Au pairs and food

What age is he?

Teenage and early twenty lads can easily demolish what you think of as a fridge full of food, in a day or two. This might shock you if you've not had much to do with teenagers till now!

What about getting him his own filling food, cheesy pasta bakes, large baked potatoes, plenty of bread with things for putting on toast, like beans and eggs?

You can't afford live in help.

I agree with Tiredeypops and would want him to feel welcome with whatever food he needs given it isn’t exactly quails eggs and smoked salmon. Buying whole chickens is much cheaper, and it needn’t cost a fortune but I know the feeling of staying somewhere and knowing they are used to eating less than us so feeling a bit worried!

Can you give him a budget to buy his own?

Frozen chicken, frozen mince etc?

Do you think he overeats or just has a healthy appetite for a young man?

Does he live in, how many meals do you feed him a day, is it part of the pay package that he gets meals.

I had a series of male au pairs and just factored in the cost of lots of food for them - active young men do seem to get through loads of food. And his attitude to meat will depend on where he comes from/his own family background. You need a chat - but I'd start by asking him what he thinks is a normal/reasonable diet for him and work from there. You really do have to make sure he has an adequate diet for his nutritional needs but he may not be happy with non-meat protein and you'll have to decide whether he's good enough for you to take the hit.

I feel that if you can afford an AP you can afford to feed them. Frozen fish and chicken are normal foods. Young guys just eat a lot - it doesn’t make them greedy or unreasonable - they just have much higher calorie requirements. You can’t expect him to go hungry because you don’t eat as much.

Not sure your au pairs age, but I am the proud owner of a teenage son, and he eats far more than DH & I, large portions and more meals, otherwise he is very hungry.

You should ensure he has unlimited access to the staples and fruit & veg and that he knows what he isn't allowed to help himself to (e.g. fish set aside for evening meal, or steaks bought especially for a meal)

I have found that what works well is if a cook too much evening meal so there is always a leftover portion of lasagna / Shepard's pie / chicken curry etc. In the fridge. And I make sure my DS knows it's there and for him, he will happily eat a meal as an afternoon snack and then a full evening meal as well.

shifty we certainly can't afford to eat meat everyday in our house, If we did our food bill would double! It's not unreasonable to give a meat allocation/portion in line with the rest of the household but offer unlimited filling carbs, surely?

Surely supplying meals is part of the deal with an Au Pair, your first one sounds like she wasn’t eating properly tbh!

He’s an adult & you need to ensure you’re catering for another adult in the food available in your house, chicken is pretty normal, he’s not asking for steak every day!

It’s pretty controlling to tell another adult what they can have to eat and ration it. Especially an adult who doesn’t earn minimum wage because you’re meant to feed him. He’s not asking for sashimi, is he?

This feels like two different questions - how much chicken he has an how much food he has. No one needs meat every day, but they do need enough calories, and young men eat a lot. Whatever you choose to do about the meat, he should have unlimited access to bread/potatoes/rice/pasta etc. - he may need to eat much more than you think just to be full.

I have a menu thing on my fridge that I fill out each week - it's just the kids and I know what we're eating and they know what they can't take coz it's needed for a meal etc. Could you do something like that maybe? Or put stuff into tubs/shelves in the fridge with the day labelled on them. So, once he's eaten his food then that's that and there's no more... maybe sit down and have w chat with him about the best way to do it but he shouldn't be eating everything. Nothing wrong with enforcing normal portions and tell him to get his own extras.