Do your kids eat around the house?

gryp

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 11:32 am

Thinking about Pesach cleaning, thanks to choc moose's Pesach thread: Do you allow your children to eat out of the kitchen/dining room?

I remember last year so many people saying that they had to clean a room over again because their toddler went in with food. I remember feeling like the only one whose kids eat by the table and when they get up, they're done eating. Or the only one who puts the food out of toddler-reach.

I'm also thinking about this because I think it's time for my 16 month old to join his brothers at the kiddie table. If I sit him down there, he'll eat anything. If I put him in the high chair, anything I give him, he automatically throws overboard. So I'm thinking about keeping messes contained.

chocolate moose

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 11:46 am

I think it must be a surburban mentality, to eat only in the kitchen/dining room. Growing up it was unheard of to drink near the couch, etc.

But in NYC... anything and eveyrthing goes !!!

Lady Godiva

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 11:50 am

Heck, no!
Pesach or not, there's no food allowed out of the kitchen or dining room.

By the way, Chocolate Moose, I'm a born and bred city girl and I would freak out if I found crumbs by my couches.

happyone

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 12:07 pm

For those that allow your children to eat around the house. What about bugs, mice and just dirt? Do you have live in help to clean after the children? To me it's basic manners to sit when you eat, eat at a table etc. And who want to clean up after the kids. It's enough the kitchen gets dirty.

frumamn

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 12:49 pm

my rule is, no food outside of the kitchen/dining room. My ds however, is big enough to climb on a stool and get snacks for all his siblings and those get eaten wherever they happen to be playing if I don't catch them in time. So I'm in the second category. The mess that comes from these snacks is usually minimal as they don't get messy snacks- raisins, string cheese, bananas- so it's more like wrappers or peels laying around so it's easy to rmeind them or just pick up after they're asleep

anonmommy

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 1:46 pm

I never let my kids eat away from the table but when they are in bed I def. cheat and eat on the couch!

Tamiri

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 1:53 pm

My mother always said to us "Pesach is coming" and we weren't supposed to eat anywhere but the kitchen/DR. I say the same thing to my kids. Sometimes I will find food here or there, but they are pretty good about staying in the kitchen DR. I don't want crumbs because it's hard enough to fight the ants without added food thrown in.

onlyme

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 1:55 pm

chocolate moose wrote:

"Let". I'm not sure what that means. My kids are aged 20 and 22. they don't "ask".

I guess it would make a difference if it was allowed when they were growing up. If it wasn't, they probably wouldn't do it once they're adults.
In my parents' house, food was not allowed out of the dining room/kitchen. Now when my siblings and I visit with the kids, we make sure that rule is still being followed. It's just the way we're used to doing things.

Tova

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 3:28 pm

Yes, because I cannot not let them if I myself like to take something to eat on the couch...

Nothing that a sweep of the vacume cleaner can't take care of.

chocolate moose

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 4:20 pm

onlyme wrote:

I was always a working mom. My daughter went to the afteschool program, ds had long days in yeshiva, and basically no one was home until dinnertime. It's not that it wasn't allowed, it just didn't happen.

amother

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 9:38 pm

Yep, kids eat around the house, but not in the bedrooms, so aside from kitchen and dining room that pretty much just leaves one other large room that functions as a family room/ playroom, plus hallway. We have no mice, no bugs. House gets cleaned daily. B"H I have help with that.

the world's best mom

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 9:53 pm

Living in a four room apaartment, we have our dining room table in our living room. Between that and the fact that I love to curl up on my couch with a snack and a good book, eating has to be allowed there. But I am very strict about eating in the bedrooms. That's a big no-no. I sweep my floor every night after brushing crumbs off of the couch if there are any. No, we don't have bugs or mice, B'li Ayin Hara.

Annie

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 9:55 pm

I didn't see an option for kind of. My kids don't eat where they're not allowed to, but they are allowed to eat in the living room (which is one big room where our dining room is as well), they're allowed to eat fruit or other non-messy/non-chametz food in the basement (playroom). They may not under any circumstances take food upstairs to the bedrooms. Pesach is one thing, but I've always had issues with food in bedrooms, I think it's just how my mom was so I do it with my kids too, and it's helpful come Pesach time.

One of my kids even stopped a guest once who was walking upstairs holding on to something and told her she couldn't go upstairs b/c she had food.

Tova

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 10:23 pm

Oh, I should mention that no food ever goes upstairs to the bedrooms. Aside from bottles, I guess. But in main living area - kitchen/ dining room/ living room/ den I am not so makpid.

flowerpower

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 10:27 pm

They eat in the kitchen during the week and dining room on shabbos. I do let them (gulp) eat their shabbos snack in their room shabbos afternoon but warn them to eat it neatly and never found a crumb so far or empty wrappers.

hadasa

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 10:41 pm

I'm not makpid on the ground floor, but no Chometz goes upstairs or to the basement all year round. (except for Sukkos, when the entrance to the Sukkah is from the basement and I eat there with the girls when it's cold or raining.)

Marion

Wed, Nov 11 2009, 6:31 am

I'd love to say my kids don't eat away from the table...but despite our best efforts that doesn't happen. So the very strict enforcement is that food does not go off the main floor (kitchen-living/dining room). I hate that they eat near the sofas, as the cushions don't come off and the vacuum cleaner doesnt' get it all (nor does the dustbuster). I imagine when they're a bit older it will be easier. (I also hope when they get older I won't find the leftovers from lunch between their trousers & diapers when I undress them at the end of the day...)

sarahd

Wed, Nov 11 2009, 6:42 am

The children are supposed to eat only in the kitchen and dining room, but the living room is so close (in addition to which I also like to eat on the couch) that some food gets in there too. No food allowed upstairs, but there are always some Cheerios and bread crumbs that make it up there inside my kids' onesies and diapers.

BennysMommy

Wed, Nov 11 2009, 7:58 am

sarahd wrote:

but there are always some Cheerios and bread crumbs that make it up there inside my kids' onesies and diapers.

That's a big one! Now that my baby started eating, I keep finding little pieces of rice and crumbs ALL over the place!