In article .com, Dawn says...


Banty wrote:
In article ,
dragonlady says...
Heck, when I was a kid I can remember a couple of family gatherings
where the grownups got steak off the grill -- and the kids got hot dogs.
I don't mind eating hot dogs, but not while others are eating steak! My
parents would never do that -- they might offer us a choice -- but these
were events where someone else was providing the food, and we had better
manners than to challenge the situation.

Are you sure it wasn't simply because the kids by and large preferred the hot
dogs?

I've done it when kids were very little (probably under 6) because the
kids tend to waste a very good piece of expensive meat. Kids don't eat
much in those types of situations IME. So you give them even a portion
of a good steak (which most kids don't like anyway) and it goes to
waste. Better to waste a cheap hot dog.

My parents did something like this. I think a big part of the reason also is
that little kids tend to run around more, and not be so neat, so hot dogs is a
'friendlier' meal. Besides, who'd be on cut-up-the-steak-into-little-pieces
duty?

And there is cost. Just to look fair, everyone is to have a round steak when
the adults could have enjoyed a sirloin strip steak or better?


I don't think it's something that should be done with an older kid who
would genuinely prefer steak. I certainly wouldn't, say, offer lobster
to the adults but expect my 13 yo son to eat fish sticks (he doesn't
eat meat).

Sure. That's the age also, in my memory, there'd be this tension between my
wanting to sit with the adults and them wanting me to attend to the little kids
in the kiddie table.

There is also - is this a family where, if *one* kid got the steak, and there
really wasn't enough for a lot of kids to have steak, it wouldn't be a sore
point? If they're in general big on sharing all around, it'd be a sore point.

I wonder - do folks feel bad about non-food priveldges? For example, is it
unfair for the adults to get a master suit to sleep and bathe in?

Banty