How often do healthy families have a dinner dessert or sweet?
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Anonymous
| We do have ice cream and candy in the house and have it as a treat, but don't do dessert after dinner. I would rather my child just have her sweets when she craves them than get into all kinds of negotiations about dinner and dessert. |
Anonymous
+1. We usually have chocolates and stuff in the house that people send me due to my side job (for example, this week I received a client gift basket of chocolates, and I'm getting a box of cakes delivered from someone else.). But none of us really eat that much of it, or have it as a regular dessert. Usually it's a little piece in the afternoon as a snack, or asking to try something new when it arrives at the house. None of us really ever binge on sweets and DS prefers broccoli (!) to fruit and sweets. |
Anonymous
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I'd say we have dessert about half the time. Sometimes it's fresh fruit (like in the summer when there is fantastic produce available. Nothing beats a tree-ripened peach or farm-grown raspberries). Sometimes it's a cookie or a scoop of ice cream, or just a piece of good chocolate. Rarely it's a slice of cake, which I don't make often.
My kid eats a relatively healthy diet, plenty of fruits and vegetables, and we are clear that dessert only comes after eating a good, balanced meal. |
Anonymous
Ok so your answer to OP’s question is actually ‘never, except for special occasions.’ |
Anonymous
| We have 4 All-American athletes so I think our kids are pretty healthy. We have dessert with every dinner and it usually is cake or cookies or ice cream. Frankly they need the calories. |
Anonymous
| Rarely... occasions and random other times..but we always have fruit with dinner and kids have some sweet snack s in their lunches some days. |
Anonymous
| This is pretty interesting. Dh and I disagree on dessert. He would have it every day. But he grew up in a european immigrant household with cake for breakfast most days. We compromise on a piece of chocolate after dinner most nights. My role is that if you finish your dinner but are still hungry you may have fruit, nuts or yogurt any night. I would say we have the chocolate 3 or 4 nights a week. The other nights nobody even thinks about or mentions it. I have zero problem with the random: let’s go get ice cream tonight or the obvs we’re gonna have s’mores while camping so I feel like it’s a pretty good balance. |
Anonymous
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We only have a toddler so she doesn’t know different. Fruit or berries for dessert every night. Fridays is something baked or ice cream. Weekends there are treats at home or out or at grandmas and I bake things then too.
We eat ok for the most part and dd loves tart things and can eat a whole big field tomato at dinner or a pile of cucumbers or celery since she likes those tastes and textures. If it’s a special occasion then of course on whatever day. I can’t keep ice cream in the House as dh would devour it and he has the sweet tooth so we don’t buy things to not tempt him. We go out for ice cream plenty so it’s not forbidden fruit, just not everyday. |
Anonymous
Doesn't this describe most all kids? These bad habits make you fat when you carry them into adulthood. |
Anonymous
I dont negotiate. You need to eat your age in bites of the main food plus your fruit/veggie to get dessert. Its not a negotiation its the same every meal. Take it or leave it. |
Anonymous
exact same here! I can bake cookies/brownies and it will last a few days. I have two teen and one tween boy. They may grab one after school or after dinner. We always have ice cream around, we love to make sundaes. Rarely is there not a baked good on our counter, usually homemade but not opposed to a good store bought treat. We also have a candy bowl full of mini chocolate bars that I replenish maybe every couple of months. My kids are good about everything in moderation, their dad is the worst with sugar in our house  Point is, not a big deal especially if the kids know they can always grab something if they want.
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Anonymous
This is us. My oldest is 27 and my youngest is 17. No one in our family is even the slightest bit overweight. If anything, they could stand to gain. We taught moderation and didn't make any foods off limits or scarce. I love to bake and always have homemade treats on the counter. Our cookie jar is always full. I keep a canister of chocolate full as well. It was never an issue. Also, my kids love fruit! But if I tried to suggest fruit as dessert, they would have laughed their asses off. Fruit is wonderful. But it's a part of a healthy meal. Not a dessert. |
Anonymous
Well aren't you the little alarmist with unhealthy perspectives about food, PP. I am not the FP but like the FP we have found in our household that having the foods in the house and eating them when we want has not negatively impacted our lives in any way. None of us is fat and we most likely are much more healthy in mind and body than you are. You sound like you need help. |
Anonymous
To me this sounds very unhealthy. Do you actually count their bites? Even if you don't, just to have the rule in place makes entire meal experience one of eat the bad to get the good, and that is a very unhealthy mindset. |
Anonymous
| I make a pie every Sunday, and that’s our only true dessert of the week. We have other treats daily as a little afternoon snack though. |