Fundies and meal time?

[Koala]

The fundies I know in real life homeschool. They serve breakfast/lunch between 10-11, and then skip lunch and move straight to dinner. I have always thought it was odd, but I was reading Treasures from a Shoebox today, and it seems like it's not all that uncommon for fundies.

In her post, she made the following comment:

"*We eat only 2 wholesome, filling meals per day, with a fruit snack at 2."

Is it just me, or is that really weird? My kids are HUGE breakfast eaters, and they are always hungry early. If I waited until 10 to serve their first meal, they would starve. Around here we serve 3 meals a day, and have an open fridge policy for fruits, veggies, and other healthy snacks in between.

Kids going through growth spurts often eat even more than that, and I've always been more than happy to provide extra.

I never wanted my kids to have food issues, so I don't make an issue out of food. I keep lots of healthy choices in the house, and it's never been a problem.

I am curious as to why she is only serving 2 meals a day. I get that some kids don't like breakfast. Actually, I didn't eat breakfast growing up (made me sick if I did), but out of all of those kids you would think some of them would want breakfast.

I can't help but wonder if it's a money thing for the quiverfull/fundie bunch. Cheryl has posted about finances being an issue, and I believe she also created some grocery game for when they are flat broke and have to survive on the bare basics food wise. Is she doing this to save money too, or is there some other reason?

If so, I have a HUGE issue with her continuing to breed, if she can't afford to feed the kids she has.

[demgirl]

The food restriction stuff seems to be popular among the fundies. I assume it's partly a financial thing and partly a control thing. Either way, I find it twisted and I think it's likely to lead to serious issues for some of the kids later in life when they are out on their own and can choose what to eat and how much to eat.

[snickerz]

If it's a financial thing, it doesn't really make sense. You can make a bowl of oatmeal for about 5 cents. Or toast (from homemade bread). Or a piece of fruit. It doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming.

[ladypuglover]

The fundies I know in real life all have 3 meals a day. I know this as the women love to brag about what they cooked or plan on cooking. It may not be better than TTC but at least those kids are eating 3 hots a day.

[Austin]

I agree that these types seem to have severe control issues.

As a mother, I think it's important to meet your children's ever-changing nutritional needs. Right now, one of our twins is going through a growth spurt and is eating us out of house and home, so to speak. He went with his brothers and friends to get pizza after their softball game last night and the brothers tell me that he ate a 16" pizza by himself and a whole order of onion rings. I heard him getting cereal after 11:00 p.m. He is 6'1" and weighs 145 pounds, so yeah, if he's hungry, he needs to eat. I wish it was more vegetables, though :D

And breakfast would have never flown at 10:00 a.m. at our house. Our kids, when they were little, went to bed early and got up early, so they needed to eat early. I guess if you had kids who slept in until 9:30 or whatever, it would be okay.

[demgirl]

Also, why don't the kids get to eat until 10 a.m.? That's just wrong, man. Some of them are up at 6 a.m., so they have to go through 4 hours of awake time before they get to eat anything. And they eat at 6 p.m., which means those poor kids don't have anything to eat for almost 16 hours.

[TVR]

Some people are just weird. Everyone I know who are fundie/fundie lite eat 3 meals a day, with snacks in between or fruit being available for the taking.

[O Latin]

I sometimes eat like this, depending on my schedule. Last semester I didn't have class until about 12:30 three days a week, which meant that, since I didn't have anywhere to be, I generally dragged myself out of bed around 10. I had three classes in a row, so I had to either eat lunch before I left or wait until I got home at 3:30. Getting up so late, it seemed silly to eat breakfast when I was going to eat lunch an hour later, so I would eat lunch around 11:30, before I left for class, dinner around 6, and then have a little snack around 9. Over the summer, I would sometimes eat just twice a day: lunch around noon and dinner around 7. I'm also one of those that doesn't usually feel like eating early in the morning (nor do I particularly like traditional "breakfast foods"). When I do eat breakfast it's usually just a banana or a tiny bowl of cereal. Obviously I'm not a growing kid and I know their needs are different, I'm just saying there's not necessarily anything wrong with not sticking to typical meal times if something else fits your schedule better.

[Trynn]

It might be a health thing. I've been reading lately that 2 meals is actually better than 3, especially if you're eating a heavy meal late in the evening. I don't know how true that is, especially for children, I just know there is some argument for it and that might be the real reason.

However, if it is a financial issue then that is absolutely sick.

[demgirl]

I have never heard the two meals thing. I've heard five or six "mini-meals". I think nutritionists and scientists and doctors all differ on what's "best". And maybe I am wrong about this and the kids really like to eat on this schedule or have gotten used to it, anyway. And that's fine, if true. I myself eat more on O Latin's schedule, but then again, I'm an adult. I'm not a six year old; at that age, my mom made sure I had plenty of meals or snacks throughout the day so that I wouldn't get hungry, especially during growth spurts. I just think feeding young children should be very different from feeding older teenagers or adults, and 16 hours seems like a long time for kids to go without food, especially when some of them have to get up, get dressed, exercise for 1/2 an hour, do chores for an hour or more, do 1/2 hour of devotions (4 hours of activity all total) before they get breakfast. But like I said, it probably works fine for them at this point. I just don't get it myself.

[bananacat]

It really is best and most healthy to eat breakfast within an hour of waking up. On weekends, it's fine for me to have brunch because I sleep in late, but when I get up at 7 a.m. I can't wait until 10 to eat something. Plus it's a really long time to go from dinner one night (around 7 at the latest for most people) and 10 the next morning. That's 15 hours with no food.

I guess you can cram all you need into two meals and one snack, but I think it's much healthier to have the same amount of food spread out throughout the day, ideally with 3 meals and 2-3 snacks.

I think some fundies try to squeeze it all in to two meals just so there is less preparation and clean up. But breakfast can be really easy. Even if they don't go all out with it, they should at least give the kids a banana or something.

[Koala]

Here is her "Grocery game":

treasuresfromashoebox.blogspot.com/2011/02/game-of-royal-way.html

oddly enough, she mentions 3 meals a day in this post

[Guest Anonymous]

Also, why don't the kids get to eat until 10 a.m.? That's just wrong, man. Some of them are up at 6 a.m., so they have to go through 4 hours of awake time before they get to eat anything. And they eat at 6 p.m., which means those poor kids don't have anything to eat for almost 16 hours. :(

That's awful. I'm an adult and I would be sick if I went that long without eating. Not to mention that when I'm hungry I'm a terrible person to be around. I don't keep sweet anyway, but if I was expected to do it on an empty stomach, heads would roll.

It's wrong to expect kids to do chores and schoolwork with empty tummies - not to mention how freaking sad it is. Poor things, I want to feed them.

[liltwinstar]

See, as a kid, I think I would have *loved* that eating schedule. When I was a kid, we had to (literally) get out of bed at 6:30 am and go eat breakfast at 6:30am. I hated it since my tummy didn't have time to wake up (well, that and the fact that I also had to choke down 16 oz of milk - which I hate - plus a handful of vitamins with it which made me nauseous all morning). Anyway, I need a bit of time between waking up and eating breakfast. Even now that I'm on a really regular schedule, I *can* eat a small breakfast before work in the morning, but I'd prefer to eat around 10am. On weekends, that's exactly what I do, too - breakfast/brunch somewhere between 10am and 12, then dinner early-ish around 5:30 or 6.

But, yeah, if it's a control/economic thing, that's not good.

[demgirl]

Maybe it is just a difference between people. I know that I didn't like to eat right away when I woke up as a kid (still don't), but my mom would get me up for school about 7 a.m., let me watch cartoons or read or talk or whatever until about 8 a.m., get me dressed and then feed me and then to school at 9 a.m. So I didn't have to eat right away, but I wasn't doing four hours of activity (especially things like chores and exercise programs) without any food whatsoever since 6 p.m. the night before.

On the vitamin thing, I'm totally with you. They always hurt my stomach in the morning, even just a Flinestones multi-vitamin and I know my friends also complained about the same thing. It's weird how parents insist on vitamins in the morning. My mom, when I told her, she was like "Okay! Flinestones after school!" My mom is awesome. But my friends had to keep taking theirs in the a.m.

[Deleted12]

Maybe it's a time management thing.

I cannot imagine the amount of time and energy it would take to cook three full hot meals for like 10 people from scratch every day, plus dishes and other cleanup. A couple times a week? Sure! Every day? No way.

I don't see any way that it would suck up less than five hours a day to cook like that.

[antifundie]

I feel like I remember Vicki (of NQL) saying that they went from 3 meals to 2 because of clean-up.

But yeah, I don't think it's ok to severely limit kids meal options like that. Granted, the sum total of my parenting knowledge comes from SuperNanny, but she has snacks in her schedule, so I figure it's a good idea. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if there were 2 big meals and the kids were allowed/encouraged to "graze" but I doubt that's happening.

And Re: vitamins. I take them at night--right before bed! And guess what? No tummy upset.

[nuri]

I don't like breakfast. As a kid, I didn't like breakfast food (leading to such nutritious breakfasts as hot dogs!) and it still is really hard to eat in the morning. Most mornings, I eat because otherwise my daily meds-induced stomach ache would be horrendous. I don't really enjoy eating until about 10, even if I am working hard. When I'm unmedicated, I tend towards two larger meals and a snack.

[maybeizfundie]

Wow. That is not something I have seen. I don't really like it either.

I have to eat *immediately* when I get up, or my blood sugar tanks. In the summer we've been having breakfast at 8 or 9 sometimes, but in the school year we start the day earlier. And we do not skip meals.

I think if an individual would do better on that eating schedule, then it's fine. But I wouldn't want to bind an entire family to it. There's a difference between doing it inentionally, and say, living in East Africa during a drought and not having enough food to spread out through 3 full meals a day.

[dawn]

I don't eat breakfast. I have a cup of coffee when I get to work (8 am) and one or two cereal bars around ten. I'm never hungry in the morning and I'd hate to give up my last minutes of morning sleep.

Husband gets the kids ready for the day (including breakfast) & I don't leave my bed until 15 minutes before I have to be out the door.