Something I just don't get......

[Mouse House Mama]

I keep reading all these threads about people not letting their own kids go into the refrigerator or pantries etc. What is that all about? Your own kids are not allowed to eat in their own house unless someone rations it out to them? I can understand montoring their food intake for health reasons, but I amnot getting the kitchen police thing. I am not flaming but I just don't get this. Anyone?

 

[disneymom3]

I grew up in a house that you had to ask for a snack and that is how I have been doing it. Recently though I have changed my approach and it is working well. My concern has been kids filling up on junky snacks and then not wanting meals. What I have done is make fruit, vegies, yogurt and cheese open snacks. They can have as much as they want as often as they want. When I first implemented this system--just last week, I admit--my kids went nuts the first couple of days. Then it toned down and I have a LOT less whining about snacks. My kids are 5, 7 and 11 and since we homeschool are here all day.

 

[katiebsmom]

If I didn't monitor my DD she'd eat a box of little debbies ALL OF THEM!!! Kids HAVE to be taught eating habits. Leave one alone to figure life out on thier own and see what happens...they do what they want and not whats best for them in most cases. So, yes I will be the police in many areas of my child's life including the kitchen until she gets it. Just my 2 cents worth LOL!

 

[ilovejack02]

Growing up i couldnt just wander in the kitchen and grab stuff. Dad had an issue with clean hands and always was concerned about that , which i get. He didnt want me sticking dirty nasty hands in the food lol. His mom was a germ freck she boiled the dishes, so im sure that rubbed off on him a bit . I also was not allowed to roam free with food either.
My oldest is 18 and i dont remember being real strict with him and it worked ok. My baby is 5 and he gets in the darn fridge all damn day. Sticks his grubby little hands in everything and spills stuff.. ill never forget the day he dropped the whole carton of eggs oh and then there was the day i opened the fridge after he had rearraggned it and the jar of pickles fell out... ick that was a mess!!!
I know put up the snacks on the highest shelves of pantry and punish him if he gets in fridge without asking. Its not so much about health , cuz alot of times he will pull out the veggies and eat them, but i hate when i find half eaten tomatos and apples out or open packages of crackers getting stale. He also has a habit of getting out the bread and eating half a thing of hot dog buns.
I think you get why i keep a tight leash on it LOL.

 

[twinspluscade]

Well, my kids are pretty young yet (5,5,3), so I don't let them have "open access" to the fridge or cupboards. They get into the fridge sometimes anyway when I'm busy doing something else, and guess what they like to eat?! MARGARINE! . They'll bypass applesauce and even pudding to eat the darn fatty maragarine. I've also caught them eating cottage cheese with ketchup mixed in; and they've been known to eat plain sour cream too. . So, given their ages and what they like to eat, at this point I monitor (or try to anyway!) what they are digging out of the fridge.

Also--Dh and I do like our junk food (so sue me). We almost always have chips or ice cream around that he and I eat after the kids are in bed. Kids get junk food too, in limited moderation. But if I had an open access policy I'm sure they'd eat it all the time.

As they get older, no doubt I'll let them get their own snacks whenever they want. My parents always let me eat whatever I wanted from a very early age (I sometimes wonder if this is why I'm so fond of junk food )--we had a lot around the house when I was growing up, and I inevitably ate it.

 

[mumom95]

My kids are 6 and 8 and they are supposed to ask before they get something. If they ask for a snack I'll say you can have "X, Y or Z" and then they go and get it. Soemtimes they will look into the fridge or pantry first and ask "can I have X", but they don't get it until dh or I say it is ok. I guess I don't let them have free reign because like the person above said, they would eat a whole box of little debbies (they come by it naturally, I've been known to eat an entire box a time or two in my life ). It works for our house, but I'm sure some homes work fine with no restrictions.

 

[GoinToDisney]

My dd is 3 and isn't strong enough to get our fridge open, so she asks for what she wants. I think, if she really tried, she could do it, but I'm not planning to clue her in. When she is older, I will give her a list of healthy snacks and let her be in charge a bit more. In our house, a snack is different from a treat. A snack is healthy. A treat is something that isn't as healthy. We eat it because it tastes good, so we don't overdo it, and we don't have treats every single day.

 

[kerry34]

My kids ask before they take anything because otherwise I am sure it would be a free for all. I do allow them to go and get it themselves but I do monitor their portion sizes and tell them when enough is enough. They would eat me out of house and home if I didnt do this. I wouldnt do it any other way.

 

[tanyaandallie]

I grew up in a home where we could pretty much get anything out of the pantry or fridge when we wanted to. I guess if we were eating chips all day my mom would stop us, but generally it was never a problem.

My kids are still young so I don't know how I will handle this as they grow up. For now, when they want a snack, I get something out for them. I think open pantry would work ok for my dd. She would get out something decently healthy most of the time. My ds, on the other hand, spends his entire day in search of candy, cookies and chips. So, if he had open pantry he would likely sit in there and eat chips and candy all day!!!

We are playing it by ear. I have no intention of being the pantry police but I will monitor what my kids eat. It's my responsibility as a parent.

 

[mommylicious]

My kids know that fruit is acceptable at any time. If we have yogurt it is as well (provided that it is eaten at the table). They know if they want anything other than that, they need to ask. That works for us.

 

[twoeeyy]

As others have stated I think I depends on the child. My 15 yr old daughter has never liked chocolate anything, candy, cookies, chips ( except doritos ), she basically hates all sweets, now on the other hand I can't keep enough fruit in the house .

As a child I was allowed to help myself, but again that was because I did not abuse it

 

[PrincessasMommy]

Our kids ask too. I like to know what they are eating and when. For instance, 10 minutes before dinner today my 4 1/2 year old insisted she NEEDED a pudding! If she didn't ask she would have eaten it and ruined her appetite for dinner. Even my almost 12 year old asks, I don't deny her if it's an appropriate snack at an appropriate time (not chocolate at 10am) but she knows she has to ask.

 

[stczt]

When I was a kid I was not allowed to eat between meals. My kids do have to ask before getting anything. I dont buy junk but they always ask for fruit I rarely say no but still Its a good habit for them since many times I have gone to make super and not had all the stuff because the oldest ate it. Anyone with teenage boys know even my 10 yearold ds will put the food away. So thats my main reason they dont know its may be part of a meal.

 

[mylilnikita]

I was raised totally different. If I didn't help myself at age 5, my butt would have been hungry all the time. I had a nanny up until then living on a island in the Atlantic, and how do I put this, my DM well, she was dis connected. Meaning she gave birth to me and that was her contribution. So when we moved back to the states, I learned how to make my own cereal and own lunch because she didn't want to wake up early for that.
DD8 is able to help herself, even though she wasn't doing things like I did when I was 5, but she knows if she goes to a friend's house she waits until something is offered and her friends come over and she asks them and I have a open pantry policy. I also don't have a lot of "junk food in the house, because I would be the one scarfing it down.

 

[Aliceacc]

My kids are 9,7 and 4.

The only issue we've ever had was when my youngest was about 2. She would drop eggs from the fridge just to see them break... she thought it was incredibly cool So for a while there we had a velcro strap locking the fridge.

Now that she's a "big girl", my kids have open access to the fridge. If we sense that they're overdoing the snacks, we tell them to stop. Case closed.

But anyone who wants to grab a piece of cheese or some fruit or a bowl of cereal is welcome to. If they can do it without calling "MOM!" I'm that much happier. It never occurred to me to make an issue of it.

 

[rjan67]

My kids (4,7 &9 ) ask for snacks, but my oldest will now get her own if it is fruit, yogurt or vegies. She has to ask for anything else. My boys ask for snacks because they would eat right before a meal and not eat dinner if I let them.

 

[Hannathy]

I don't get it either OP. We have always had an open policy for all food including candy and have never had a problem. In fact I have Easter candy that I need to throw away when I remember! There is always snack food or cookies in the pantry and candy in dishes or the drawer and half the time I have to remind people to eat it. I think by rationing it and forbidding it kids never learn to ration themselves and make good choices. I can always tell when kids are visiting which kids have to ask permission and are limited because they always take and eat more than the other kids and usually grab many cookies at a time instead of eating 1 and coming back.

 

[dcforbreakfast]

I'm not really sure if I insisted on it at some point or my son just assumed he had to ask, but my five year old always asks before he gets a snack and I always have to get him drinks because he can't do that one alone. When he asks for a snack and I say yes, he says "What's on the list?" Like it's a menu, so I tell him which snacks are up for grabs and he picks one!

If I didn't do this he would likely just eat because he's bored. I can always tell when he just wants to eat because he doesn't know what else to do with himself. We're not militant about it though....it's just never been an issue.

 

[ZPT1022]

My kids are only 6,3 and 3 so yes, for now I play "pantry police". If they ask for a snack and we're not ten minutes from a meal or something, they usually get it. At this point it has more to do with them not being able to reach everything and me not wanting to find a huge mess when they decide to play or fool around. As they get older we will be a lot more open about it. Everything I ate was monitored so strictly and my mother was freaked out about being fat (and consequently about me being fat). Oddly enough though,she was also big on the "You will finish everything on your plate if you ever want to leave the table" at mealtimes. As a consequence, I never developed good eating habits. The second I moved out I went completely nuts and ate nothing but junk. DH had the opposite type of home, every sort of junk food imaginable was there and they were free to grab whatever, whenever. He learned to constantly graze all day on junk. Now that he no longer plays lots of sports, it's caught up. For our kids we're trying to meet in the middle. For now, since they're young, we get their meals and snacks mostly to reduce messes. As they get older we will allow them to do more for themselves. Hopefully they will be better informed about good choices than either DH or I were.

 

[Kies99]

My kids are 6 and 4. I'm more concerned about them not closing the fridge door more than anything else and that's why we won't let them in th fridge.

As for getting their own snacks and such, we don't let them get them without asking first. That's just to monitor what/how much they are eating. If they ask and we feel it's time for them to eat/snack, then they have a whole snack drawer in the kitchen and they can get it themselves.