Waste

Thank you everyone for your varied and thought provoking responses. I think janeainsworth summed things up best for me and when GS parents are around I will just have to learn to bite my tongue. I have realised that it is they who are the problem.

I will cope with this by being fair but firm when our GS is here on his own. My OH pointed out that he does eat what he is given when he cooks for him and his Parents are not around

Paddyann.....if you read my post again you'll see that I never give the children food that I know they don't like and only serve them amounts that they are capable of eating. If you're not hungry enough to eat your main course then you're not hungry enough to need a pudding.

I'm not cruel and I object to you suggesting that I am. I don't have food to waste (even to the council for recycling into compost) and I'm not going down the several meals route. My DDs grew up healthy and don't fuss about food. I don't see why modern children should be any different. We eat healthy but basic food with the occasional treat.

"modern children" aren't different though just the ones you know,as I said before my mother and grandmother didn't have any issues with feeding different things to their families ,I for instance have NEVER eaten fowl of any kind ,when there was chicken or turkey in our house I had ham or a cheese salad but I decided what I would eat ,my mother would never have put food in front of any of us and expected us to eat something we didn't want to.I was born in the mid fifties ,my mother was born in 1923 and she was the same as was my granny born in 1888.Hardly "modern"

Are you actually reading my posts? I don't give the children food that I know they don't like.

I've extolled their virtues before but worth repeating I think. As a low-carber I rarely stock/cook potatoes for myself but the DGC do like mash, fries & baked potatoes. They're also time-saving and very economical:

Frozen mash Proper potato, easy to portion, microwave a couple of minutes

Microwave chips 4 small packs, each pack enough for a child, microwave couple of minutes

Baked potatoes Previously oven-baked then frozen, about 6 minutes in microwave, 4 in a box. Each a good size but not too big for children.

Absolutely no waste.

People have different ideas about food. . My DiL only serves 'healthy' food but does not insist they eat it- in fact she says 'you can leave it if you want to. ' as she doesnt want to create battles and hang ups over food. However no alternative is provided - she is very strict. She would disapprove strongly about using pudding as an incentive to eat up the first course. (I have to admit i was guilty of this in the past with my own children!) Only fruit and occasionally natural yogurt are served as dessert.
My own children were very fussy and i tried everything (including all your suggestions) to get them to eat so i am sympathetic and not critical to young parents trying to deal with this. Its not necessarily a generational thing - everyone is different.

Don't be sorry Jane..could see your photos perfectly of the innocent Winnie and the cheese...very funny!. ?

Some of that cheese could have been salvaged jane

Pollyperkins. Very similar in my Sons' family.. they have always eaten healthily and encouraged my 8 year old grandaughter to choose the right things..which, it is nice to see, she is doing for herself now. My lovely DIL and DS have never made food an issue so she is open to trying nearly everything and has a refreshingly good appetite.. the odd treat is nearly always allowed but she also understands when told no and I can honestly say never makes a fuss bless her. And her choice of drink is water 99% of the time.. Having said all that she too still wastes milk at the bottom of her cereal bowl!

DGC are not catered for on an individual basis at home. DS cooks an evening meal for them all most nights and the whole family eat together. Much the same as I have always done.

The only waste during last week's visit to us, was toast crusts and some cereal - fed to the birds- and some cooked runner beans, a vegetable not easily recycled. It is difficult to get the quantity needed for 6 exactly right, and what was left went in to the compost bin.

It was the quantity they ate rather than how much they left that boggled me.

My 2 would have 3-4 snacks per hour if left to their own devices. When they're with me I stick to schoolday timing.
Breakfast around 8 (cereal and toast) then a snack at playtime (10.15). Lunch at 12.30 with snack at 3 and tea around 5.30.
(Not that rigid obviously!)
If they ask for anything else I point out that they manage without snacks at school.
GS is picky and I do worry about his diet but realise that Mum will make the main decisions.
But 'my house my rules'.

Healthy snacks bother me not a jot. The children eat nuts, cheese, veg, bread and butter, and baked potatoes. I consider it all part of the total food for the day.

My grandchildren used to be extremely fussy about what they would eat (ex son in law used to do the cooking and it was based mostly around pasta). They now eat a much more varied range of foods and I do try to get them to taste different dishes so that they can experience them. My eldest granddaughter isn't a meat lover but will eat sausages and chicken nuggets and such, she doesn't like the vegetarian options such as nut roasts ('Yucky' was her comment)so she has omelettes, scrambled eggs, poached and boiled eggs along with beans on toast or a jacket potato. Plus Toad in the Hole and such like. Don't have much food waste at all and it doesn't take much time to make what she will eat, especially as most of us also like the things she does (Grandson is definitely not vegetarian and likes meat, especially bacon!)