Why Are Children Preprogrammed To Hate Crust?

I have never cut the crusts off my kids' sandwiches, yet when they are done, there are multiple crusts littering the table, enough to make a whole new sandwich, it seems.  Why is this?  I eat MY crusts.  A eats HIS crusts.  We are providing the appropriate examples.  Do they know that I know this is a silly battle so I don't even fight it?  Is it because they can sense my silent seething when I look at the wasted food and they just love to piss me off and watch me bite my tongue?  Is it because of some bizarre set of instructions from the mothership?  I think they know it is a standoff: I will NEVER cut their crusts off just like I will ALWAYS give them a serving of green beans.

I guess what I'm asking is this: how can I best immobilize them and cram the food down their throats without damaging their delicate psyches?

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L: Feel my hands, Mama!  They're FREAKING COLD!
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Yesterday L was sitting at the table with a big pretzel hanging out of her mouth.
L: Look, Mama!  I'M SMOKING!

I couldn't help it; I started laughing.  In Curious George Takes a Job, somebody smokes.  The newspaper guy, I think?  It's a pipe.  Both E and L always comment on it and we emphasize that smoking can make you sick and we shouldn't do it even though candy cigarettes are yummy.  We also emphasize that you should not sniff ether or you'll fall asleep and your friends will throw you in the shower in a mistaken belief that this will help.  I am NOT making that up.  That crazy George and his curiosity!

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Retraction!  The reusable Meijer bags that I pitched a few weeks ago are not $5 like I thought.  They are only $0.99 with their reinforced bottoms and multiple compartments.  I have no idea what part of my receipt I was looking at, but I need to stay out of the ether.

Comments

[Lil]

I did wonder about the meijer bags, since we bought 5 for less than $5.
The crust thing will get better--One of my kids actually will eat the crusts--sometimes, if she's hungry or the sandwich was particularly good.

[Bonnie]

I have wondered the same thing re: crusts. Now I have given up and when I make E a sandwich I cut them off and give them to L to eat. Maybe THAT will solve the problem....

[Swistle]

It's because crusts are icky. That's why. They never have sufficient filling in them, and they have singed flavor even if they're not singed. They taste like the non-stick spray the bread factory uses.

I eat mine, too. And yet the children don't eat theirs, even though I've never told them about the non-stick spray.

[giddy]

I don't know how we lucked out, but not only does our 7-year-old eat the crusts, but she actually BEGS for the heel of the loaf of bread. I think we must have done some artful talk about how the crust is the best part etc. when she was little.

(The "heel" is such a big deal, that she generalized the name and has been known to refer to the "heel" of a hot dog or sausage. But she gets more competition for those!)

For me it depends on the kind of bread and how dry it happens to be. It's mostly dryness that makes me not want to eat crusts. If the filling is spread sufficiently to the edge, then I will eat the crusts. Perhaps that is the issue--as parents, we don't want the PB and J to spill out all over (any more than they are already going to) so we skimp at the edges??

FWIW, the idea of "uncrustables" is totally disgusting to me.

[Jen H.]

I've had the same experience with crusts with my son. Eventually I broke down and now I shave the tiniest amount off the edges. I found that he'd leave so much bread, he wasn't getting enough. But if I just slice off the brownest bit, he thinks the crust is gone and eats the whole thing. Kids are weird.

Oh, and the only time I leave them on is when I make a Nutella and banana sandwich, since it's a bit messy and needs the crust to reinforce the bread. Then he gobbles the whole thing down no problem. A chocolate sandwich does that to a preschooler, I guess.

[Emmie (Better Make It A Double)]

They still make candy cigarettes?

[Jen]

for whatever it's worth, i like when you post random snippets like this...they feel like snapshots or something. :)

also - holy hell! 99-cent bags with compartments?! i need to hightail it to meijer!

[Jen]

dang - i knew there was something else.

do they ever have sandwiches at preschool? maybe they saw a picky kid there who didn't eat crusts and got the idea that that was the thing to do?

[Liz]

MM and I just read that one last night!

[Just Me]

I know for me the crust thing was because people kept making a big deal about it. I probably didn't eat it once, but then someone told me repeatedly that eating crust would give me curly hair. I already HAD curly hair and did not want it, and so logic said no crusts.

I do eat them now. But I also like my hair now.

[Laura K.]

My kids automatically hate crusts, too, although M is more willing to eat them than K - that is if he decide to eat the sandwich at all. It's always a toss-up with him and I wonder how he subsists on seemingly nothing sometimes.

Your girls are hilarious!

[sarah]

Oh that George!! My little guy is in awe of what George gets into. I blame all of George's bad behavior on the fact that his "friend" is an irresponsible caregiver- always leaving George unattended. And yes, my kids were infatuated by the smoking in those books too. And the fact that they pointed out that the fireman was “fat” (in one of the books- not sure which one).

I don’t know what it is about crusts…but I found myself nodding in agreement… I refuse to cut crusts off, even for the kids I baby-sit for, and everyone always gets a serving (maybe a small serving but still) of whatever green item I cooked!! I also agree with “giddy”….uncrustables gross me out. (They serve them at my kids’ school, and I do not allow my kids to buy them EVER! Like how hard would it be for the staff to make a real PB&J sandwich??)

Now I am totally jealous of your reusable grocery bags…. $.99 AND compartments????? Lucky you!

[Jess]

My almost-4 Joey loves the movie "Pinocchio" and learned that smoking and drinking are bad from that part about the boys gone wild. Now whenever he sees a cigarette butt on the ground, he says,
"Mom, somebody turned into a donkey!"
"Yes, yes they did, son."

[Amy]

I believe the crust-thing is just a stage. My daughter wouldn't eat the crusts when she was little, and I never cut them off either. She started eating them one day, and hasn't looked back. Meh.

[kate]

I have never eaten my crusts. Just can't bring myself to. Like someone else said, if I just cut off the very edges, say about 2mm, then both my 2 year old and I are happy to eat our whole sandwich.
Or else I cut off generous crusts and give them to the 9 month old as her lunch. 2 birds with one stone or something.

[Liz]

Every time my son sees someone smoking, he covers up his face and tried to get far away as possible. The covering face thing he probably got it from me when I was pregnant with his sister. And he eats all his crust, bread, pizza, I am the one who actually don't like crust. :)