Kids and food-does this happen at your house?

[momof1princess]

I'm guessing your daughter must be really young based on the fact that she calls you Mommy. When my DD's were young it wasn't an issue, it's only since they have become teenagers.

I tell my DD's to put it on the list, but they don't. Whenever I go to the store I ask everyone what they want and they either say "nothing" or "snacks". OK, if you leave it up to me you probably won't be happy. I found it works out best if they come with me. It costs more that way, but they won't be complaining. Like another poster said, they want something they can just grab and eat, they don't want to have to do any work at all.

actually, she just turned 12, and even though it catches her friends by surprise, and they've ragged her about it a little, she can't seem to get out of the habit, lol. she's pretty good about the snacks. she'll eat whatever i buy, and i try to make it goldfish, 100 calorie packs of snacks or popcorn, NSA applesauce and yogurt. her dad is a junk food junkie, so i keep his chips and cookies out of her reach.

 

[Becky2005]

Happens all the time here. Except DH says the same thing too. *sigh*

I have the other extreme too, so maybe it's just us but according to the dental hygientist it happens at her house too.

They end up really liking something & you just can NOT keep enough of it in the house...so you go buy the MEGA pack of it...all of a sudden, they don't want to eat that anymore. So you have this huge pack of whatever that takes FOREVER to use up.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Happens all the time here. Except DH says the same thing too. *sigh*

I have the other extreme too, so maybe it's just us but according to the dental hygientist it happens at her house too.

They end up really liking something & you just can NOT keep enough of it in the house...so you go buy the MEGA pack of it...all of a sudden, they don't want to eat that anymore. So you have this huge pack of whatever that takes FOREVER to use up.

This soooo happens here!

 

[sunnyday123]

Happens all the time here. Except DH says the same thing too. *sigh*

I have the other extreme too, so maybe it's just us but according to the dental hygientist it happens at her house too.

They end up really liking something & you just can NOT keep enough of it in the house...so you go buy the MEGA pack of it...all of a sudden, they don't want to eat that anymore. So you have this huge pack of whatever that takes FOREVER to use up.

Arrghhhh! That so happens here! "Mary Kay Sue had this X crackers and they were sooo good!" I buy them and somehow they don't taste the same! And I once bought this ginormous box of meatball subs ( which I HATE) for DD because she had one at Costco ( darn those free sample ladies!) and suddenly at home lost interest.

I practically shoved those darn subs down her throat!

 

[Aisling]

DD waits and then asks, "What do you have to eat?" -um, do you not live here too? I throw somethings out there, and she says, "what else is there?" By then we are full into stomach pains because I got annoyed and walked away and she didn't eat.


To which I will say, "Even a starving man can peel a banana so you must not be that hungry."

Basically, we have nothing to eat unless we have chicken nuggets and wheat thins.

My DH says the SAME THING!! And my kids, too! This thread is amazing! I often feel like a bad mother because there's "never anything to eat in this house"! They mean, they ate all the chips, cookies, drank all the soda! I'm not a bad mother after all

 

[pipersmom]

My dd used to do exactly the same thing..finally I cleared out a drawer in the fridge and put a basket in the pantry devoted to snacks only. Now when she wants something, she knows she has to ask (she's 8), but no longer pulls the "but there's nothing to eat" whine. When I'm ready to shop I also give her input on what snacks she'd like for the week. Not sure how well it would work with teens, but prolly worth a try...

 

[pyrxtc]

MMy kids are not allowed to tell me they are hungry or starving. If they are hungry, they have to come to me wiht an idea of something in the house that they want to eat and I will say yes or no to the food and say they have to pick something else if they can't eat because dinner is cooking. If they can't find a food then I'm not going to do any better. If they insist on whining about no food to me, then I give them 2 options.... crackers or fruit and that is now their only option. They don't say they are hungry without an option much at all.

 

[Uuaww]

see, when i was a teen, I ate... a lot... and complained about never having food in the house. But I learned once I ate all the bread and fruit, my mom was required to send me to the store to pick up more food and I could go get the food I wanted at that point.

Things I needed:
Sourdough Bread and butter
Grapes or Cherries (depending on the season)
Sunflower seeds

 

[KAMLEM]

actually, she just turned 12, and even though it catches her friends by surprise, and they've ragged her about it a little, she can't seem to get out of the habit, lol. she's pretty good about the snacks. she'll eat whatever i buy, and i try to make it goldfish, 100 calorie packs of snacks or popcorn, NSA applesauce and yogurt. her dad is a junk food junkie, so i keep his chips and cookies out of her reach.

You should consider yourself lucky!

They end up really liking something & you just can NOT keep enough of it in the house...so you go buy the MEGA pack of it...all of a sudden, they don't want to eat that anymore. So you have this huge pack of whatever that takes FOREVER to use up.

That's EXACTLY what happens here. Right now I have 2 or 3 boxes of granola bars and a couple bags of Quakes that were their favorites 2 months ago, now they don't like them.

 

[NHdisneylover]

actually, she just turned 12, and even though it catches her friends by surprise, and they've ragged her about it a little, she can't seem to get out of the habit, lol. she's pretty good about the snacks. she'll eat whatever i buy, and i try to make it goldfish, 100 calorie packs of snacks or popcorn, NSA applesauce and yogurt. her dad is a junk food junkie, so i keep his chips and cookies out of her reach.

She is not alone. DD12 also still calls me Mommy (so does DS10). I keep expecting it to stop but it doesn't Then again, my mom reminds me I was about 15 before I got to where I called her Mom more often than not, so I guess they come by it honestly

I am pretty lucky I suppose. Both of my kids will fix their own snacks most of the time. They like to "make" something, even if it is just mixing up a dip with cream cheese and spices to go with carrot sticks and they know sweets and junk are for dessert, not snacks. They are also great about writing lists. I get lists all the darn time for everything. Apparently they do not trust me to remember anything

 

[barkley]

i find it's not as much of a problem so long as there are left-overs in the fridge of their liking. if it's in there they will grab it and leave me ALONE

to that end i've taken to planning my dinner meals like normal but also doing some cooking specificaly for 'snacks' or for them to take in their lunch. i go for the easy stuff they like thats also 'user friendly' (can be eaten cold if they wish, not always my preferance but hey if it works for them fine, or quickly microwaved).

right now i've got 7 pounds of defrosted ground beef in the fridge-in a couple of hours after the kids have left for school i'm going to make a double batch of hamburgar helper, a double batch of 'brown bag' chili (i'll add beans), and 2 'sheppards' pies. one of the sheppards pies will get eaten for dinner-the other i'll freeze and take out for 'snacks' and such one weekend. the h.h. and the chili will be available so no-one can complain of 'starving'. i have'nt done it recently, but a popular item i've also mass produced is shake and bake drumsticks. i grab a jumbo pack of drumsticks when they are on sale and whack out up to 3 dozen at a time. easy to toss a couple into a zip lock for lunch, easy/quick snacks (or as in my kids case-sometimes breakfast on the go).

takes maybe an hour out of my week to do this and saves me from launching into my 'if you're truely starving and we truely have nothing to eat go forage from the land' speech.


p.s.-for tiny 'junk' snacks this is a great time of the year-check out the halloween aisle at the store, they have teeny bags of fruit treats, mini oreos and gold fish crackers. i buy them and hide them, then pull a small supply out periodically.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

After going through some of this with my older kids, I made cookbooks for my younger two boys when they were teenagers that had easy snack and meal recipes that they could make from the ingredients I normally had around the house. That helped a lot, and as they got older they took over making some of the meals. And they are good cooks!

Teresa

 

[sunnyday123]

After going through some of this with my older kids, I made cookbooks for my younger two boys when they were teenagers that had easy snack and meal recipes that they could make from the ingredients I normally had around the house. That helped a lot, and as they got older they took over making some of the meals. And they are good cooks!

Teresa

I've been doing something similar with DD by letting her pick and help cook dinner. I get Cooking Light magazines ( love them!) and she'll go through a few and pick out what to make-I'll tell her what we have to use and she narrows it down that way.

At least for now I've eliminated the "I'm hungry what do you have" routine during that time!

 

[barkley]

i had a co-worker who had BIG HUNGRY teen boys who were constantly 'starving' she took to buying bulk ground beef and doing up 10 or so pounds every other weekend. she would brown it and add diced onions, then after it cooled put it on cookie trays and lightly freeze it. it then went into zip lock gallon bags (lightly freezing it first kept it loose in the bags instead of clumping up).

she told her sons that so long as they could either (1) boil water or (2) microwave they would'nt starve. she always kept tortillas and canned refried beans on hand (along with a shaker of taco seasoning)-they could make meat and bean burritos. she kept an eye out for sales on jarred pasta sauce-they could add the meat and boil some pasta. she also pointed out that they could open a can of manwich and heat it along with the prepared meat for sloppy joes.

she contended that if she kept some of the more filling stuff on hand for her hollow legged sons it saved her fortune vs. what they could consume in the way of more costly lunch meats, cereals, and junk food.


we bought one of those hotel style waffle irons recently (kind that flips upside down with a timer)-i've found that if i keep waffle batter in the fridge since the waffle iron is so easy to use and clean the kids are getting in the habit of defaulting to these for snacks (and if they don't drown it syrup it's better for them than the sugary treats they would be asking for otherwise).