. my son never really ordered off a kids menu. from a young age he was exposed to a lot of different kind of foods and he likes everything. he asked for sushi on his 6th birthday and stuff like that. it isnt impossible to get your kids to eat everything. i dont have any ill will toward kids menu like it seems she does but mine just always preferred "adult" food. also, my son is 10 and like 4' 10" and 135 lbs so he is a monster, most kids his age couldnt finish an adult burger and fries but he can. he is like me lol, i am 6'1" 280 and we both arent that fat, just a little chubby, big family
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Load More Replies...Its only in the US that there's "kids meal". The rest of the world the kids eats what adult eats!
Not true. Plenty of kid's menus in Germany. Always unhealthy stuff like schnitzel and fries or spaghetti with tomato sauce.
Load More Replies...But... not all kids are like this, right? I know more than enough kids enjoying vegetables and not-particularly-kids-food. I mean, I get than most small kids won't like fish, spices etc. because people have to grow into those, but definitely not all kids live solely on mac and cheese, fries and pancakes. Though one friend of mine still didn't really like anything besides pancakes and fries at 14 years old, her parents were truly desperate by then...
That's easy. Don't have those things in the house, and don't go to restaurants where they have them either. A 14 year old doesn't have access to a lot of money - and if they do there are other problems going on.
Load More Replies...If our meals were up to my daughter, we would be eating pasta and chicken nuggets everyday. Every child eats everything at the beginning, but then... pfff wait and see. Good luck new mom! it will be Le-wait for it- gendary!!!
I hate picky eaters. The only food and drink I really dislike (apart from the obvious like cheap processed stuff) are baked beans and coffee. I'm not overly keen on rhubarb either but if I went to someones house for a candlelight soiree and that was bizarrely served I would eat it with the good grace God gave me.
I love baked beans, so can I hate you now just because of your food dislikes?
Load More Replies...My son (who was killed in an accident at the age of 31) ate everything as long as I ate it, too. Wouldn't eat what Dad ate, nor what his paternal grands ate, but would eat every single thing my parents ate and I ate. My BIL, on the other hand, 71 y.o., eats only about 8 things, and never vegetables or fruits! My niece's husband, 40 y.o., eats even more selectively (pickily) than that!
Good lord. The comments with the most likes are the ones about “My kid will eat what their given” “only American families feed their kids trash”. There is absolutely no reason we should be arguing and stereotyping people about this. Nobody has to raise their kids YOUR WAY. There are several different very affective versions of parenting. Just because some families don’t have the time to prepare every meal at home, and emotionally convince their crying child to eat what their given doesn’t mean their bad parents.
Honestly I want to get off the kids menus I’m 11 and my mom still orders kids meals it’s funny to save money when we order take out she only orders kids meals
What's so terribly outlandish about (gasp!) feeding your child real food? Mine is three. She eats real food. Yeah, we do have junk food on occasion, but what's usually on the table is real food. Organic, even. She's a growing human being and I want her to have the nutrients she needs to grow. Chicken nuggets do not provide those. And yes, before I became a parent, I wanted to feed my child real food, and that has not changed. Now that I have the kid, she eats real food.
When I was younger (10 and younger) we lived on and off with my grandparents. My grandfather was strict and we were to eat what we were served, period. No special kid foods, or anything like that. I wasn't a picky eater, but one thing I couldn't stand was canned spinach, which the adults loved.. They always fought me to eat it, but I never would, taking a spanking before I'd eat it. One time, when I was 6 or 7, I was given no choice, one bite was insisted upon. Grandpa wasn't in the mood for my s**t that night. I stuck it in my mouth, and promptly projectile vomited across the table. Not on purpose, I had a strong gag reflex... Well the beating that night was legendary, but I was never again forced to eat anything after that night.
The other thing is...unless you are a millionaire, you want the kids to eat off the kids menu so that you can actually afford to eat out more than once a year! Once they get into the Bottomless Snack Hole phase and order a full rack of ribs with a side of shrimp skewers, and want an appetizer, and dessert....you will be sad they no longer agree to eat off of the kid's menu!
I'm a teenager and still pretty much have a toddler's diet... I at least eat fruits and carrots. And don't eat random stuff I find under the couch. I'm probably the second pickiest eater in the world. (Second only to my sister.)
I remember when I was an eight year old kid I used to eat a hot dog with mayo and mustard... and no weenie. Also at age 8, I loved pepperoni and cheese pizzas, hold the pepperoni and hold the pizza bread! with no bread. I ate so much cheese "pizza" once I couldn't poop for a week. My cousin loved going to Carls Jr Famous Star-hold the lettuce, tomato, onions, secret spread. But when I would ask her why doesn't she order a plain ol cheeseburger she would grimace. She thought that was gross but thought nothing of burying the ketchup for her crisscut fries under a mountain of salt.
Maybe this pretentious mom was thinking ... My kid will never have their own meal they are going to just get a piece of whatever I'm having... because this pretentious mom doesn't want to shell out the $4.99 for a separate meal. So maybe not so much pretentious and more cheapskate
I remember not being allowed to leave the table until your plate was clear. And for getting a smack for throwing food out of the window! :)
I am amazed that kids choose what to eat, all kids can be picky but starting off with some good eating habits and helping the kids not letting them get their own way, life is too long with poor eating and health issues, my two ate fine and grew up with good eating habits !!!
All of these posts that say "omg yer sew nayeeve tinkin yur kid iz gun do wut u sayer" just read to me "I can't control my child nor am I willing to put the effort in". If you give kids s**t food at home, they'll want s**t food when they're out, however I won't stop you from giving your child obesity and diabetes.
Your kid has a meltdown because she doesn't like toast but likes grilled cheese WITHOUT cheese? Some parents should pour pitcher of cold water on their kids sometimes to shock them out of a tantrum.
I've had to get creative with how I cook the hot dogs & Kraft Dinner. Also, we only frequent restaurants that have golden arches.....
On the plus side, boys make up for it about the time they turn 13. You won't have a leftover in the house until he's about, oh, 30 or so, assuming he can afford to move out. I can't even remember what my kids ate for years because I was so exhausted from working and kids (now I'm that way from staying up late on the computer, lol). One of my brothers lived on fish sticks, potato chips, and peanut butter for years. Yes, all at once, on a sandwich, yes, he's still a little strange.
And honestly, I never really cared as long as they ate something, anything. Mac and cheese didn't kill them and they did grow out of it after awhile.
Load More Replies...Mom says its much better to save money then to go out with for food with kids. 5 year old me wanted a hamburger with all of its salad and dressing, got it, refused to eat it cause I only wanted the meat and the bun :D. And 2 years later "I hate MCDonalds food! Can I just get the toy?"
My kids ate what was placed in front of them. I also am a very good cook, so they got to try many different cuisines. When my son was six he ordered duck with raspberry sauce in a French restaurant; he ordered grilled octopus in Mexico, and when we were in France he loved pate and bread, seafood and strange stinky cheeses. His older sister was the same. Once when she was three, as a special treat I asked her if she wanted to go to McDonald's. Her reply: "I hate McDonald's; let's do Chinese."
I remember living on potted meat sandwiches, tomato soup and peanut butter sandwiches, chef boy-r-dee everything, and hot dogs. There wasn't a "kids menu" back then, you got a half-size order at a restaurant. (Don't google potted meat, imagine american haggis in a little can)
I remember myself at 3 and 4. I had a phase where I would only eat foods I perceived as yellow: scrambled eggs, LIGHTLY toasted toast with butter, sugar cookies, corn, certain cheeses, mac and cheese, grits with cheese, apricots, bananas... I think there was a 2-3 month period where I ate not a single green, red or purple food, and also no milk, ice cream, or meat. People didn't go to fast food places a lot in those days, so what broke me was a trip to McDonald's for a cheeseburger. At least the mustard and cheese were yellow, right?
Not everyone has the luxury to buy healthy foods and end up buying the cheaper processed c**p that is in abundance. A lot of families are truly thankful to have any food in their bellies so please don't judge those who are struggling
My dad told me that he only ate chocolate biscuits, fish fingers and rice when he was a kid. I think their was more on list, but I can’t remember.
Palate* But the rest is spot-on. Don't bother with sanctimommies.
I was raised in a you can't leave the table until your plate is clean kind of family. I grew up fat and was hardly ever sick. Go figure.
I was giving my 3 y.o. granddaughter breakfast which included fresh diced peaches. She exclaimed "I love peaches". A few minutes later I sliced up some more peaches and put them on her plate when she told me "I don't like peaches anymore".
That sounds more to me like 'I don't want any more peaches' in three year old speak.
Load More Replies...Not every parent with a picky eater is at fault. We eat fairly healthy and a variety of All sorts of cultural foods. The thing is... my kid ate great until he became a toddler then he had an opinion and it was his way or the highway... since then we never made a new dish for him, but to this day (he’s now 10) practically every meal is a battle. He has to eat what we have, even if he says he’s full (which he isn’t, cause he doesn’t eat!) because at some point after the meal he’ll get some sort of lunch time junk food/snack out of the pantry. It’s exhausting.
Woman doesn't know jack sh*t but will find out very quickly...fool she is.
When I was a child I was an extremely picky eater, once the kids menu at a restaurant only had things with beef which I couldn't eat. My parents were like cool, we'll order her something off the menu, long story short I found EVERYTHING my parents tried to feed me to he gross. I feel bad that they had to deal with my whiny little self. But hey if your child can eat the stuff on the kids menu that is affordable then you should get the food! Food for adults is not the same! It is expensive and has a variety of tastes that young kids who's taste buds haven't fully developed enough wouldn't understand. It's a waste of money and time to try and feed a four year old adult food!
My daughter is 3 months and im so looking forward to feeding her foods besides breastmilk. My husband said that if she is picky she will not eat so hopefully that strategy will work. She doesnt eat it she doeant eat but the same food will still be there if she gets to be starving. Who knows. She might eat skittles and floor cheetos only as well haha
You should never make meal times stressful or about control. Don't get upset or confrontational if they won't eat something - the child picks it up and starts to see meals as a miserable experience & gets even more reluctant to try things in case mummy or daddy do the same thing to them again. It's horrible. Meals should be fun. A relative of mine had the same view of 'if she is picky she will not eat' and kept giving her the same meal back time after time until she ate it. She didn't. PLEASE don't do that - you make it about control and not about food being a nice thing. Just calmly accept - ok, she doesn't like that. My cousin, poor girl, ended up with a lot of problems with food from that point forward. Children are people! Share mealtimes, eat the same foods and have a good range. Lead by example. Or are you going to make your husband eat something if he doesn't like it? How would he feel if the same meal kept coming back until he ate it?
Load More Replies...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. ♥
Load More Replies...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.
Load More Replies...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 s**t.
Load More Replies.......Maybe it's just me but it always weirds me out when when parents start talking about how their children are so picky about food. My parents didn't tolerate that. They were never super controlling, but that's one thing they didn't compromise on. It helped that they are both good cooks. They did let us order whatever we wanted at restaurants though.
It is all about balance. Food is not about force, but it surely is about appreciation. And, most importantly, you need to be a good role-model. Parents who all day long chew on Cheetos and have Mars bars for dinner should not expect that their children will be brocoli-lovers. "I am the adult, I decide" is a rather weak argument after all.
Load More Replies...Most of the world doesn't even understand the concept of a "kid's menu", because the kids eat what everyone eats, period. Here in the West we are doing our children a disservice by kowtowing to their whims of addictive, carb heavy, sugared up instant gratification meals. It pains me to see kids live in such a culturally diverse area and have never eaten anything other than McDonald's and fried chicken fingers. Speaking from personal experience, I know a 12 year old that won't eat anything other than macaroni and cheese, bean and cheese burritos and Top Ramen. And I mean that quite literally. He acts like trying a new food is like being tortured and everyone lets him get away with it. He's probably going to be diabetic before he enters high school. https://nationalpost.com/the-kids-menu https://blog.asha.org/2014/07/03/three-reasons-why-kids-get-hooked-on-kids-meals-and-how-to-change-that/
If your Kid doesn't like a thing , you don't need to give fast food. There are a lot of different healthy foods. I have 3 Kids. Maybe they don't like this or that, that's normal. I think it is actually very good, that this women doesn't want to give fast food to her child.
If they won't eat something, there's no point making it a fight. Just move on to something else. Giving in and making separate meals for everyone in the family is sheer idiocy, though. It's just not worth the fight.
Load More Replies...That's a lot of fuss over a mom who hopes her kid won't prefer chicken fingers and mac and cheese to more wholesome food. Naive, but really not worth the backlash.
If the kid never sees a chicken finger, she won't want them, will she? Why would you even have that c**p in your house? Kids don't "need" ridiculously over price processed garbage, so don't give it to them in the first place.
Load More Replies...My dad was a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese for most of the war, went from two hundred and ten pounds to ninety pounds in the first three months after being captured in the fall of Manila. There was very little talk about what we liked or didn't like around the dining table. "Hey look, it's not a rat!"
I'm from Germany, so ma grandparents as well as my parents knew/know the times when food was a problem, and not because there was so much of it that you couldn't decide what to eat. So our parents were a bit like that, too, "Eat what's there as long as it's there and be happy that there's real food at all." We weren't/aren't picky when it comes to food. I was born in 1990.
Load More Replies...cant believe all these moms feed their kids so much c**p. That's child neglect in my view. Surely they can figure out a way of ensuring their kids get the nutrition they need.
I have a feeling these parents are exaggerating for comedic effect. Surely their kids eat other things too, or else they probably wouldn't be alive.
Load More Replies...I think trying to get kids taste everything is the key. My 3 year just refuses to even try a new food item. Most of the times I insist till he tries, and many times he starts liking a new dish.
At three, you can make a deal with him. Ten minutes of extra TV or an extra book at bedtime if he has a good solid bite of the new food. Kids that age LOVE to bargain. It makes them feel in control.
Load More Replies...While I disagree with the people claiming that ALL childs will be very selective about food at some point, the problem her is that she imposes on her (very young) child how he or she should behave. The key to any healthy diet is to do it because you want to – and it should be a pleasure. But it fits to the "start solids next month". Actually, the baby will start solids when he or she is ready for it. It is extremely important to be educated about nutrition. It is equally important to not be ideologic about this.
My niece was a bit slow in coping with solids - would choke on any lumps in food. The health visitor (in the UK) said 'oh but you must get her to chew solids NOW otherwise she won't learn how to speak properly'. What utter garbage - and cruel too as this ridiculous health visitor scared and upset my sister so much. Instead of saying 'don't worrry and try again in a few days' which would be far more sensible. If it had been a long time past the expected period when babies eat solids then okay, worry, but it wasn't. Of course my niece was fine. She was eating solids a mere week later and speaks fine!! She wasn't behind in anything ever after that. So Hans - I totally agree with you.
Load More Replies...Why are other parents offended? Not all kids eat c**p. My five year old NEVER eats McNuggets or mac 'n' cheese. If you don't feed them garbage, they don't eat garbage. Parents need to take responsibility for allowing their kids to develop a taste for junk foods in the first place.
Back in the day you ate what was cooked for the entire family, the advent of "children's menus" are recent. Picky eaters are not the innate, rampant child phenomenon parents make it out to be, its very much a created problem in the Northern hemisphere. Western food culture and parenting has made every kid a "picky eater" dulling down their palettes and treating kids like they are physically incapable of eating "adult" food...here's and interesting write up is anyone is interested https://nationalpost.com/the-kids-menu
I remember when we ate what our parents put in front of us because that's what they happened to be eating and we didn't have a s**t hemorrhage about mac n' cheese or grilled cheese because mom wasn't going to f**k around with special meals. Call me old, but damn. What's wrong with the kid dealing down with what s/he's going to eat, instead of negotiating with parents.
My moms a Michelin rated gourmet chef and I grew up on the adult menu... but the second i had hot dogs in Mac and cheese at a friends house I began my rebellions. It started out small like a little ketchup with coq au vin but then as I grew up it got wild and now I cook pasta with bbq sauce.
Honestly, I get one aspect of why she wants kids' menus to burn in hell; the food on them is always crappy; chicken nuggets or a baby burger or mac n cheese. If they actually bothered to put better quality; like maybe grilled chicken and rice or something? noodles? soup?
Exactly. I would love to have real food on the kids' menu in a restaurant. Yes, my three year old likes real food. She even eats broccoli if sufficiently encouraged. Try finding a kid-sized portion of any sort of real food with real veggies in it at a restaurant.
Load More Replies...When I was a child the rule was we had to try a bite of everything mom or dad cooked, if we truly did not like something we could pass on that item. However, we had to eat a serving of vegetables. Every time we had venison I had a pb&j sandwich with a side of spinach or broccoli. This rule came about because my mother developed a serious eating disorder which doctors attributed to her parents forcing her to eat even when she was not truly hungry. It took her years to have a healthy relationship with food.
Younger children (5-8 months) give us a false pride; we see them actually eat tomatoes or scrambled eggs and we think we're in for an easy ride. Then, they develop more distinguished taste buds, I guess, because soon it's pasta. That's it. We created the rule; you must eat 3 bites of everything on your plate. It took away the fighting and complaining because there was an actual rule. If a tantrum started, we just finished when it was over. My son still doesn't like a lot of foods, but he eats what he needs to.
Pickiness is not the only reason kids' menus exist. Adults can easily pack away a kilogram of food in a sitting. Children's stomachs tend to be smaller. Kids' menus typically contain portion sizes more appropriate for them.
Depends on the menu. I saw kids menus and menus for the elderly at places, where the only difference was, that the portion sizes were smaller and the food was a bit less spicey. But most "normal" places only have pasta with tomato sauce, pizza margaritha and french fries with fried meatstuff.
Load More Replies...I don't get it. Your kids eat what you give them or they don't eat...they learn very quickly to eat what is placed in front of them except for special occasions. My sons got whatever they wanted on Fridays but other than that they ate whatever I cooked...
My kid was on a peanut butter diet for about a year. How he managed to grow I couldn't say.
is this a cultural thing? a country thing? when I was a child I never had junk food options to begin with, if I refused to eat my mom would take the food away and I would go play and when I asked her to give me food later she would just reheat the food I refused to eat in the beginning, no junk food options, no special menu options either. It seems that nowadays parents take the easy way out, giving them junk food because it's easier for THEM not for the good of their kids.
oh the memories of raising kids...love all the comments in the post, but yeah, the favorite one was 'I remember what a great parent I was before I had kids' i didn't have illusions about raising (starving?) mine, but caught on quick and learned that they WILL eat when they get hungry. the not wanting to eat at all was the hardest for me
I’m so freakin’ lucky to have two boys (11 and 12 years old) who eat almost everything. How did I accomplish that? I have absolutely no idea, but I’m really happy about it.
My child never ate from a children's menu - its garbage. Children are perfectly capable of eating the same things we do - parents need to get a clue. In many countries, e.g. Foodie France there is no such thing as a "childrens menu". Teach your child to eat properly. Its a nightmare taking many of my daughters friends out to a restaurant now they are older as they have never been exposed to anything on the menu and won't eat anything. Ridiculous.
It's evolutionary right that kids refuse to try new food. Every new food may be a threat. It's unknown and seems wierd for a child. So before you make them try something forcefully (which they won't without tantrum or someting like that), let them play with it: to touch, to smell or even to crash and squeeze it with fingers etc. Eventually you will succeed without force: something potencially dangerous will become well-known and they will try to taste it on their own will. :)
Yes! Thank you for being in 'natural survival' instincts.
Load More Replies...I was a healthy diet mom. I remember sending a lunch to school with egg salad sandwiches with homemade bread, carrot sticks, an apple, a homemade whole wheat brownie and a brief loving note on a paper napkin. Turned out the kid was trading his lunches for Lunchables.
I'm 18, and my mom sometimes tries to get me to order off the kids menu because I'm overweight and vegetarian. Honestly it's weird that I'm overweight because I was raised vegetarian. Inb4 anyone says a child cant be vegetarian, vegetarians drink milk and eat eggs.
I am not vegetarian, but my mother in law is. Not so weird to be vegetarian and overweight if you eat a lot of things like bread, rice, potatoes. She eats mainly vegetable dishes and soups, yogurt and fruits in between meals and despite having really hectic schedule (she is ER nurse), she still has healthy weight. But indeed, it is strange if your family eats the same and they have normal weight, while only you are overweight. You are still quite young and growing, but if you still haven't maybe you should go for an extensive check up (just in case) - check your hormones, blood sugar levels, thyroid, etc. I hope you don't take it as being mean and judgmental, it's just advice. I won't judge anyone on weight and diet, as I don't manage them quite well myself, so I have a few more kg then I would like.
Load More Replies...My kid only ordered Steak and eggs, steak and potatoes , steak and steak. The other french toast, toasted cheese, and french toast. Breakfast, lunch and dinner in that order. The nice thing about it was people watching a six year old eating medium rare steak and ask if she could have another one. We did eat out a lot because I was the only cook and I was ill a lot but those kids ate what THEY ordered without us asking them to . Then is was chocolate ice cream or chocolate cake.
As a senior, I sometimes order fron the kids' menus because (a) not huge portions of food that doesn't travel well (b) less expensive. I love getting a small nicely cooked hamburger that hasn't been sitting under a heat lamp, or a smaller portion of pancakes.
I have a Horse-in-law...oops I mean a sister-in-law that said she will never use disposable diapers. She also said her children will go right from the breast to an actual cup. I still laugh at her years later.
How long ago did she make those comments? I ask because my mom surprised me when I was in my mid-twenties with the revelation that I was cloth diapered as a baby, when I was absolutely certain my parents would've used the disposable stuff, and I was born long after the introduction of disposable diapers to the marketplace (i.e. in the final months of the 1970s)! My parents didn't do it for pretentious reasons, so, you know, there are normal parents who do opt for cloth diapers. The other thing about "go[ing] right from the breast to an actual cup", OTOH, is a laugh riot and a half AND is completely delusional.
Load More Replies...The response comments are hilarious! I remember when my step-daughter had a slight digestion problem and couldn't eat anything with a tomato based sauce because of the acidity. What was her favorite food at this time? Spaghetti with red sauce or tomato soup. She was 12. The food made her throw up EVERY time, but it was still her favorite! Thankfully that digestive issue has cleared up now that she's older.
1. My kids were never going to play with toy guns because I found (and still do) boys running around and jamming them in your face going "PEWPEW" obnoxious. 2. My kids were never going to grow up with every electronic in the world and were going to have screen time limits. 3. My kids were never going to play violent X-box games like Call of Duty! Oh....those were the days. When every kid in the neighborhood is having water gun or nerf war fights...you ultimately give in and get them one after the neighbor kids give them pity broken ones...when the neighbor kids (and their dads) all have every gaming system and every violent game on the market...your kids just go over there and get them, so at some point, you discover that your husband has bought one for them too...when you realize FaceTiming your now 14 and 11 year old boys to come downstairs so you don't have to scream and scream from the kitchen...very useful. We all go through this phase to some extent at the beginning ;P
My father arrived for his yearly family scrum and took the 28 of us to lunch at a nice restaurant'. With 10 kids ranging from 3 to 18, every single one of them ate off the kids menu.
You can get your kids to eat almost anything if you drop it on the floor near their highchair and put them down where they can "find" it while you clean the tray.
My oldest nephew was probably two when he went through a six month phase of pretending he was a cat named--I don't even remember. He would only eat if his plate was put on the floor so he could eat off of it like a cat. That's my favorite memory of all my nieces and nephews because my mom was "horrified" every time he did it. My girls, nieces, and nephews love it when Nanny is overly dramatic and tells them crazy stories.
Load More Replies...hmmm...…my children were not allowed to choose what they wanted for dinner. I made them dinner and they learned to like certain things....no tantrums or no dinner! Only happened once!
We went to dinner with my 5 year old. She said she wanted Mac and cheese. She can read and we let her tell the waiter herself, and after it came she was upset and began to loudly cry because she didn't have noodles and she wanted spaghetti. Good luck lady and trying to have a "quiet dinner with a toddler "
Thing 1 had a meltdown and wouldn't eat his ice cream because 'The bowl was too Oval'
My nephew wouln't eat anything but custard for 3 years. His mum, my sister, was so worried she took him to the doctor, for years. Every time he was fine. Now he is a chef, a very successful chef at a premier division football club (uk). Must have needed custard.
omg, my "kid" is now 26, but I'm still wheezing I laughed so hard at this. I remember those mac 'n' cheese with a side of mac 'n' cheeze 'n' gummy worms stories only too well . . . I can now officially report that he's back to eating anything, and he did survive his childhood!
Childrens menu items are not really a common thing in regular restaurants, usually only chain type styles and we do not have a lot of those in Australia, just the main Maccas and KFC , Pizza Hut , Dominos and some Chillis there may be a few more now but nothing compared to the abundance of chains in the US .... So this usually means to take out kids to a restaurant in Australia means ordering what an adult would order in maybe an entree serving (our entrees are the first dish smaller not the main ) but not usually fried kiddie food. However while someone may feel that kids menus are beneath them, take into consideration that often SENIORS will use the kiddie menu to be able to have both smaller portions as they do not eat as much and the lower price point, so regardless of what your kids tastebuds are going to be like, it will come down to what is possible in the moment.
I was not one of those kids who refuses to eat anything more exotic than burgers or pizza; I loved trying new foods. What I HATED was kids' menus! As far as I was concerned those were for babies, what the grownups were eating always looked way more interesting and tasty to me!
I am picky, but at least I eat half of the tomato on my burger.
I ate pretty much everything as a kid. I still get a bang out of trying new foods. The stranger the better.
I love the article about CPS trying to take away the parental rights of two learning disabled adults because their children were born normal and they said the parents were incapable of taking care of them properly. When the social worker from CPS testified before the judge, she cited that the parents were feeding their 4 year old an unhealthy diet. When asked for more detail, she said "They feed the child chicken nuggets instead of boiled chicken." Excuse me? What planet are you from that any 4 yr old would willingly eat boiled chicken over chicken nuggets? Heck..the majority of adults I know refused to eat boiled chicken! SMH
Well there are a lot of people out there who want to see parents in prison, who feed their kids with healthy, homecooked and nutritous vegan meals.
Load More Replies...How are these kids so fussy I always ate what other people had the fussiest I became was with vegetables. My mum didn't use the kids menu either she used to order her food ask for more than usual to be put on bring out my little plate and share the meal
Future tweet from that mom will be bragging her kid only eats "Boeuf and pasta in a delicate sauce" but we all know that's just Spaghetti'Os with meatballs
1st time I took my 5 year old to a Mexican restuarant, he insisted on having a burrito from the adult menu. When they brought him his foot long loaf size burrito he burst into tears. He said through his tears "I cant eat all that" & refused to touch it. His dad took the burrito & gave him 1/2 taco & some beans & rice. Go ahead get your kid the adult food...
welp, she kinda put it in a really b****y way but i get what she is saying. my son never really ordered off a kids menu. from a young age he was exposed to a lot of different kind of foods and he likes everything. he asked for sushi on his 6th birthday and stuff like that. it isnt impossible to get your kids to eat everything. i dont have any ill will toward kids menu like it seems she does but mine just always preferred "adult" food. also, my son is 10 and like 4' 10" and 135 lbs so he is a monster, most kids his age couldnt finish an adult burger and fries but he can. he is like me lol, i am 6'1" 280 and we both arent that fat, just a little chubby, big family
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Load More Replies...Its only in the US that there's "kids meal". The rest of the world the kids eats what adult eats!
Not true. Plenty of kid's menus in Germany. Always unhealthy stuff like schnitzel and fries or spaghetti with tomato sauce.
Load More Replies...But... not all kids are like this, right? I know more than enough kids enjoying vegetables and not-particularly-kids-food. I mean, I get than most small kids won't like fish, spices etc. because people have to grow into those, but definitely not all kids live solely on mac and cheese, fries and pancakes. Though one friend of mine still didn't really like anything besides pancakes and fries at 14 years old, her parents were truly desperate by then...
That's easy. Don't have those things in the house, and don't go to restaurants where they have them either. A 14 year old doesn't have access to a lot of money - and if they do there are other problems going on.
Load More Replies...If our meals were up to my daughter, we would be eating pasta and chicken nuggets everyday. Every child eats everything at the beginning, but then... pfff wait and see. Good luck new mom! it will be Le-wait for it- gendary!!!
I hate picky eaters. The only food and drink I really dislike (apart from the obvious like cheap processed stuff) are baked beans and coffee. I'm not overly keen on rhubarb either but if I went to someones house for a candlelight soiree and that was bizarrely served I would eat it with the good grace God gave me.
I love baked beans, so can I hate you now just because of your food dislikes?
Load More Replies...My son (who was killed in an accident at the age of 31) ate everything as long as I ate it, too. Wouldn't eat what Dad ate, nor what his paternal grands ate, but would eat every single thing my parents ate and I ate. My BIL, on the other hand, 71 y.o., eats only about 8 things, and never vegetables or fruits! My niece's husband, 40 y.o., eats even more selectively (pickily) than that!
Good lord. The comments with the most likes are the ones about “My kid will eat what their given” “only American families feed their kids trash”. There is absolutely no reason we should be arguing and stereotyping people about this. Nobody has to raise their kids YOUR WAY. There are several different very affective versions of parenting. Just because some families don’t have the time to prepare every meal at home, and emotionally convince their crying child to eat what their given doesn’t mean their bad parents.
Honestly I want to get off the kids menus I’m 11 and my mom still orders kids meals it’s funny to save money when we order take out she only orders kids meals
What's so terribly outlandish about (gasp!) feeding your child real food? Mine is three. She eats real food. Yeah, we do have junk food on occasion, but what's usually on the table is real food. Organic, even. She's a growing human being and I want her to have the nutrients she needs to grow. Chicken nuggets do not provide those. And yes, before I became a parent, I wanted to feed my child real food, and that has not changed. Now that I have the kid, she eats real food.
When I was younger (10 and younger) we lived on and off with my grandparents. My grandfather was strict and we were to eat what we were served, period. No special kid foods, or anything like that. I wasn't a picky eater, but one thing I couldn't stand was canned spinach, which the adults loved.. They always fought me to eat it, but I never would, taking a spanking before I'd eat it. One time, when I was 6 or 7, I was given no choice, one bite was insisted upon. Grandpa wasn't in the mood for my s**t that night. I stuck it in my mouth, and promptly projectile vomited across the table. Not on purpose, I had a strong gag reflex... Well the beating that night was legendary, but I was never again forced to eat anything after that night.
The other thing is...unless you are a millionaire, you want the kids to eat off the kids menu so that you can actually afford to eat out more than once a year! Once they get into the Bottomless Snack Hole phase and order a full rack of ribs with a side of shrimp skewers, and want an appetizer, and dessert....you will be sad they no longer agree to eat off of the kid's menu!
I'm a teenager and still pretty much have a toddler's diet... I at least eat fruits and carrots. And don't eat random stuff I find under the couch. I'm probably the second pickiest eater in the world. (Second only to my sister.)
I remember when I was an eight year old kid I used to eat a hot dog with mayo and mustard... and no weenie. Also at age 8, I loved pepperoni and cheese pizzas, hold the pepperoni and hold the pizza bread! with no bread. I ate so much cheese "pizza" once I couldn't poop for a week. My cousin loved going to Carls Jr Famous Star-hold the lettuce, tomato, onions, secret spread. But when I would ask her why doesn't she order a plain ol cheeseburger she would grimace. She thought that was gross but thought nothing of burying the ketchup for her crisscut fries under a mountain of salt.
Maybe this pretentious mom was thinking ... My kid will never have their own meal they are going to just get a piece of whatever I'm having... because this pretentious mom doesn't want to shell out the $4.99 for a separate meal. So maybe not so much pretentious and more cheapskate
I remember not being allowed to leave the table until your plate was clear. And for getting a smack for throwing food out of the window! :)
I am amazed that kids choose what to eat, all kids can be picky but starting off with some good eating habits and helping the kids not letting them get their own way, life is too long with poor eating and health issues, my two ate fine and grew up with good eating habits !!!
All of these posts that say "omg yer sew nayeeve tinkin yur kid iz gun do wut u sayer" just read to me "I can't control my child nor am I willing to put the effort in". If you give kids s**t food at home, they'll want s**t food when they're out, however I won't stop you from giving your child obesity and diabetes.
Your kid has a meltdown because she doesn't like toast but likes grilled cheese WITHOUT cheese? Some parents should pour pitcher of cold water on their kids sometimes to shock them out of a tantrum.
I've had to get creative with how I cook the hot dogs & Kraft Dinner. Also, we only frequent restaurants that have golden arches.....
On the plus side, boys make up for it about the time they turn 13. You won't have a leftover in the house until he's about, oh, 30 or so, assuming he can afford to move out. I can't even remember what my kids ate for years because I was so exhausted from working and kids (now I'm that way from staying up late on the computer, lol). One of my brothers lived on fish sticks, potato chips, and peanut butter for years. Yes, all at once, on a sandwich, yes, he's still a little strange.
And honestly, I never really cared as long as they ate something, anything. Mac and cheese didn't kill them and they did grow out of it after awhile.
Load More Replies...Mom says its much better to save money then to go out with for food with kids. 5 year old me wanted a hamburger with all of its salad and dressing, got it, refused to eat it cause I only wanted the meat and the bun :D. And 2 years later "I hate MCDonalds food! Can I just get the toy?"
My kids ate what was placed in front of them. I also am a very good cook, so they got to try many different cuisines. When my son was six he ordered duck with raspberry sauce in a French restaurant; he ordered grilled octopus in Mexico, and when we were in France he loved pate and bread, seafood and strange stinky cheeses. His older sister was the same. Once when she was three, as a special treat I asked her if she wanted to go to McDonald's. Her reply: "I hate McDonald's; let's do Chinese."
I remember living on potted meat sandwiches, tomato soup and peanut butter sandwiches, chef boy-r-dee everything, and hot dogs. There wasn't a "kids menu" back then, you got a half-size order at a restaurant. (Don't google potted meat, imagine american haggis in a little can)
I remember myself at 3 and 4. I had a phase where I would only eat foods I perceived as yellow: scrambled eggs, LIGHTLY toasted toast with butter, sugar cookies, corn, certain cheeses, mac and cheese, grits with cheese, apricots, bananas... I think there was a 2-3 month period where I ate not a single green, red or purple food, and also no milk, ice cream, or meat. People didn't go to fast food places a lot in those days, so what broke me was a trip to McDonald's for a cheeseburger. At least the mustard and cheese were yellow, right?
Not everyone has the luxury to buy healthy foods and end up buying the cheaper processed c**p that is in abundance. A lot of families are truly thankful to have any food in their bellies so please don't judge those who are struggling
My dad told me that he only ate chocolate biscuits, fish fingers and rice when he was a kid. I think their was more on list, but I can’t remember.
Palate* But the rest is spot-on. Don't bother with sanctimommies.
I was raised in a you can't leave the table until your plate is clean kind of family. I grew up fat and was hardly ever sick. Go figure.
I was giving my 3 y.o. granddaughter breakfast which included fresh diced peaches. She exclaimed "I love peaches". A few minutes later I sliced up some more peaches and put them on her plate when she told me "I don't like peaches anymore".
That sounds more to me like 'I don't want any more peaches' in three year old speak.
Load More Replies...Not every parent with a picky eater is at fault. We eat fairly healthy and a variety of All sorts of cultural foods. The thing is... my kid ate great until he became a toddler then he had an opinion and it was his way or the highway... since then we never made a new dish for him, but to this day (he’s now 10) practically every meal is a battle. He has to eat what we have, even if he says he’s full (which he isn’t, cause he doesn’t eat!) because at some point after the meal he’ll get some sort of lunch time junk food/snack out of the pantry. It’s exhausting.
Woman doesn't know jack sh*t but will find out very quickly...fool she is.
When I was a child I was an extremely picky eater, once the kids menu at a restaurant only had things with beef which I couldn't eat. My parents were like cool, we'll order her something off the menu, long story short I found EVERYTHING my parents tried to feed me to he gross. I feel bad that they had to deal with my whiny little self. But hey if your child can eat the stuff on the kids menu that is affordable then you should get the food! Food for adults is not the same! It is expensive and has a variety of tastes that young kids who's taste buds haven't fully developed enough wouldn't understand. It's a waste of money and time to try and feed a four year old adult food!
My daughter is 3 months and im so looking forward to feeding her foods besides breastmilk. My husband said that if she is picky she will not eat so hopefully that strategy will work. She doesnt eat it she doeant eat but the same food will still be there if she gets to be starving. Who knows. She might eat skittles and floor cheetos only as well haha
You should never make meal times stressful or about control. Don't get upset or confrontational if they won't eat something - the child picks it up and starts to see meals as a miserable experience & gets even more reluctant to try things in case mummy or daddy do the same thing to them again. It's horrible. Meals should be fun. A relative of mine had the same view of 'if she is picky she will not eat' and kept giving her the same meal back time after time until she ate it. She didn't. PLEASE don't do that - you make it about control and not about food being a nice thing. Just calmly accept - ok, she doesn't like that. My cousin, poor girl, ended up with a lot of problems with food from that point forward. Children are people! Share mealtimes, eat the same foods and have a good range. Lead by example. Or are you going to make your husband eat something if he doesn't like it? How would he feel if the same meal kept coming back until he ate it?
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