I have a slight issue with a family members kids. Whenever we have them around for a dawat i end up having to wash down walls and everything that comes in their path. They wont sit still, they simply over fill their plates and waste a lot of food. They lack manners which their mum thinks is cute. The kids touch all the foods on the platters, will take a samosa dir example bite a corner not finish it and take another and do the same.The kids are 9,8 & 6. Surely at this age manners isn’t too much to ask?I was thinking of ways of combating the issue and thought about food boxes, the ones kids get happy meals in. If i serve the kids all their meal in a box surely it would control some of the mess? Any thoughts anyone?
Re: catering for kids at dawats
Dont keep your hopes too high .. I have tried this trick before but nothing is ever going to work unless their mommy takes a stand or you become stern with them …
When I prepared special food boxes for kids , they wasted the food in there and then kept coming back to the dining table and carried on doing their bit …
So after several tries when nothing worked , I changed my rules and now I simply tell the kids in front of their mommies to not waste the food , when they are trying to put anything in their plates, I just tell them off and make sure they just put in a tiny bit in their plate saying " eat this first , honey " …
For ultra rude mommies who think its cute , I just put all their kid’s left over food in a box and give it to them to take with them .. i dont care if they mind it or not .. but better to teach their kids good behaviour rather then us having to bear the torture again and again 
Re: catering for kids at dawats
There is one more thing you can do ... Say you have plate of samosa's ready to be served .. just cut up a samosa or two into smaller pieces and encourage the kids to eat the kiddie food from the plates ...
Or if you have the energy , then you can try making smaller kid friendly samosa's or what ever you are serving .. that sort of attracts them too ... for example, when serving chicken roast pieces, I know kids might waste a large piece , so I intentionally do small boneless tikka's so that they can take their bits from that plate ...
Re: catering for kids at dawats
Honestly I don't think anything will work until you get to the root of hte problem, which is parents who don't teach their kids manners.
i say tell the kids off (as nicely as possible) and if the parents get offended--they're welcome to not come back til they learn to be better parents.
Re: catering for kids at dawats
Thank you CB, i thought i maybe the only one with such guests.I have previously tried bite sized samosas and they wasted them too.
Re: catering for kids at dawats
Sara, another family member actually did that and the parents started complaining family had it in for their kids. They blew it into a full feud with those member of the family.
Re: catering for kids at dawats
Yes , the only thing with making bite size food is that it doesnt stop them from wasting , but lesser gets wasted …
Khair try another tip with kids … there is this family we know , kids are nuts .. they try to put everything in their plate and then dont eat anything … so last time they visited us .. I asked their mother what the kids like to eat usually… out of many things she mentioned , i picked up french fries and cheese sandwiches…
I prepared a tiny bacha plate … with two fries and bite sized sandwich bit with toothpick in the middle … and decorated the plate with ketchup… and made the kids sit on a separate table … when they finished the bits, I added more to their plate .. and when they tried coming to the dining table and wanted to take the curry, I told them , they will waste it and not like it … their mom got the message , and just dripped a drop of curry in their plates 
Re: catering for kids at dawats
^ thats a good idea, will try that next time
Re: catering for kids at dawats
when i had lots of kids i arranged a separate place for kids to eat and placed a nice delish ice cream cake on a table n told them n my daughter ,that they will only get the cake if they finished their food first.All the kids finished their food and ate only a little bit of cake coz they were so full.One other thing that helped was that i had arranged little disposable bowls for the kids ,so the kids could only get a small amount of food.
Re: catering for kids at dawats
Rosetta, that cake wala tip is actually a good tip , coz it will remain the central focus for the kids which will ideally stop them from wanting what the adults are eating
Re: catering for kids at dawats
6 year is not a baby age.
i saw kid of 3 or 4 years of age do all nasty stuff in dawat.
there mommies are surely mathaloo..
Re: catering for kids at dawats
Yes some parents have no idea how to descipline their kids .. but hey ho , thats life :hinna:
Re: catering for kids at dawats
you should hire my dad for this purpose..lol...he tells off such kids straightaway without thinking what parents will think...un ka ghoorna hi kaam ker jaata hai. is liye humare ghar jo bachey atey hain woh tameez ke dairay main rehtay hain.
Re: catering for kids at dawats
blessed 
… bless your dad … most certainly that is the right thing to do … perhaps in todays times we think abit too much about what the parents of the child will say and how they will feel if their kid gets told off by us … in reality they cant really do much , can they?
Re: catering for kids at dawats
We tend to have children eat before the adults (more due to space than anything). So we'll get the mothers to make up their plates. That usually reduces wastage.