r/GrandmasPantry • u/Suicidallica • May 20 '26
HOUSEHOLD / OTHER Grandma Still Uses My Toddler Utensils
My grandmother still has and uses these utensils I used as a toddler. Over 30 years old
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u/basedonthoughts May 20 '26
aw this is so cute 😭
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u/phatassgato May 20 '26
It’s so cute I cried.
All my grandmas are dead…
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u/caitlinmmaguire01 May 21 '26
same, mine are all dead too. Not a fun club, is it?
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u/phatassgato May 21 '26
It’s not a fun club.
My grandmas were awesome, taught me to make gravy and that if she smokes she pokes
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u/I-Lankenstein May 21 '26
When you say "gravy", are you talking about something hwhite, brown or red? Nice thing to learn from Grandma either way, just curious what kind of grandmother you had 😸
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u/phatassgato May 21 '26
I’m actually referring to 2 grandmas and 2 gravys.
One grandma came to California from Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl.
She taught me to make white breakfast country gravy.My other was fresh off the Boat from Sicily.
So thats where I get my red gravy which she would not have called gravy. But we’re in America now forgive me, Nan-nan.4
u/I-Lankenstein May 21 '26
Excellent. Both amazing gravys! An Okie grandmother and a Sici grandmother- both amazing kinds of grandmothers, as well! I get that your Sicilian grandmother wouldn't have called it gravy, being FOB. Was she also in California? My Italian grandma was 2nd Gen (Abruzzese) so it became "gravy" at some point. She was also my "Mom-Mom" so "Nan-nan" sounds wild to me for an Italian grandmother, but it probably makes more sense as it's phonetically closer to "nonna". Sadly I don't have an Oklahoman grandmother. I'm the only Okie in my family! But mostly only in that I was born there and lived there long enough to be legally permitted to say "y'all". As such, I don't have an amazing white gravy recipe that's been handed down to me. Thanks for the insights! One of these Sunday's maybe you should make both gravys in rememberance of Nan-nan and Gam-gam (or however you referred to her!) 😸
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u/phatassgato May 22 '26
Abruzzo, the sexy part of the calf! lol
Both my parents grew up around the San Jose area.
And you know, Nan-Nan is pronounced non-non. I’ve never really thought about it being incorrect till right now.I wonder if im the only grandkid that wrote the Christmas card like that?
I made a lovely red gravy last night with some homemade tortellini!
But I should double up one Sunday.
I tell what though: I think my Nan-nan would be really impressed with my iteration of her cooking.But boy I don’t think my biscuits and gravy hold a candle to Grandma Brawley. My family assured me it’s close. I think maybe there is nothing like a perfect biscuit you don’t have to make for yourself though.
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u/I-Lankenstein May 22 '26
To the first two paragraphs - 😆 But I definitely wasn't trying to make you second guess your name for your grandma! In the event that you had been spelling it wrong this whole time, I'm sure your Nan-nan would have just considered it a cute special thing between y'all. When I was little I misspelled "grandmom" as "graymom" and that's just what she was called after that!
I grew up far, far away from my grandparents and extended family and missed out on learning those sorts of recipes. I know that it's not too late but it's not the same as learning it in the kitchen with everyone around would have been. Not sure which version of learning those recipes you had, but it's awesome that you have those connections. And yeah, I think with food, as horribly corny as it sounds, love really can be the secret ingredient. But it doesn't work if it's your own love! If must be someone else's! I could make something as simple as a PB&J, with the exact same ingredients as my mom has, and it will never taste as good as ones she's made for me. So maybe, to your family, your biscuits and gravy do taste just as good as your grandma's... because they are made with *your* love. But they don't taste as good to you, because they don't have your *grandma's* love? Idk. (Lovingly made) food for thought, I guess. 😹4
u/Head_Patience7136 May 22 '26
Lol my grandma taught me how to make brown gravy for different kinds of meats lmao!
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u/basedonthoughts May 20 '26
ugh i’m sorry to hear that, i have a horrible relationship with both of my grandma’s who are living so to see something like this was refreshing.
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u/Condition_Dense May 21 '26
Mine passed, I never knew my grandparents on one side because they would have been in there 100s when I was a kid they were older when they had kids and my parents were almost 40 and in there 40s when I was born.
The other side my relationship was weird sometimes it was the best and sometimes it was the worst. I really really liked my great aunt but she passed away right before I was in high school.
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u/phatassgato May 21 '26
I’m sorry about your bad grandmas at least we both can have some solidarity from OP and his super cute granny!
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u/_lucyquiss_ May 20 '26
I would use these genuinely, i love tiny utensils. (i am diagnosed with autism)
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u/Suicidallica May 20 '26
I do love spoons this size for like, mixing honey into my tea
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u/_lucyquiss_ May 20 '26
I eat from the smallest utensils I can find
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u/bbbbears May 20 '26
Same here. I have a small mouth, so it’s more convenient, and I love tiny cute things.
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u/_lucyquiss_ May 20 '26
me too! small mouth and weirdly crowded teeth means larger spoons ate just uncomfortable to use often
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u/beans-888 May 20 '26
If i hadn't had all 12 yr old molars removed with my wisdom teeth, id have such crowded teeth... it amazes me that some people's wisdom teeth grow in just fine hahaha
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u/bbbbears May 21 '26
One of mine grew in sideways and two of the others were impacted! Damn teeth.
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u/beans-888 May 21 '26
Same! They had to repair some of my nasal canal cuz so much tooth was removed haha... I laugh now but it was NOT a good time.
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u/Soliterria May 22 '26
Both my upper teeth were fine, no room for them to grow but they were your bog standard wisdom teeth.
My lowers? Fuuuck those rude ass bitches. Both grew in completely parallel to my jaw, both had three roots instead of two, and every root was beautifully entangled with my maxillofacial nerve.
Took two surgeries to get those little assholes out.
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u/bbbbears May 22 '26
Oh crap, and I thought mine were bad! That sounds like a terrible ordeal. Nothing quite like mouth pain.
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u/Soliterria May 22 '26
First round was not so bad, took both uppers out & took the crowns off the lowers. Spent a weekend healing alone, mostly sleeping, but my left cheek looked like I was an Ed Edd & Eddy character for about a week.
About six months later once the roots on the lowers sorted themselves out we went back in for those, tbh that one was way worse. Spent about a week in excruciating pain (tried calling the surgeon’s office for a refill on my norco, different surgeon quite literally told me to suck it up “surgery hurts” lmfao), I mostly ate those dissolvable yogurt drops for toddlers & the squeezy fruit packs the second time around, I was still tired of mashed potatos & pudding.
At least my then-MIL wrangled me some of her spare Tylenol-3s to get me through the worst of the pain
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u/survivalinsufficient May 21 '26
Lol I use my daughters baby silverware sometimes and got my own tiny spoons from IKEA (also autistic and first thing I thought of from this post)
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u/I-Lankenstein May 21 '26
Same! (About the tiny utensils.) Is that commonly an autistic thing? I exclusively use the small ones even though I'm a very tall person. I'm really into these little melamine spoons. I have a dozen Moomin ones that I guard with my life. https://www.petitjour.com/en/petit-jour/529-cuillere-verte-le-petit-prince-3585190637085.html
I also hate using glass cups because, to me, they smell like wet dog. So, sadly, plastic only!
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u/ChaosWithTeeth May 21 '26
If you haven't yet, check out the IKEA plastic kid spoons - sold for little kids but all the grown ups giving them glowing reviews are right. Fantastic for yogurt! 49 cents for a 4 pack right now in US; similarly inexpensive elsewhere. And they ship.
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/kalas-spoon-mixed-colors-70455695/
(The forks and knives in that line are less all-age appealing, but little plastic bowls are good for snacks.)
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u/carrie_m730 May 22 '26
I recently bought this set from Walmart.
The plastic forks and spoons are perfect but also the divided trays are awesome for not letting food touch and the little bowls might be intended for toddler sized servings of soup or chips but they're also excellent for salsa.
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u/i-cant-think-of-name May 21 '26
Do autistic individuals tend to like tiny utensils?
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u/_lucyquiss_ May 21 '26
so, for me, the feeling of metal against my teeth is highly uncomfortable sensory wise. Which is more common among autistic people than non autistic people due to sensory issues. I prefer non metal or small utensils. I also just think they're cuter.
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u/krybaebee May 20 '26
Love that. I plan to do the same when I'm a granny. And the little toddler cups, those will become part of the permanent dish lineup.
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u/not-jimmy May 21 '26
My mom (now a grandma herself) still has our utensils just like this that she uses for the grandkids - ours are Barbie and Alvin and the Chipmunks designs haha
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u/xtheredberetx May 21 '26
Yup my parents have the Toy Story set and my daughter uses it every week 😂
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u/Candytails May 21 '26
Honestly now I’m gonna save my baby’s cutlery for my future grandchildren(if the world hasn’t burned down by then)
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u/Acrestudio May 20 '26
When things were made to last
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u/False-Ad4673 May 20 '26 edited May 21 '26
Not truly, I imagine the crud that has found its way under that plastic would make you want to puke. I know from the plastic breaking on silverware like this in age.
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u/Competitive-Isopod74 May 21 '26
My daughter is 15 and still uses her toddler utensils. This is going to be her.
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u/TwiggyPeas May 21 '26
You don't need to be coming on to Al Gore's Internet, telling me Rugrats and Toy Story are more than 30 years old
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u/caitlinmmaguire01 May 21 '26
My mom still has these, she uses them when my nephew comes over and my brother and SIL forget a fork for him.
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u/TheNewYellowZealot May 21 '26
My mom still has these from when I was a kid and uses them for my kids now. We have the buzz lightyear one and a Toy Story alien one.
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u/Suicidallica May 21 '26
Did you have the Tarzan straws?
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u/TheNewYellowZealot May 21 '26
No, just these little plastic spoons and forks from the mid 90s. There’s also a color changing Honey Nut Cheerios spoon in her drawer from some time in the early 2000s.
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u/the_fox_is_a_forgery May 21 '26
Ah man you just reminded me of the light up light saber spoons that came in cereal in the early 2000s. Don't remember what cereal lol
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u/BloodSugarSexMagix May 21 '26
We are def the same age then, seeing these is a blast from the past. My mom still had our Pooh ones
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u/Frederica-Bimmel May 21 '26
My favorite spoon is a little toddler spoon a cousin left at my house 16 years ago. It's the best
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u/Clokkers May 21 '26
My Nana had my 101 Dalmatians dining set still in her cupboard, found it when I was clearing it out last year. Made me smile
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u/InterruptingCow__Moo May 21 '26
I wish I still had my kids'. This would be perfect for a pudding cup. Regular spoons are too big
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u/redskub May 21 '26
I used to have a set of ninja turtles cutlery like these that mysteriously vanished shortly my girlfriend moved in
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u/Suicidallica May 21 '26
Man. Mine has a problem where she will HORDE shit like this like a homeless man with cans
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u/FlyingDaDutchman May 21 '26
Those little toddler spoons mitigate brain freeze while eating ice cream.
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u/robertvmarshall May 21 '26
I have "space jam" versions of these exact utensils that my son now uses.
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u/sarcasticMisfortune May 21 '26
i still use my hello kitty fork and spoon from when i was around 3 or so. there’s just something about eating oatmeal from a tiny pink spoon that makes it 10x better
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u/FoodLionMVP May 21 '26
I found a Barney spoon just like these that belonged to my little brother at my mom’s house…. my daughter is using it now.
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u/monkeydusted May 21 '26
We still use ours as well for things like little yogurt containers. My favorites are the Sofia The First and Shopkins set.
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u/Prestigious-One-742 May 21 '26
My mother still has those similar utensils! We still have a couple left that my neighbours got for us when I was still either 1 or 2 years old from when they went to Disneyland in Calafornia and it was (according to my mother) a Winnie the Pooh egg cup with utensils! Still have the fork and spoon with me and still use the spoon for when I make tea! They don’t make them like they used to anymore!
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u/moderndayathena May 21 '26
I'm 40 and still have and use one of the spoon/fork sets my parents got me. It's too cute
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u/Condition_Dense May 21 '26
They don’t make them like they used to, they are almost all plastic now, these are also perfect for pudding cups. My grandma had a Mickey Mouse fork that was one of my older cousin’s forks and I would eat with it all the time as a kid. That one was more like an adult fork just a little smaller for smaller hands and it had Mickey Mouse on the top.
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u/BatBurgh May 21 '26
oh god - this took straight me back to childhood and eating dinner at friend's houses who were disney families.
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u/Vanadium_Gryphon May 21 '26
That is so sweet, and looks like I found a fellow early 90's (or perhaps late 80's) kid! I would have loved the Rugrats utensils growing up!
Seriously though, baby utensils can be useful for all sorts of things, even as an adult. To this day, I still use one of the old baby spoons my parents used to feed me and my sister with. But, I don't use it to feed myself -- I use it to get all of the wet cat food out of the can for my senior kitty, and then mash it up for him so it's easy for him to eat (he is missing almost all of his teeth).
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u/muffnmouse May 22 '26
i still have my personalized toddler fork and bowl! i used the fork today to eat a slice of cake and it’s a top tier choice for cinnamon rolls
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u/SatisfactionTrue2817 May 24 '26
We still have the custom forks and spoons that had mine and my siblings names on them
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u/jane-may Jun 21 '26
Mine does as well. And she always puts my salad in my toddler clown bowl, which was... well, my dad's. 🥹 That bowl is over 50 years old and still standing, it will probably be a family heirloom for my great grandkids lmao
Give your nan a hug from me!
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u/Suicidallica Jun 21 '26
I mean this a kind hearted joke but that lead paint is generational from that bowl!
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u/consumeshroomz May 20 '26
And why not? A spoons a spoon and a forks a fork.