What is your family dessert policy?

[Anonymous]

PP here, my kids would look at me like I lost my mind if I called fruit dessert. They have fruit at breakfast, lunch and for snacks if they are hungry. There is nothing special about it. If I went to the effort to make a fruit salad they might think otherwise but to give them a piece of fruit would not be considered dessert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for the 'fruit as dessert people' - do you guys not have fruit unless it's dessert? My kids love it; I add it to almost every meal at home. Apple, orange, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mangoes are consumed throughout the day and also goes into the lunchbox. I might stick a handful of blueberries on the salad I'm trying to get them to eat. Do your kids really accept fruit as different enough to qualify as dessert? Why do you eat so little fruit? Or, when you say fruit, do you mean something more special than an apple or orange?

I think we probably eat more fruit than most people, rather than eating "so little" fruit - we have berries for breakfast, we may have apple/banana for a snack, and we'll have fruit like a peach/cherries/oranges, whatever is in season after meals as dessert. To me, "dessert" means something sweet, including things that are naturally sweet, like fruit. I don't insist that they have finished all of their main course before they have fruit for dessert (though I do want them to eat all/most of their main course if they are having a non-fruit dessert, like a cake). But I don't want them to fill up on fruit before they've eaten the chicken or fish or whatever. I think it is also a cultural thing - we are European and I've noticed that my (American) nanny and many of my American friends put fruit out as part of the main meal, but I would never do that - fruit comes at the end.

Dear Americans,

This goes to show you that all your European countries are not the same. Because this European is insane. In my country, if you served fruit at the end of a meal as dessert, revolution!

[Anonymous]

Meh, depends solely upon what they ate that day and if they ask. There is no stigma to dessert in our house and it ranges from cake, cookies or ice cream to watermelon, chocolate milk or other sweet fruits or yogurt. I don't make my children clear their plates, I think it leads to over eating. I also don't really call it dessert, it's a treat, and they can have it at any point in the day but then that's it.

[Anonymous]

If the kids ask for dessert and they did a decent job on dinner (all the vegetables for one thing) they can eat dessert any night of the week. If they remember to ask. They have tried to use it as a stalling tactic at bedtime. We say, like the reformed Cookie Monster on Sesame Street, "Dessert is a sometimes food." I'll tell them "It's too late now but you can have some tomorrow." That seems to work most of the time.

[Anonymous]

We always try and have X's favorite (frosted soft cookies) and Y's favorite (chocolate ice cream) but they only get one serving so if they eat a treat at snacktime they do not get a second helping after dinner. I also pack 2 snacks in their backpacks for after-school and often one of those is a sweet like homemade brownie or a granola bar.

[Anonymous]

I need to revisit our Family Dessert Policy ASAP. I want more dessert!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meh, depends solely upon what they ate that day and if they ask. There is no stigma to dessert in our house and it ranges from cake, cookies or ice cream to watermelon, chocolate milk or other sweet fruits or yogurt. I don't make my children clear their plates, I think it leads to over eating. I also don't really call it dessert, it's a treat, and they can have it at any point in the day but then that's it.

Agreed. But there is no snacking after dinner.

I cringe when I hear people say "if you don't finish your dinner....blah blah"

[Anonymous]

We haven't yet sent out the manual on the Family Dessert Policy but will be voting on it at the next board meeting and should have it out in Q12017.

WTF?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for the 'fruit as dessert people' - do you guys not have fruit unless it's dessert? My kids love it; I add it to almost every meal at home. Apple, orange, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mangoes are consumed throughout the day and also goes into the lunchbox. I might stick a handful of blueberries on the salad I'm trying to get them to eat. Do your kids really accept fruit as different enough to qualify as dessert? Why do you eat so little fruit? Or, when you say fruit, do you mean something more special than an apple or orange?

I think we probably eat more fruit than most people, rather than eating "so little" fruit - we have berries for breakfast, we may have apple/banana for a snack, and we'll have fruit like a peach/cherries/oranges, whatever is in season after meals as dessert. To me, "dessert" means something sweet, including things that are naturally sweet, like fruit. I don't insist that they have finished all of their main course before they have fruit for dessert (though I do want them to eat all/most of their main course if they are having a non-fruit dessert, like a cake). But I don't want them to fill up on fruit before they've eaten the chicken or fish or whatever. I think it is also a cultural thing - we are European and I've noticed that my (American) nanny and many of my American friends put fruit out as part of the main meal, but I would never do that - fruit comes at the end.

Dear Americans,

This goes to show you that all your European countries are not the same. Because this European is insane. In my country, if you served fruit at the end of a meal as dessert, revolution!

Haha, I'm the insane PP. I didn't actually mean that it was "European" to serve fruit as dessert. More that serving fruit just in the meal as a side dish is v American - to me, anyway.

To the other PP - yes, I understand that it's weird that fruit is "dessert" at meal times but otherwise is just fruit. Maybe it is that in our house the meals are pretty substantial and are followed by fruit and snacking/grazing in between doesn't really happen. When I say that we might have apple/banana for a snack, I guess it's more like if someone was still hungry after their meal I would propose something like that. At meal times, after the main course, I guess I would say to the kids, "would you like some fruit?" rather than "would you like dessert?" - i'd ask them that if I had a non-fruit dessert (which happens maybe once a week). So I guess in summary, our "policy" is that we don't generally have "dessert" but we do have fruit after our meals (and at other times too). I do allow sweet treats, ice creams, etc in moderation generally. Other than those treats, I keep sugar out of our diet almost entirely (so breakfast is unsweetened oatmeal, I make bread without sugar, I make all our food from scratch so don't incorporate sugar/other sweeteners, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're still in review mode on our family dessert policy. It's under Board review right now, and will be finalized by the end of the fiscal year.

I hope you plan to have a reasonable comment period.

[Anonymous]

This American household is a lot like the first European.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're still in review mode on our family dessert policy. It's under Board review right now, and will be finalized by the end of the fiscal year.

+100
I was just reading some of the responses here, and I am thinking, “How scripted and planned are some of your lives?!”
Desserts on Tuesdays, after a full dinner but only if the full moon appeared two days prior to the day we had spaghetti, which is every other Sunday.
Good lord, people. Lighten up.