Do you have "junk" food in your house on a regular basis?

When we had kids at home, I'd have Babybels, junk yogurts and packs of biscuits in the house. Occasionally crisps at the weekend. They did also have crappy cereals. I didn't have a junk food drawer or anything like that as it would be gone as soon as it was filled. Fizzy drinks for special occasions. Kids are adults now - one will eat anything, the other still quite fussy. I don't really buy anything like that now as I'd just eat it. My youngest would make herself cakes or biscuits if she fancied them 😀.

This. I don’t buy chocolate, sweets or crisps every week, when they are in the house they are for a special treat. My kids can buy what they want with their own pocket money. We have biscuits and cakes but they are homemade and never eaten without asking; I don’t think it’s setting good habits for children to be allowed to constantly graze. When we're in a restaurant, on holiday or they’re at someone else’s house, I don’t care what they eat.

Sorry, hard disagree. This is hardly restriction, but seems to be a wide range of choices promoting good health but also enjoyment! Wouldn't you prefer your kids to create a meal they like out of healthy ingredients, rather than snaffle up coco pops whilst scrolling on their phone? There is no reason to have food that has no nutritional value in the house on a regular basis... @Ilfurfante it sounds like you've got a great balance, not banning anything, just not buying it.

Do you think what they really mean is that there's nothing 'instant' to eat? Because maybe having more fast but healthy choices is what they want.

Missing the point but if that was your lunch, I would love to know what dinner is!! That's a full on evening meal here.

Mine had BLT's today (although that is usually a once a week / Sunday thing)

I agree with this. ⬆️ I don’t eat much ‘junk food’ but we always have some in as our kids like it a few times a week and we have it occasionally.

DH and I don't eat that kind of food regularly so we just don't have it in the house.

Your kids don’t get a say. I’d have hated to live with parents with that attitude. I think it’s much better to buy things they want and just make sure they understand why it’s best to eat smaller amounts of some foods. The people I know who had parents who didn’t buy anything they deemed as unhealthy are the ones with food issues now.

When I shop I shop for the whole family- so just because I don’t routinely eat something I wouldn’t deny my kids from having it.

Mine are both at work - My DD has an ED so has to have a certain amount of calories a day, which includes chocolate etc.. My DS is fit, healthy into sport and has a really balanced diet. Lots of fruit/ veg etc as well as some chocolate and crisps!

We routinely have a chocolate, crisps, popcorn etc in the cupboards. Its about moderation and balance and you are not teaching them that - you are putting your own boundaries around their food choices.

I buy one packet of biscuits and a packet of cereal bars like Nature Valley a week and other than that very similar to you. I might on a Saturday buy some crisps, chocolate or ice cream for a treat but not often. Ds 18 will buy his own but would rarely want to as he never really wants junk food. We never had chicken nuggets etc when they were little but I do buy frozen pizza sometimes which is more for me than ds.

I have all manner of cereals and biscuits, crisps, chocolates and sweets in the house. I have children who range in age from 24 to 9 and it’s always been available. They know to ask (the eldest has his own place now) and eat in moderation but if they fancy something it’s generally available. Fruit and homemade meals are always available as well as this is mainly what me and dh eat. They still moan though that what I have isn’t what they want. Yesterday the littlest wanted ice cream so i said there was Joes vanilla in the freezer but he wanted cookie dough 🤦🏻‍♀️. I said my name was mum. Not Tesco. Cue groaning from kids 🤣

It depends on the child though. My DD is prone to snacking on sweets and will spend some of her pocket money on them. If I left multi-packs of kitkats and crisps around I would feel that I was normalising this kind of diet. As she's already slightly overweight, I don't feel that this is a good idea.

I have to walk a difficult line with her between not wanting to encourage her to calorie count/restrict food (which I think is a really bad road to go down with a teenage girl) but also not encouraging her to think chocolate, sweets and crisps are everyday foods which people should have access to on tap.

Children who are better at self-regulating can maybe be cut more slack but I prefer to keep a fairly tight rein on treats and make sure they are just that.

My son used to say the same and he would complain there was ‘nothing’ in the well stocked fridge and cupboards. When I stated the obvious, he would say “I don’t want to cook food, I want to EAT food!”
Now in his 20’s, only fresh/chilled ingredients are good enough but he’s moved out and shops/cooks for himself when he’s here.
Don’t let them get you down.

We have a snack cupboard with crisps, sweets and chocolate that the family are free to enjoy outside of mealtimes.

We've brought up our 8 year old not to view these things as "treats" they are just food items like everything else.

He has good regulation of his intake of these things and as a result doesn't go overboard when presented with them outside the home e.g. a party. I'll regularly have to compost Easter chocolate or Halloween sweets as they don't get eaten.

In comparison, his friends who don't have them available at home go overboard when they are on offer.

Personally, I can ignore it, while my husband loves eating crisps and nuts. I'd rather eat some nice ice cream.

When I was a child I didnt have access to anything other than the 2 meals provided and the meals were not anything I liked
if we were to take food it was considered stealing all my siblings will tell you they were hungry growing up
when I left I ate everything no boundaries
I’ve always had a open pantry philosophy they can take what they want when they want even right before dinner time they are all the right weight and don’t over eat they know when they are full up works for me x

We are an ingredients house. We do have crisps but rarely chocolate bars / biscuits and never sweets or cereal bars. They can buy junk if they want - and do - but actually more often tend to whip up meals / snacks from what we have in.

The way people eat through their lives is generally set within the first decade. They might veer away from it through teen years but formative habits are very important and set a baseline for the body. DD17 now says she’s glad we don’t have packets that can be opened / eaten immediately; preparing food SHOULD take time and effort and is good for them to learn that early on. DS14 is always trying out recipes he’s seen on reels etc!

You are perfectly reasonable and it’s exactly what I did with my dc. Didn’t even buy squash - there were real lemons if you wanted to make lemonade, all the ingredients to make cakes and cookies etc. they had mugs with the recipe for mug cake on it. If you were hungry you made pasta not eat junk

Lol that is funny! Think that’s reflective of her age and having been a student I at uni all I ate was ready meals and snacks so returning to civilisation can be a bit confusing haha

I don’t have the junk in either OP but that’s because I’d eat it!! I’m a devil for custard creams and if I buy them I’d eat an entire packet.

my 21 & 18 DS feed themselves junk as they can drive and buy it out of the house, but I feel they 100% know and understand the difference between good and bad food, or just healthy etc.

They are both active and eat tons of protein and rice, so my meal prep and my own weightlifting background has sunk in as they will prep healthy meals.

But they will also drink monster drinks and buy a kebab! I think there is balance but personally if you’ve managed so far I’d stick to your guns. I’ve never bought fizzy drinks they have to buy their own.

If I fancy some chocolate, I'd go and buy some

When they fancy some chocolate, would you add it to the shop for them?

For instance, they have a choice of porridge, Weetabix or unsweetened muesli for breakfast or they can have eggs, toast, greek yoghurt, fruit etc

This is restricting their choices. As teens, you should not be restricting them like this,

I don’t eat them often either, but my kids like them so I buy them in. If they’re telling you that they would like them, why not buy them some? You seem to say that if you and your partner don’t eat something, then you don’t buy them which seems odd to me as your kids live in the house too and they’re teens so old enough to make some choices for themselves.

We do our shopping online and we ask our kids, who are teens and adults, what they want, above or instead of the usual stuff. They’ll often suggest a certain meal so I order the ingredients or they ask for specific chocolate, crisps etc. I don’t expect them to just eat what we do or go to the shop themselves for extras.

YANBU. Granted it's just me but I don't routinely buy crisps, chocolates etc. Currently, if I wanted a snack, there's rice cakes, cheese, nuts and fruit.

We have all those things at home. DC don’t have them everyday. I want them to grow up able to work out how to fit in treats themselves, not be denied and then rabid for them. Some of their friends who never get to have this stuff, ask immediately when they come round.

My children are still little (2 and 3) we tend to have thing like home made energy balls (dates, peanut butter and cocoa powder) cashew nuts and cranberries or just fruit and veg for snacks but I keep some hidden chocolate for me after bedtime 🤣
Depending on time could you make cakes for everyone to have something sweet with all the addictive additives?

Yes we are retired so allowed to

Same here. I don’t restrict anything (Ds aged 13 and dd aged 22), never have. The only thing I don’t buy regularly are fizzy drinks because they’re just full of chemicals. I do have chocolate, crisps, all kinds of stuff and the fridge is full of fruit and healthy snacks too. They eat a fair balance of both. Very active - especially Ds, he does a lot of sport.