I left my 16 year old at home for 24 hours and he ate...

[mrsm43s]

A ready meal (mac & cheese)
A pot noodle
A family sized pizza
A full tub of 40 cocktail sausages
At least 2 big buckets full of buttered popcorn (maybe more, but only evidence of two pots where he melted the butter).
4 and half bags of crisps
Several bowls of cereal (I'd guess about 3 or 4 from the number of bowls left)
Multiple rounds of toast/sandwiches- about half a loaf worth, with a mix of fillings - choc spread, jam, cheese, soft cheese
A block of feta
A 2 person packet of fresh tortellini
and something chocolately that came in a plastic tub that I can't remember what would have been in there, but there was definitely cocoa powder residue in the bottom of the container.

He did not eat the cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, hummus, apples, grapes, bananas or yoghurts.

He's as skinny as a rake!

I'm not complaining as we were away on a Uni visit with eldest, and he was alone overnight for the first time and the house was still standing, the cats and dogs were fed and let out appropriately (the dog wasn't actually walked, but we went early evening to early evening, so we've walked her early Friday then late Saturday and she's only a Chi cross that doesn't need hours of walking), but no poo, so he def did garden runs with her. The house was pretty tidy apart from the stack of dirty crockery and empty food packaging.

How would your 16 year old son have fared?

That is a ridiculous amount of food

It was greedy for him to eat such a large amount. Completely unnecessary. Whether he is overweight or not is irrelevant. No one needs that much calories (must be about 10,000 at least)

Also so costly, must be at least £25 of food there that he alone troffed in 24 hours. You must be minted if you think this is acceptable.

Do you have teenage children though? It's really easy so say that when you have little ones and you can't imagine them being independent.

I'd leave my 16 year old for 24 hours (but he would also walk the dog!)

Lots of them go to Reading festival post GCSEs for 3 days without adults - that's something I'd not let him do.

My son is like this, my dad was a trucker and used to take him with him on the road. When he was 5 they stopped at a transport cafe and my son polished off a full adult portion English breakfast with the usual egg, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans plus black pudding plus toast plus two pots of tea! The owner couldn't believe it 😂 On the way out my son asked "Grandad can I have a Mars bar in case I get hungry".

He's 30 now, still eats like this and is super skinny. I know if he's called home and I was out because my fridge will be empty and they will be bite marks in the cheese.

@Redrosesandsunsets

“Sounds pretty normal to eat the ready meals”

meals plural?! Why?! You only need one meal in the evening

@IheartJKRowling

your 30 YEAR OLD son will come to your house and bite into your cheese?!

WTF?!

is he ok? Is he not able to use a knife and slice the cheese??

Thats so weird of him not to mention unhygienic

Id be fuming if my six year old did this never mind 30 year old

Please allow me to recommend the book, The Teenager Who Came to Tea. Can't recall author's name but it will make you smile😀

Thanks OP its been a most amusing thread.

Even the pearl clutchers add to the entertainment value.

@Summerfun54321

that’s nothing to be proud of

How much is your weekly food bill?!

I must be bucking the MN trend here but that seems like shitloads to me...there is genuinely no way any of my DCs would have managed all that solo in 24hrs, whatever their age or sex! They did all have growing periods (where they seemed to stretch like those elastic people toys in 24 hrs ) but even so.

I feel a bit cats bum mouthy thinking it sounds greedy, when that thinking seems so out of step with the replies here though?

(By no means am I a smug perfect parent btw, if mine had eaten all that in 24hrs, I know it would have been munchies or mates round)

That's really made me smile 🙂

I wouldn’t leave a 16 year old alone in a house for 24 hours.

Absolutely normal. Boys of that age are often going through huge physical changes that require mammoth amounts of food.

@KangFang

dont talk daft - eating that amount of food is obscene and it’s not normal

I would be fuming if my kid did that, id be asking - what is the rest of the family going to eat now?! do they think all I go to work for is to earn money to fund their binging?!

on mumsnet there’s this idea that you can just buy more food if your teen selfishly eats it all. East Come, easy go. It’s not the case though for lots of families especially now

@CheshireCat1

Why?

Did you press post too soon? You haven't said why.

Why did he leave half a bag of crisps? Is he ill? 🤣

@CheshireCat1 why wouldn't you leave a 16 year old alone in the house for 24 hours?

I went to university hundreds of miles away a couple of weeks after my 18th birthday. Teenagers have to learn to fend for themselves at some point or it'll be a tough lesson going off the rails.

@LilacPoppy

? Eh OP’s son is 16 not 6

This reminded me of the time that I went to a friend's house many years ago. Her 15 year old son made sandwiches,and used 24 slices of bread. I was 😯

Laughing at all these folk saying they wouldn't leave their 16 year old alone, you do know they can vote and get married at this age?

I thought you were suggesting he'd been watching the Ring Cycle, as that would take about 24 hours.

@TearingHair

in what way does he sound lovely? If he was lovely he would have walked the dog and loaded the dishwasher

I’ve brought up three sons so I do have experience of teenagers. At that age they’re still navigating their way through life and pitfalls they may come across. There are lots of things that could go wrong and put them in harms way at that age, that’s why when you employ 16 year olds you have to complete a separate risk assessment for them because depending on the individual person they’ll be at different levels of maturity and have differing decision making skills. What if there’s a fire, a break in, a medical emergency.
It wasn’t a criticism of the original poster, I was just something that I wouldn’t do.

That is a ridiculous amount of food

It was greedy for him to eat such a large amount. Completely unnecessary. Whether he is overweight or not is irrelevant. No one needs that much calories (must be about 10,000 at least)

Also so costly, must be at least £25 of food there that he alone troffed in 24 hours. You must be minted if you think this is acceptable.

It’s not just teenage boys, girls can be exactly the same. I was, and so were my two DDs, all 6 footers though so that probably had a lot to do with it. Just entering the phase again with almost 11 year old DS, the between meals bowls of cereal, rounds of toast and tuna pasta have started already 😩