Waste

Maggiemaybe Peapod wine is probably better than peapod soup (although obviously more of a palaver). My grandfather was famous for his country wines - elderflower, peapod, tealeaf (don't think that one was popular) potato, parsnip etc.

Does anyone remember the old trick of serving the Yorkshire pudding and gravy first, followed by the meat dinner? That was so that people were half full before they started on the meat which was very expensive. My Yorkshire Grandma used to serve left over Yorkshire puddings with treacle, which sounds odd, but really it is just a pancake mix so went well.

I think what the OP means is that quite often the grandkids ask for something and then after a couple of mouthfuls they leave it.
I think that's what she meant anyway?

I don't encourage waste. Dgd lives with me so I have a good idea of how much she eats.
There aren't many things she objects too but I'm old school, no pudding til dinners eaten etc.
Did you have an idea of what they liked and in what quantity before you cooked and dished up?

My little GD (she is little - on 25th percentile) aged four barely eats at all. We waste huge amounts of food that she says she wants, then takes a couple of mouthfuls and leaves the rest. She is really active and I wonder where she gets the energy, it isn't from sweets or biscuits, so is a mystery. A doctor once told my mother that no child starves itself, so I suppose we must be content with this explanation. Experiments have also shown that given a free choice of foods even toddlers managed to consume a balanced intake, whereas later on we tend to lose instinctive eating patterns. To a certain extent I understand the frustration of wasting food, but I think it is well established now that insisting on a clean plate can lead to food issues later in life. There is no point in forcing a child to eat something he/she doesn't want and food waste is 'collateral damage'

Nice dog! We can see it quite clearly. Looks very healthy.

Marion I'm not really a dog person but I like to think I'm an honorary aunt to Winnie.
She is lovely and much-loved but quite naughty!

That's so funny * Jane*.
No waste in our house either with the dogs scoffing all the leftovers! (AND stealing too!)
When the GC are with us on holiday I try not to get stressed about what gets eaten and what doesn't. At home, within reason, I try to serve what they like to avoid waste. Sometimes the plate is a strange mixture of smoked salmon, mango, cherry tomato halves and cut apple?!

I don't believe in forcing children to eat everything on their plate. My Grandmother used to do that though. When you think of the size of a child's stomach it does not take a lot of food to fill it. Give them small portions of what they like, you can always top up if they are still hungry. Better that than give them a huge plate full of food which makes them feel defeated before they start eating. In fact if you give them the choice of what to eat they usually are not a problem. No waste. Punishing them for not eating leads to problems later they say.

No it's not just you I agree children are given so many choices and I'm amazed at how many parents cook separate meals just for the children my own daughter included my own children are whatever the main family meal was they did have a choice eat it or go hungry

No one wants to waste food but 'indulgent parenting'?

Lucky girl. I bought a packet of different colour straws and now they ask me for a straw and choose a colour to use to drink the milk. I say " What colour today ? " and they pick one.
Better than saying they must drink the milk. More fun.

We had a ton of food yesterday. The children were nibbling on Easter eggs so didn't really want to eat. The adults were well fed. My pregnant daughter went home with the leftover leg of lamb, a single portion of beef in red wine, a single portion of chicken a la king, and the cooked veg. I have to say, my husband and I are so exhausted this morning after all the work we did. I would love for us all to go out on special occasions but the children are all under five and they don't like sitting in restaurants.

I got rather carried away in Asda the other day with their very cheap veg (20p per pack). The excess will be made into soup.

Oh Izabella it's like I wrote this post. My GD thinks it's ok to ask for something then take a few mouthfuls and say I don't want it. My daughter just says " ok do you want something else " and so it goes on. However when she stays with me I tell her straight " I'm not your mother if you ask for it you eat it."She eats it without any complaints, she is a bright 7 year old and loves coming to stay with me, but my own 2 DDS never got away with treating food like this, neither will she when she is with me.It most certainly is to many choices.

Clarification needed methinks. We never waste food. We grow all our own, freeze, batch bake, forage, keep hens, use all leftovers in either stir fries, curries or soups. Make our own wine. Old bread is made into breadcrumbs and stored in the freezer for cooking, coating stuff. What we had this weekend was a heap of snotty, nibbled, half eaten leftovers I could not make into anything. Bowls half full of soggy cereal and milk and so on. I found it really hard that something was either not eaten, toyed around with ( and it's all food eaten before so we know it's liked) and then offered something else by parents and that in turn was left and messed about with. I did have to put my foot down when ice cream was expected during a walk and just said we did not have any money with us which resulted in a major strop.

On an extremely tight budget we just found all this hard to deal with. We are not mean, just severely strapped for cash and are very much aware that the other grandparents and family members don't see this as a problem as they all have degrees of disposable income. I realise I have to rise above this. How do other grans cope with these things?

Crossed posts Tessa101. Yes exactly as you say!

The waste that often annoys me is when the DGC ask for more, and I could predict that it won't be eaten, but the parents don't say no, and , needless to say, it is wasted! The parents have had enough experience of these situations that you would think they'd have learned. It's even more annoying when we've paid for large, fancy cakes etc in a cafe, and most is left.

The 6 year old who mainly eats toast did a 5k Junior Parkrun yesterday so must be getting enough nutrition somehow!

DD is very strict with the little ones, it's Granny who doesn't like to make an issue of clearing plates!
That said, I used to think our youngest DD was a good little eater until I caught her posting sausages/chips/fish finger/chicken goujons, basically anything into the ever open Labrador at the foot of the high chair!

You'r lucky
With a family gathering of 14 , I discovered 2 religious prohibitions ( Muslim , Buddhist.... the latter being a new'interest' so no pig products or meat there. Then there were the food 'allergies'... pork, veal, tomatoes, mushrooms, nuts and all dairy products then active dislikes where the children's whims have been allowed and mothers have cooked separate dishes..... ie fruit, vegetables,eggs refused.. only brown meat eaten.
I tried ( misguidedly) to incorporate all these fads and fancies but felt absulutely assaulted when the Muslim produced a huge bottle of chili sauce and sprinkled it liberally everywhere. It was explained that she found my food ' too bland' Ructions when I explained that we didn't behave like this in this country as i had spent several hours trying to produce something appetizing for all from a very limited list of ingredients.
They have suggested further such gatherings but I have cried off

Izabella. Would smaller bowls help? Or dry cereal which some of my DGC prefer. I still have a couple of bowls we used for cereal when I was a child and they are tiny compared to today's bowls! I've been known to sieve the leftover milk for my coffee. I stopped buying variety packs 'as a treat' long ago and just keep oats, Cheerios and Weetabix in.
I get annoyed by finding half finished abandoned glasses of milk and juice, they all tend to do that. We don't all have meals around the table often enough imho but DS disagrees.

as in you're lucky and absolutely

Just had the rather liberating experience of being invited to my daughters house for a meal followed by my grandmothers tradition of jarping hard boiled eggs.
This was a win win situation, as she had to choose what DGDS ate (15 and 11)
Had a delightful veggie meal ( instead of racking my brains ) indulged my nostalgia for past Easter egg jarping competitions, and best of all no washing up!

Izabella if the parents are there I try to ignore it - very hard, but you have to. I used to resent DMil and DM making comments about DCs' eating patterns/habits, offering them alternatives when they hadn't eaten what they had been given, and am determined not to irritate DD and DDil in the same way.

However if we are in charge, I firstly try to gauge the amount of food they are likely to eat, and ask them if that's ok. If they say yes and then leave some, I point this out & indicate there won't be anything else. This usually results in the food being eaten so tyhey can have dessert, though I don't think it's good for sweet things to be seen as a reward.
If it isn't eaten, I then say there won't be anything else till dinner/tea time or whenever. And there isn't.

I think half the problem is the apparent perception by parents of the need for snacks. If the DGCs weren't given them with such frequency they might eat their main meals with a better appetite.

I would have been upset by the ice-cream incident too.