Kids today and food

I debated whether or not to put this in the Rant section, but figured since it's more a flabbergasted mild vent than a rant, General Chit Chat is probably the best spot.

I mentioned in The Shed that one of my kids' best friends is moving a a few hours away in a few weeks, and that we had a final sleepover Friday night. We've known the kid since we moved in over 4 years ago, they've been pretty tight buddies from the start. We also knew she was one hell of a picky eater from the start, too. This is one kid who's in all her sleepovers here, never eaten dinner here, and avoids snacking here. Not because we have junk or weird food, but because it's NOT the junk she's used to. According to my kids, their idea of cooking consists of take-out from McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's or Taco Bell, and mac & cheese every day. Once in a while, maybe hot dogs or some cheap meat. And cookies or chips are apparently ok for breakfasts

I wouldn't call them poor by any means, despite eating like a poor stereotype. I could understand a lazy diet if I could chalk it up to their parents' recent divorce, but that's been the family diet since well before that. I just don't understand how people can fall into that kind of diet trap with young(er) kids, they're 10 and 5, for cryin' out loud. Those habits are learned early and STICK. On the upside, her younger brother will hoover up whatever you give him. She turns her nose up at EVERYTHING. She doesn't even like pizza, what kid doesn't like pizza??

But that's not what has my jaw on the floor by any means, it's just background to help understand just what kind of kid this is.


The girl could not identify a shocking amount of the fruits and veggies in our house on sight.


Hubby told them close to bedtime Friday night that they could have some fruit for a bedtime snack, but no more of the indulgence junk food we bought (a couple cookie varieties) She wandered around the kitchen, which she's never actually done before. She tends to avoid it. She looked at the bowl of apricots on the counter, "Is that an orange?" THAT one I can understand, that's not too common outside of canned or dried for a kid to snack on, if they ever eat it at all.

However, she pointed at the bowl of cherries next to them, "What are these??" My older kid's eyeballs just about popped out of her head, "Are you serious? Those are cherries!" "Oh. Those don't look like the cherry I get on my sundaes..." Her only exposure in her 10 years so far to cherries has been the occasional maraschino on a sundae. We live in Michigan, and cherries are as big a deal here as apples are
At least she knew what the grapes, watermelon and bananas were :/ She didn't ask about the plums, I don't think she even noticed them.

She didn't know what the red potatoes were, or the onions. ONIONS. The kid had no idea what an onion looked like before it's peeled, chopped, diced, sliced, etc. She thought the tomatoes were apples (there is no excuse for this...) and couldn't figure out what the cucumbers were. She also didn't know there are breads other than white bread (we have sourdough right now)

She eventually settled for a slice of sourdough with some peanut butter (which is where she learned more than just white bread exists) Hubby asked if she wanted something to drink -- warm or cold milk, water, a little tea. "What's tea??" My older kid, who's big on a cup of peppermint tea at bedtime, took over that conversation and explained All Things Tea enough to make a Brit proud. "Oh. I thought the only hot drinks were coffee and hot chocolate..."

I probably had a big hint that she doesn't have much exposure to fresh foods back in the spring when I was getting my herb garden going, and she asked what the plants were. "A bunch of different herbs!" "What are herbs?"
My younger kid's the green thumb, and couldn't believe it, "Herbs, you know, the things people use to make the flavors in food!" "Oh. I thought stuff just comes that way from the store." O.O Yeah, wow.

She could be just an extreme example of it, but I've noticed a lot of kids today don't have a whole hell of a lot of fresh food exposure & have trouble identifying even common produce, especially compared to what adults knew of at their ages. Has anyone else noticed this, too, or am I just in the middle of a localized phenomenon?

a reply to: Nyiah

Wow, rather strange not to be aware of so much. Is she perhaps a little slow or does she really not eat those things?

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: Nyiah

Wow, rather strange not to be aware of so much. Is she perhaps a little slow or does she really not eat those things?

No, she's pretty sharp otherwise. She really is a very picky eater, too. If she's over when we're making dinner (usually grilling it) she's always turned down the meat of the day because she doesn't like it. If it's not a fast food cheeseburger or chicken nugget, she won't touch it, she'll go home & they'll almost always go to a drive-thru.

I think it's entirely possible her parents have zero kitchen skills & food knowledge. My older kid, the one that's learning to cook, taught their DAD how to make scrambled eggs for breakfast at the last sleepover at their house. Dad's the one with primary custody, but as far as my kids have been told, neither mom or dad ever cooked beyond mac & cheese or nuking hot dogs if they could help it, they prefer eating out (if you can call drive-thrus eating out)

a reply to: Nyiah

This is a spreading phenomenon! Kids from urban areas around here wouldn't know where the milk comes from!

People don't have time to cook anymore!

You had me laughing. Although it's actually sad!

Honestly No Clue

originally posted by: NoClue
a reply to: Nyiah

This is a spreading phenomenon! Kids from urban areas around here wouldn't know where the milk comes from!

People don't have time to cook anymore!

You had me laughing. Although it's actually sad!

Honestly No Clue

It was a thing for the inner city kids to not have any idea where food came from back when my parents ran a farm in the 80's. They used to have field trip groups come in so they could teach them about food, a lot of the groups were from Detroit (we're in the Grand Rapids metro across the state) It used to boggle my parents minds when they saw things they ate growing, and used to tell them they thought it was made in the back of the grocery store.

Times haven't changed much, it seems. If nothing else, it's getting worse, suburban middle class kids can't figure out what these things on my counters are now.

Heck I never saw real garlic till I moved overseas and I like eating it wrapped in cabbage. Very good for you too.

a reply to: Nyiah

That is a sad situation.

My kids and their friends are very aware of food. In the UK we have good food labelling which is a help. My son's off to university in September and can cook - a life skill - and he's looking forward to it.

People who just eat junk will end up like their food IMHO. Fat, anaemic and constipated. To some extent the dependence on junk food in kids is inherited by their parents. If youe baseline is a pizza from some fast food emporium dripping with fat and stuffed with things that are unidentifiable, then you are running (or rather, wobbling) to an early grave.

The idiom "you are what you eat" is apt.

Your thread title should be “parents today and food ”
This is not the kids fault, doesn’t even sound like she’s fussy as she hasn’t been exposed to these things to reject them.

How backwards is the world where this isn’t considered child abuse but not wanting your child to take hormone blockers or permanently mutilate their genitalia is

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
Your thread title should be “parents and food today”
This is not the kids fault, doesn’t even sound like she’s fussy as she hasn’t been exposed to these things to reject them.

How backwards is the world where this isn’t considered child abuse but not wanting your child to take hormone blockers or permanently mutilate their genitalia is

I felt so strongly about this I subconsciously quoted myself when I meant to push edit

I put it down to the dropping of domestic science for girls and woodwork/

metal work for the boys from the education curriculum.

These were subjects that both myself and children were taught the cooking

was basic shepherds pie fruit crumble bread sponge cake etc. the basis of

good home cooking?


The only thing I would add to that is that in this day and age both sexes

took both subjects.

a reply to: Nyiah

BOOM!! There it is!!

I opened this post just waiting to see how long I had to read before I got to this part....

...or chicken nugget,...

Chicken nuggets are the scourge of modern society! I am absolutely convinced 2/3rds of the American public below the age of 12 would starve to death if chicken nuggets were taken off the market!!! (and 100% of children below the age of 5).

Chicken nuggets are the epitome, the absolute pinnacle, of.. LAZY PARENTING!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Nyiah

BOOM!! There it is!!

I opened this post just waiting to see how long I had to read before I got to this part....

...or chicken nugget,...

Chicken nuggets are the scourge of modern society! I am absolutely convinced 2/3rds of the American public below the age of 12 would starve to death if chicken nuggets were taken off the market!!!

Chickens dont have nuggets!! and fish dont have fingers!!

Chicken nuggets are the epitome of lazy parenting!

in a nut shell.

originally posted by: eletheia

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Nyiah

BOOM!! There it is!!

I opened this post just waiting to see how long I had to read before I got to this part....

...or chicken nugget,...

Chicken nuggets are the scourge of modern society! I am absolutely convinced 2/3rds of the American public below the age of 12 would starve to death if chicken nuggets were taken off the market!!!

Chickens dont have nuggets!! and fish dont have fingers!!

Chicken nuggets are the epitome of lazy parenting!

in a nut shell.

Its a market plow (sp) to make things taste good, but are actually bad for you

Yep lazy lazy parents.

I see it all the time..... I watch a mother feeding her 15 month while on her mobile phone..... The child is whinging and reaching out trying to get attention, wanting another mouthful and has to wait and wait and wait. The father asked what is wrong.... I said he just wants another mouthful so he came over and spooned the rest in. She didn't take her eyes off the phone..... simply oblivious.

a reply to: Nyiah

That's terrible. That's one person who is going to be very unhealthy later in life if things don't change soon. The parents really need parenting classes or something. They should be ashamed.

a reply to: Skid Mark

You can't drive a car without proper documents, because of the harm you can cause, but it's perfectly fine to waste whole generations, and believe me it's not the first generation that gets effd up, we are no better just with different shortcomings!!!
Don't be a loop back!


Sincerely No Clue

We went to MOD Pizza for lunch the other day, husband and I. Not a single kid who came in while we were there was actually in shape or at least not overweight.

And we're talking KIDS! The little buggers have metabolisms that are working overtime to grow their bodies. You almost have to be trying to get them chubby, even on a crappy diet. And yet, there they came, kid after kid, overweight and out of shape.

We do a lot of cooking. We constantly tell our kid he doesn't know how lucky he is yet that most of what he gets is made at home. That he always has a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables to go with his meals because most kids don't get that and they don't learn how to appreciate it at a young age. He sometimes looks skeptical, but we tell him the habits about his food he makes now will help shape what he looks like in the future.

We've asked him if he notices that a lot of classmates are sort of, well, chubby, and we told him it's because all they eat is fast food and all they drink is pop. We also tell him that those things are things you do once in a while. Right now, we let him have one pop a week (uncaffienated) unless he gets one from a friend, then he might get more. The rest of the time, he drinks water, milk, juice, or tea.

I think he's a little more appreciative after having watched the both of us lose weight and being aware of the weight issues of other family members. He talks about calories now, and we tell him not to worry about that because we make sure the food in front of him is healthy and balanced, and that's all he has to worry about while he's growing and active -- eating the right stuff more than how much of it he eats.

But it's awful how bad some kids get fed, and that's where the obesity epidemic starts more than lack of activity, although that contributes.

a reply to: Nyiah


I feel cheated! I thought this was going to be a thread about using today's kids as food.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

A lot of 'em are fat enough they ought to be well marbled.