Will your family eat fruit/veg if you don’t cut it up first?

[Anonymous]

Mine (DH and teen kids) will not. For example watermelon or pineapple will not be eaten unless I cut it up and place it on the table at meal time. They would not go to the fridge and eat it on their own even if cut up. I have a bowl of washed cherries with a cherry pitter in the bowl and they won’t eat it unless I pit them and place it on their plate. Vegetables have to be part of the dish—roasted or sliced as part of the meal or else they won’t eat it. It’s crazy. DH only eats bananas or apples on his own bc they require no prep.

[Anonymous]

Not at my house. All I need to do is cut up the watermelon or pineapple and leave it in the container in the fridge. It will be gone. I don’t have to do anything to the berries. My son has been known to stand there and eat strawberries. When I started finding strawberry leaves/hull in the fridge, I shut that nonsense down.

[Anonymous]

Yes of course. I can't keep things like peaches or clementines in stock because everyone eats so many of them. My youngest started slicing up cantaloupes and mangoes several years ago and she's now 10. A big watermelon is maybe the only fruit she needs help with, maybe a pineapple, too, but I bet she could if I showed her. I can't imagine pitting cherries for people to snack on, no way, Jose!

[Anonymous]

Oh gosh absolutely not! I can't even picture a different way.

[Anonymous]

Maybe not a pineapple or a watermelon unless they were really desperate or motivated by a craving, because they are lazy bums. Everything else yeah.

[Anonymous]

Yep. My 9 year old regularly makes a "rainbow surprise" as he calls it, which is various cut up fruits and veggies that he's arranged artfully. We bought him kid safe knives and a peeler with a guard on it so he can't cut himself. If there is a more challenging food (like a melon that hasn't been cut up yet) he will ask one of us to open it and then he takes care of the rest.

[Anonymous]

My dh will, sometimes, but not my kids (12 and 14) with the exception of slicing an apple or pair.

[Anonymous]

Yes. My dd and step dd fought over who got to use the melon baller this morning.

[Anonymous]

Your teens should be helping with dinner meal prep at this point. This is your opportunity to teach them how to peel and cut up melons and pineapple.

[Anonymous]

I barely cut up melons and pineapple, TBH; I buy them cut up.
But everyone will eat it.

The one thing I’ve noticed - if I buy grapes and put them in the bag in the fridge, they will just sit there until I wash them, put them in a colander and set them on the table.

[Anonymous]

I hadn’t really thought about it but no. I have a 10. If she’s hungry I’ll tel her to wash an apple and eat that she will, or have a banana…. But other fruit, yeah I wash and cut up and give to her. Spouse is same.

[Anonymous]

Rarely will my family wash it and cut it up themselves (such as pineapple, melons, ect) however if I cut it up and put it in a bowl in the fridge it will get demolished.

[Anonymous]

My kids know how to cut it up. If I ask them to cut up a watermelon and put it in the fridge for snacks or if it’s their turn to make dinner and pineapple is on the menu they can do so easily.

But if they come in starving from sports practice, they aren’t going to do that. They’ll grab something like an apple or banana or piece of stone fruit, or rinse some grapes but not more time consuming things.

And veggies even more so. They will prep if I ask, and eat what is prepped, but in the moment they go for what’s easy.

[Anonymous]

Rarely.