Main meals - do your kids eat what you do?

blottedcopybook

I was chatting to my husband earlier about this. When I was a kid, my brother (who is ten years younger than me) was a very fussy eater which my Mother really pandered to. This meant that for the other three of us we had no choice in what we ate for dinner - we got either chicken nuggets, fish fingers or some kind of variation therein with smiley faces or chips and beans.

Nowadays, that kind of diet horrifies me and it's my bugbear that the kids menu in restaurants rarely shows any kind of thought outside of pizza/chicken nuggets/fish fingers. Chatting to my friends about it, their belief is it's far easier to make a plate of food that's quick and they know their kids will eat rather than slaving over a hot stove only to have them refuse to eat it, whether that's then relying on packet food or making an entirely different meal for the children that they're guaranteed to eat.

In my house, we cook one meal and everyone (down to the 17 month old toddler) eats the same thing - tonight it was korma, last night it was roast chicken but we rarely use jars or frozen ingredients. Mainly because I'm quite lazy and the idea of spending hours cooking just does not appeal to me in the slightest.

Am I just lucky to have children that eat what they're given? Have I possibly terrorised them into eating that? Do you make separate dinners for the adults and the kids?

GracieP

blottedcopybook wrote: »

Am I just lucky to have children that eat what they're given? Have I possibly terrorised them into eating that? Do you make separate dinners for the adults and the kids?

I don't have kids but when I was younger we all ate the same thing as soon as we were on solids. I will be doing the same thing when I have children. I fully accept that there are tastes and textures which people don't like. I've never liked cooked onions. And I know there will be things my children won't like, but other than that they will eat what I and my husband eat.

elainew

We eat the same mostly--some nights there are variations as I dont eat meat. Tonight we have all just eaten a roast with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and parsnips. If she doesnt eat it then tough.
Some nights we do grab a pizza but usally make a salad with it and she will eat that too.
She doesnt like home made macaroni which we love so usually she would have pasta and tomatos
But yes she eats the same as us most nights.

cazscoob

there are 6 of us at the moment soon to be 7 and we all eat the same. they are 7,6,3,and 9 months and even the baby has whatever we are having and he loves his food, MIL loves LO going for the afternoon to see what tub of food is in his bag(we tried him on a jar when we were away for quickness and he refused!). yes there are some things that they do not like but most of the time there is a variation of that meal.

if i make me and OH curry then the kids have a korma, OH doesnt like tomato pasta so i just make a cheese sauce. at the end of the day we have a good variety and my kids see nuggets and fish fingers as a treat!

i do know families that eat frozen cr*p every night for tea and everynight there are 3/4 different things being cooked. i have more than enough cleaning, dishes etc to do never mind giving myself more work to do!

Pssst

I dont have any kids that i know of,however if i did,we would all eat the same thing and it would be served on a little used device these days known as a dining table.

When i was a kid we all ate the same thing,at the same time at the same table. There was no question of special requests or eating sat in front of the tv,in your room,at a different time etc etc

This is a good lesson that many parents should learn.

kazwookie

I am the same of pssst

As kids we all ate the same, at the table, end off.

blottedcopybook

Pssst - I agree! I'll admit guiltily that my hubby and I don't eat at the table because we just don't have a big enough table to sit all five of us just now, but the three kids sit together and the TV goes off so they can chatter away between themselves and to us. Hubby and I work quite emotionally-intensive jobs so it's a nice hour or so when we can catch up with how the kids are doing.

Caz - we were the same! Our kids never really did the puree thing because we believe in baby-led weaning so they were sitting eating steamed veg and the like and graduated onto the same stuff as we eat. Luckily we don't cook with salt so it's never been an issue that what we were having was unsuitable.

Gracie - I agree. If there's something the kids genuinely don't like, I won't put it on their plate but as yet the only things that come into that category are olives and pickled onions!

shirlgirl2004

I have a 22, 19, 4 and 19 month old. The younger 2 nearly always eat the same as us. The older 2 are much more fussy and work shifts but they're old enough to get their own now if they don't like what I'm cooking or aren't around. There's no eating in front of the TV in our house. We have 2 tables in our house so there's no excuse for not sitting down and eating together.

scottishchick27

We all eat the same meals about 95% of the time unless, like tonight, OH is going to be late home as he is away fishing and I fancied a steak so I'm waiting till he comes home to eat with him but I made DD pie and chips as she will be in bed by then. I keep a couple of boxes of easy to cook stuff in the freezer for the odd occassion but generally we all eat homemade meals. I weaned her onto solids using the Annabel Carmen cook book and she will eat most veg and meats. She'll eat liver casserole with her dad which I can't stand but because she ate it when she was a baby she's developed a taste for it.

scottishchick27

PS I was dying to click the I don't feed my children box in the poll just to see what everyone said. :rotfl:

OnceUponADream

In our house we generally eat the same. But for an example one son won't eat brocilli so I give him a roasted red pepper (hes 2 1/2) just to give him veg.

I get the thing with kids meals when we dine out that it really is fried food and not alot of options so I tend to order of the adults menu for the kids and ask for hald a portion.