AnotherPea
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,969
Jan 4, 2015 1:47:52 GMT
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Post by AnotherPea on Jun 2, 2015 22:30:18 GMT
Did you have special snacks/food that your mother wouldn't feed you at home? And how did your mom respond? I've referenced my American Girl camp I'm hosting for my 5 granddaughters here this summer in a couple of posts and I have another question. I'm going to have a basket full of snacks where the girls can choose what they would like. I will have some healthy options in the basket but part of me wants to also offer junk food. My DD's family is totally organic healthy foods/no junk. One DS's family is semi-healthy and one DS's family is junk food-aholics My feeling is "what happens at Gigi's stays at Gigi's". kwim? Tell me what you think and any fond memories you have at your grandparents house. As long as you aren't placing my child in danger (allergies) and aren't going to call me when she starts puking, then I don't care.
I had a no junk food policy for my kids when they were younger. But it was a policy, not a rule. My only rule was no sweets for an infant. After the first birthday cake, I was fine.
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AnotherPea
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,969
Jan 4, 2015 1:47:52 GMT
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Post by AnotherPea on Jun 2, 2015 22:37:14 GMT
Oh, after reading some responses, I realized I lied. I did have some no-no's on my list. My kids were not to have caffeine and artificial sweeteners. Caffeine because I was addicted to it growing up and it took planning a baby for me to finally kick the habit. It messed with my metabolism. Artificial sweeteners because I was a chemistry major when there were issues with Canadian vs. American testing and learned too much about testing policies. No need for something artificial.
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tuesdaysgone
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,832
Jun 26, 2014 18:26:03 GMT
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Post by tuesdaysgone on Jun 2, 2015 22:38:55 GMT
We had everything and anything when we were at grandmas! My parents were very healthy eaters and strict about meal times, so it was a great treat to pig out at the grandparents. One of my best childhood memories is going thru the McDonald's drive thru in my PJs and getting a milk shake at 11:00 at night.
My parents were good sports about our two weeks of decadance. They knew it was happening but also knew it was a short lived indulgence.
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Post by missfrenchjessica on Jun 2, 2015 23:03:32 GMT
My grandparents were either already deceased or living across the ocean so I really don't have any memories of them or of having junk as treats/snacks. My kids though have a gramma who likes to give them little treats whenever she watches them every so often. She's very good about not giving any of the kids anything with nuts due to my one allergic son. Their PopPop's an ass that they see 3x/year where he usually expounds on how wonderful he is and why they should read his poorly written autobiography. My dad they get to see once a year for about a week when we go visit in the summer. He often "sneaks" the kids fun-sized candy bars (peanut/nut free--thank you Canada!). He doesn't go crazy, but he does have little treats for them. My brother and sister are AWESOME aunts/uncles. The take each of the kids one day solo for a special day with zio/zia. They do fun activity, go to lunch, hang out etc. The kids are always over the moon about it. Other than the sleepover night at zio's where they get to pick out all the candy and junk in the store, it's the most anticipated thing they do and well loved memory. My brother, being the wonderful guy he is, sends the kids back to us with ALL the leftover candy. Yip-pee! Seeing as they only see the kids for a week, I'm ok with it.
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Post by quinlove on Jun 2, 2015 23:14:09 GMT
When my cousins and I slept over at my grandmas, which was not very often, we could pick out our own cereal. We thought we had died and went to heaven ! Instead of our usual puffed wheat or puffed rice, we had corn pops or frosted flakes.
My grandma was a very good cook, but our own cereal stands out.
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Post by finally~a~mama on Jun 2, 2015 23:20:21 GMT
I've only read the first page, but here are my thoughts. Instead of a treat basket with junk food that you know could cause problems with some of the parents, what about baking and decorating cookies or doing an ice cream sundae or banana split bar? That way the kids still get a treat, but it's not a free for all. Plus there is the fun of making it (or helping) themselves. But the OP said the parents In my experience, people who say "no junk" and stick to it would consider cookies and ice cream junk because it includes processed sugar. As far as my grandparents, they served us foods that we only got there -- which ranged from fresh vegetables to jello with bananas in it to being allowed to grab a handful of M&Ms from a candy dish for completing chores. My parents never had a problem with it. My grandparents on either side would also have never fed us so much junk food we got sick or allowed junk food to substitute for a meal. Now see, the healthiest eaters I know would allow a small ice cream or cookie but would absolutely balk at a treat basket that the kids could take whatever from. So that's where I was coming from. Like OP's other thread, I would go the "if in doubt don't do it" route with junk food in the treat basket.
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caro
Drama Llama
Refupea 1130
Posts: 5,222
Jun 26, 2014 14:10:36 GMT
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Post by caro on Jun 2, 2015 23:24:12 GMT
If any of my grands had an allergy to a food, that food would not be in my house when they visited. I would never endanger them. And coffee or artificial sweeteners would also not be for them. The meals I fix will be healthy for the most part. We are making our own pizzas using Naan bread and having tacos one night, grilled chicken and veggies for another meal.
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Post by penny on Jun 2, 2015 23:34:18 GMT
My mom's mom would make things that were healthy but time consuming, so I usually pigged out on her homemade bread, pickled veggies, perogies, cabbage rolls, borscht, etc, long before I got to the dessert course...lol She always had cookies and ice cream in the house so we'd have something sweet after dinner even on ordinary/not special occasions... But her dinners were so good that I'd choose a second helping of that over even sweets...lol That said, for a special occasion, after healthy choices for meals, having some junk items available wouldn't have caused any problems in our family... When I was a kid I'd love popcorn or pretzels as much as chips, guac and salsa aren't bad, liquorice and fig newtons were favourites too, and you can get organic gummies/sweets now days... I'd think that you could put together a pretty yummy set of choices that included some pure junk and some healthy junk... It sounds fun
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Post by underwatermama on Jun 2, 2015 23:36:40 GMT
I didn't have any grandparents while growing up, but for my kids, if my parents buy or make special foods for them, I try not to buy it at our house too so that it seems "special". Except for the apples that she's always peeling and cutting up for them; apples we have. Full service not so much (and my boys are 14 and 16 so they hardly need to have them peeled and sliced at this point...but it's special).
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Post by peasapie on Jun 2, 2015 23:40:19 GMT
My parents didn't restrict what we ate. I loved seeing my gramma bake bread and make pizzas for us. She also made us cafe at lait, a mixture of coffee and steamed milk-something we didn't get at home. But mostly, the food was just different-mostly from her garden.
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janeinbama
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,202
Location: Alabama
Jan 29, 2015 16:24:49 GMT
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Post by janeinbama on Jun 2, 2015 23:48:00 GMT
Our paternal grandparents lived in the same town - they always had bottled cokes and would let us do pretty much anything we wanted to. Our grandfather taught my younger sister to shoot a Dixie cup off the fence standing backwards using a mirror. She brags about this 45 years later! I still recall visiting our maternal grandparents 8 hours away. When we arrived there would be a huge pot of spaghetti on the stove and a coconut cake with lemon filling.
My widowed mother always had cheap frozen pizzas and all the latest Disney movies. Each grandchild got a "whole" pizza. Her fried chicken is her claim to fame which all the grandkids love - but they fondly remember the "Imama" pizzas.
I'm trying to establish my "thing" and so far it is spaghetti and large meatballs! I do try to keep the cookie jar full - not chocolate as I will eat it, but cheezit pkgs, peanut butter crackers, graham crackers like my DDs MaMaw did.
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akathy
What's For Dinner?
Still peaing from Podunk!
Posts: 4,546
Location: North Dakota
Jun 25, 2014 22:56:55 GMT
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Post by akathy on Jun 3, 2015 0:34:38 GMT
My grandma always had special treats for us. I also do special things for and with my grandchildren. Both of my DDs are on board with it and just tell their kids "It's a Grandma thing. Don't expect this at home." It works out
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 6, 2024 23:24:59 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2015 0:48:52 GMT
I think you can find a balance that will satisfy all the parents.
Growing up, my grandmother always made me a chocolate pudding pie. My grandfather hived bees, so there was always fresh honey and honeycomb to chew on. They also had a huge vegetable garden, so beans, squash, tomatoes, okra, etc. My grandmother always took me to the toy store too. Good memories.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 6, 2024 23:24:59 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2015 0:57:28 GMT
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Post by txdancermom on Jun 3, 2015 1:20:42 GMT
One grandmother always had those chocolate wafer cookies on her counter - we didn't have cookies at home (because of my sister). the other grandmother always had homebaked goods at her house, my mom didn't bake.
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scrappinwithoutpeas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,998
Location: Northern Virginia
Aug 7, 2014 22:09:44 GMT
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Post by scrappinwithoutpeas on Jun 3, 2015 1:41:39 GMT
If we were at my maternal grandparents' house for an overnight, we got homemade waffles in the morning. My siblings and I looked forward to that as a special treat that we only got at Grandma I's house. My parents never made waffles at home (pancakes & french toast, yes, but never waffles). She also made homemade fried chicken and cole slaw. She usually also let us pick out any flavor of ice cream we wanted and had cookies on hand (either store-bought or homemade). Both grandmothers made delicious homemade biscuits. At my other grandparents' house, we got those wintergreen candy disks and peppermints, but the best thing we got there was strawberries in some form at pretty much every meal (preserves, pies, just plain sliced fresh, served with shortbread and cream, etc.)!
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Post by Skellinton on Jun 3, 2015 3:37:38 GMT
One grandma had a drawer with mini Hershey bars, we were allowed to snack from that. The best thing at that grandma's house was the mini boxes of sugar cereal where you could use the box as a bowl, I loved those things! She also gave us bags of dried cereal to take into church. To this day I can't see or eat Apple jacks without thinking about her! My grandpa always peeled the box off the rectangular ice cream and sliced it, we thought that was so great! My grandpa also had a garden where he grew peas just for me since I loved them so much. My other grandma always had homemade chex mix and had a separate bowl of cashews - that seemed the height of decadence to me- and we would always make fudge. She let us eat as much fudge as we wanted, which was great because my dad never had sweets at his house (this set of grandparents lived in the same city as my dad, so we visited dad and our grandparents twice a year for a few weeks at a time). I feel so lucky to have had grandparents who made visiting so much fun and loved us every bit as much as we loved them.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jun 3, 2015 3:43:44 GMT
Agreed. My youngest isn't allergic to dairy/gluten, but he doesn't process it well. It's been a LONG road for just to get him to the point where he's "healthy". We still have family members (MIL mostly) who think we're just being particular. There's no way I could send him unsupervised to her house because she doesn't pay attention to ingredients. We get that's it's a huge pain to have GF/DF items in your home that a 5yr old would eat. So, while we send food whenever he goes anywhere, we still have to trust the adult in charge not to feed him things that aren't healthy **for him**. I think this is a completely different situation where the grandparents do need to be more careful with what the particular kid is eating. I know people who have kids that have problems with red dye, and it's in a lot more things than you would think if you aren't careful about reading ingredients! Another friend's 20-something daughter was finally diagnosed as having a pretty serious gluten intolerance after having a lifetime of digestive issues, so for some people it really is a pretty big deal that others shouldn't just blow off. It's totally different when the snack stuff is merely an indulgence vs. something that will unfortunately make a child very ill. To give a kid (or anyone, for that matter) something that you know could harm them, especially after they've been told about it, that's just messed up.
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twinsmomfla99
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,087
Jun 26, 2014 13:42:47 GMT
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Post by twinsmomfla99 on Jun 3, 2015 12:15:37 GMT
I love this thread!
I grew up in a family of 5 kids plus a 6th one added when I was almost 10. Getting to go to Grandma's for a whole week by myself every summer was HEAVEN ON EARTH! For one whole week, I didn't have to share anything with anyone. I got to ride in the front seat with Grandpa. I got to make choices based on my preferences alone without worrying about any of the my siblings.
And I got to pick out my own box of cereal. Yep, that was one of the best parts! My mom limited our breakfast cereal choices to Cheerios, Cornflakes or Rice Krispies (except for Christmas--each one of us got a box of sugared cereal every Christmas morning LOL--we all liked that better than the candy we got in our stockings). Mom and Dad dropped me off on a Sunday, and Monday morning, Grandpa would take me to the Food Locker to pick out my own box of cereal. I usually picked Quisp or Captain Crunch.
There were a lot of other things to love about going to my grandparents' home for a week, but sugar cereal for breakfast was definitely one of my favorites!
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raindancer
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,095
Jun 26, 2014 20:10:29 GMT
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Post by raindancer on Jun 3, 2015 12:31:40 GMT
My grandma always had ice cream, cheese puffs, and the graham crackers with cinnamon sugar. And for campouts there was always a huge bag of Brach's mix candy. Some of my favorite things to eat to this day as a treat. I say go for it.
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Post by tomocus on Jun 3, 2015 14:00:57 GMT
I don't have any memories of this wen I was young. My experience with this as an adult is that when I used to (notice the past tense) send my kids to my parents, my parents would feed them so much junk food and sugar (which they weren't used to) that my kids came home throwing up every single time they went to visit. For this and other reasons I no longer trust my parents' judgment and they no longer see the kids unsupervised. I think there's a fine line between normal grandparent spoiling and completely disrespecting parenting choices. Don't cross the line. WOW -- Just WOW. There seems to be so much venom in this. Did your parents feed you until you threw up? I don't know, this just seems weird.
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