[Terabith]

Okay, we were at this birthday party for a friend of my dd's. I really actually dislike this friend of hers, although I feel sorry for him too bc his mom has such horrible parenting skills. (I'm not perfect at all, but she is always threatening him with ridiculous things and never following through, no limits at all on rather extreme behavior from him, and then over-reacting to some minor thing he does and screaming at him.) Plus dd is awful to be around for about 24 hours after she plays with him. But anyway, we were the only other family with kids at the party. NONE of the other kids showed up, which was sad. Poor kiddo. They had this big buffet, with tons of chips and cheetos, watermelon, carrot sticks, strawberries, grapes, stuff like that out. And my dd was grazing, which seemed to be appropriate with me. But then friend's mom comes over and says, "Anna, you need to stop eating all those strawberries and carrots. If you don't, you won't have room for your hot dog!"

I totally didn't know how to respond. I wasn't right there; I was in the pool with dd2, but could see and hear everything, so I said, "It's okay with me if she isn't hungry for her hot dog; it's not a big deal to me." But I'm thinking, "Really, let's just cut off supplies to the healthy food to make room for all the nitrates." I'm not a health food nut. We soooo don't have the best diets that I'd like us to have. We even went to Chick Fil A for dinner tonight. But I ain't gonna tell my kid to stop eating healthy things to make room for a hot dog..... Plus, her kid never eats anything and she's always begging him to and saying, "Your kids are such good eaters," all wistfully. I guess I should just have the guts to tell her it's probably bc I don't care if they eat. I'm not personally invested in it. It's my job to offer a variety of healthy food. Eating is their job. Not many preschoolers starve to death if left alone (lacking sensory or medical problems, of course). Sigh.

:

 

[maya44]

Some people feel that if you don't have a protein (and for them any protein is good) at a meal, you will starve to death.

I have a friend like this. She somehow believes that if my kids miss protein at one meal they will fall into an immediate stupor. I had to gently tell her to back off, but I know it kills her.

 

[lactivist]

: I am sorry but that is so silly! How could anyone actually say those words and not realize it sounds ridiculous. I understand the protein bit but a hotdog!?! LOL Oh my! Thanks for sharing!

Wendi

 

[ericswifey27]

Your friend has a twisted thought process doesn't she

!

 

[grisaleen]

Similar story:

DH and I were at my SIL's and her three year asked to have a pear. SIL says "no, you need to eat something more substantial....." then she looks around for something and says "...here, have some crackers."

DH and I just looked at each other, dumbfounded.

 

[LynnS6]

Hey, I can match that -- we were at the park with our neighbors. Their kids were happily running around on the grass - burning off lots of energy. Running fast, having a great time.

Their oldest dd (7) comes over and her dad says "If you are just going to run around and not play on the play structure, we'll just go home."

: Apparently if you don't play on the "toys" it's not worth a trip to the park. (It's not like their yard is really big enough for the kind of running they were doing.)

I did pipe up and say "seems like they're burning off a lot of good energy right now".

 

[oceanbaby]

That reminds me of when my SIL told her dd that she had to finish her plate before she could go play with my ds, and her plate of food consisted of french fries and chicken nuggets from the buffet. Uh, I think she'd be better off skipping it if she's not hungry. Of course, my SIL brags about how she uses playing with my ds as a threat to get her dd to eat, cuz they adore each other so much.

 

[Justmee]

Quick story here too. We were at a family picnic yesterday. Someone put the cherry tomatoes in front of Nechama, and all she did was eat the tomatos. MIL thought she might get sick from eating too many tomatos and not enough hot dogs

 

[treemom2]

I see things like this a lot here where I live (on the base anyway). Parents who tell their children they have to eat their fastfood before they can have other things--yuck!! IF my kid gets fastfood and doesn't want it--more power to them!!

 

[GooeyRN]

That sounds just like my parents when I was little. They would tell me I was eating too many fruits and veggies and to stop b/c I would not have room for meat and potatoes. Guess who is the only one in the family who does NOT have a weight problem? The same one who became a veggie!

: My parents even FRY their hotdogs in BUTTER! uke And they wonder why I hate meat?

 

[Mama Poot]

I'm having an ongoing issue with my mother about what DS eats. We're talking about a child who can eat a whole avocado at one sitting, regularly has a whole banana and a bowl of cereal sometimes along with it, eats whole sweet potatoes, I mean really my son can be a bottomless pit and he's only 12 months old. We don't feed him processed things unless its veggies like peas which I can't ever seem to find fresh so I get organic babyfood peas...grrr anyways my mom insists that I'm not feeding him enough. DS is small and always has been, he mightweigh 20lbs right now. But he is super-active and bright and meeting many milestones ahead of schedule and the doctors are happy with him. She will make comments like "You need to feed him foods that have more bulkWTH is that supposed to mean? More bulk? Not advice I'm likely to take from someone who is 50+lbs overweight

I honestly do not know what she expects us to feed him. I made him a delicious pumpkin pie for his birthday party last Sunday and he loved it. He had had something else to eat before pie time, so he wasn't terribly hungry. He's umm...enthusiastic when it comes to food

He will kick around and open his mouth as wide as it can go, and my mother takes this as a sign that he's starving to death and we never feed him. She kept making snide comments like "See he's hungry you can tell"...I finally had to tell her to back off when she tried to make him eat a second piece of pie.
I'm honestly afraid to leave DS with her at this point because who knows what garbage she'll try to feed him. *whew*....sorry about that didn't mean to rant

 

[mommyto3girls]

This stuff drives me nuts. We go to Preschool swim at the pool every morning M-F. I pack our little cooler with fresh fruit, cheese sticks, and yogurt. That's it, her only option. I can not tell you how many times I have heard "Wow, I can never get my kids to eat that good" While they are giving their kids the fruit snacks, chips, cheetos, etc that they packed as snack. I have started replying "Well she gets so hungry when swimming so I see this as an oportunity to get extra healthy snacks into her, I figure she has enough people trying to feed her junk food that I don't need to." Meanwhile half of the time their kids are over by Maia "sharing" her cheese sticks, apricots, strawberries, etc