How Often Did You Eat Out As A Kid?

JennetteMac

Almost never. I grew up in the 60s and 70s. When we were 'old enough' ( about 10/12) we were allowed to come to my parents' anniversary meal at a 'proper' restaurant.
If we travelled we took picnics, my mum cooked every meal from scratch, on holidays we self-catered, and I don't think my dad has ever had a take-away, to this day!

McDonalds opened their first restaurant near enough to where I lived in the mid to late 70s, and my parents forbade me from going there!

How times have changed!

iysys

when i was 18 years old i went to dinner at my boyfriends house. we were sitting around the table having dinner as a family. i must have had a strange look on my face because he asked what was up. i was in complete shock. i had no recollection of ever sitting at a table with the whole family at an appropriate time and eating a home cooked meal. i had no idea people really did that. i thought it was just a thing from tv.

XFitMojoMom

We went out to a fancy restaurant on special occasions, but from age 7-11 my Mom owned a greasy spoon, so steamed hot dogs were always at hand. For the most part however, my mom was a great cook and I was a finicky eater... so most of my bone marrow is made up of spaghetti & hot dogs! I was a national level gymnast from age 10-18, so I worked off all those carbs.

I hated Mc Donalds. Every time I ate there I'd gag on the nuggets... and I rarely ate beef back in the day, because it tasted like wet cow.

Today, with my own kids, we go out at least once a week to a restaurant. Both my husband and I decided on this because we wanted our young daughters (at the time) to be socialized - meaning we wanted them to learn it was not okay to run amok in restaurants. Quarterly, we all dress up and go to our favourite "fancy" restaurant. We always get compliments on how well behaved and mannered they are.

katy_trail

rarely, most of the time when we were traveling several states away a few times a year.
when I was in junior high we had fast food maybe once a month, and now as a grown up
it's pretty rare. i'm really cheap, it's much cheaper to make my own and it tastes much better
, and get it to be the way I want it. usually just for birthday parties now, we'll order some pizzas

brighteyes124

We ate dinner in all week long growing up, and typically ordered out on a Friday night and maybe went out to Sunday lunch. My dad was a good cook and would like to experiment sometimes with thai or indian food. Mainly during the week though my mom cooked dinner.

Once my parents divorced around 10-11, my mom still tried to make dinner for me and my brother. It was almost always chicken, canned veggies and potatoes or rice, with a salad. Even still, I'm grateful that my mom did this and looking back she worked a lot so I really appreciate it. Going out to eat was non-existent at this point, since we didn't have any money.

In high school I got a job, a boy friend and a car so we went out to eat constantly. Usually places like subway or d'angelos, but sometimes a mexican or chinese restaurant.

I try to cook at least 4-5 night a week now, with leftovers for one night and then we go out on the weekends.

purpleipod

Very very rarely. It was considered a treat so we did maybe once or twice a month, if that.

honey_bee_keysha

We ate out every single weekend when I was a kid.

meeper123

it was very often

LorinaLynn

Pretty much the only time we ate out when I was a kid was when we were on vacation. Even if we got fast food, we Dad would go to get it, and Mom would make some kind of sides to have at home, like french fries to go with burgers, or a salad or chili to go with pizza.

In retrospect, my parents made way better food than any fast food, so I don't know why we even wanted it as kids. I'd kick a puppy for a chance to have one of my Dad's burgers again.

cng31183

We usually ate at home every meal unless something really good happened (like celebrating a straight A report card) or something really bad happened (death of family member or dad having emergency surgery). It wasn't until I started working that I started eating out more.

stellcorb

My parents were both high-school teachers so eating out varied by season. During the school year prior to high school, breakfast was infrequent or cereal except for some occaisions when it was waffles, bacon and fried eggs, lunch was bought at school (not packed) and dinner was cooked... but pretty commonly canned. Once in a while we would get pizza out (always Little Ceasar's b/c my dad was cheap) or we would buy the pre-made crusts and make our own. And usually one meal out on Sundays
Summers however we travelled alot by motorhome and while on the road we would normally have 1 meal out (always a buffet of some sort like Shoney's or Ponderosa), then we would have lunchmeat and cheese for sandwiches or hotdogs for lunch w/ chips and usually cereal for breakfast.
When I started working outside the home when I was 16, I ate much more frequently at work (Bob Evans) and in my twenties ate out daily and became quite chubby!

jennifersmiles444

We went out to eat occasionally when I was growing up, mostly for special celebrations, or on vacation. We never had fast food. My mom was into being 'healthy', so we never had processed junk food or soda at home. She cooked everything from scratch...homemade bread included. Every dinner had a meat, veggie, starch (with gravy), fruit, and bread The problem was...it was too much food. Here's the irony: I went to college and lost 15 pounds in 3 months, eating mostly subs and pizza... because for the first time in my life, I wasn't sitting down to a huge meal each evening. Not to worry...I'm not advocating a steady diet of subs and pizza! Just saying that in addition to cooking at home, serving your kids reasonable portions or 'light' meals is important, too. I was serving my own family grilled chicken salad (with peppers, tomatoes, etc.) for supper one night, and my mom chirped, "That's all? Well that's not enough for their supper!" Actually, it was plenty.

Jessi_Brooks

My family ate out probably once a month, which was usually McDonalds or pizza. Breakfast was cereal, lunches were packed sandwiches - balogna or pb&j, with a juice box and fruit snacks or something. Dinners were usually a meat, veggie, and potato, and we ate at the table. We pretty much just grabbed snacks out of the fridge or cupboards whenever we wanted, and drank a lot of pop.

pumpkinspice84

We rarely ate out. My dad was cheap and extremely picky about his food. Only liked my mom's cooking so we hardly ate out. My family rarely eats out either. I enjoy cooking for my family.

hdlb

We ate out once every 1-2 weeks. Usually it was McDonalds, for lunch or my parents would pick up KFC for dinner (my moms favourite). We didn't order pizza often (I hate pizza) and we didn't go out to an actual restaurant unless we were visiting my grandparents or it was a special occasion like someones birthday. Most dinners were cooked by my mom, we were lucky enough that she was home with us almost our entire childhood. And I remember drinking a lot of Kool-aide.

We did do movie night at least once a month too with chips and pop. And there was always dessert in our house. Cake or cookies, all homemade and delicious.

We don't eat out much now, we have lots of allergies/intolerance as well as Crohns and Celiacs in our house, so eating out is a huge thing that we don't have the energy to do often.

togmo

I am in my mid thirties now and I can't really remember eating out very often as a kid. I think we did Maccas, KFC or Hungry Jacks (Burger King) once every couple of months on special occasions. The most common take away was probably fish and chips which we might have gotten every couple of weeks.

Times have changed though, I grew up at a time when my mum was struggling to pay the bills so no matter how time poor we were take away wasn't really an option not that I ever realised until I got much older that we were poor. I think the price of fresh food has gone up (has in Australia anyway) and the price of takeaway seems more competitive nowadays so nowadays when you are time poor it doesn't cost much more to grab some take away.

Sabine_Stroehm

Saturday night. Period. And never a restaurant we kids chose. We went where my parents wanted to eat. (I'm 48, if it matters)

auteurfille22

Once a week. Never fast food though, actual restaurants. I have been vegetarian literally since birth (obviously enforced by my parents as a child) so fast food didn't really have options for me, especially since I was that picky kid that didn't like lettuce. The problem was that my mom still didn't really cook for my brother and I. She didn't like to cook, and so we had pasta and tomato sauce basically every night. Explains a lot about how addicted I am to carbs now though. Pasta is definitely my weakness.

Serah87

We didn't have a lot money when I was growing up, so we rarely went out to eat. Breakfast was mostly cereals, lunches were school lunches, during summer, wonder white bread either with PB & J or baloney, sometimes with chips. Drank a lot of koolaide, had milk with every dinner meal. Once I had my own money I did a lot of fast food, my first job was at Bonanza!! Birthday parties were cake and ice cream, cake my mom made.

After I was married we did a lot of fast food, that's when I started putting on the weight, but once we had kids we slowed down on that, we probably go out 2-3 time a month now.

booboo68

Only if it was one of our birthdays, so 4 times a year. Small town, so it was either Long John Silver's or McDonalds.