How long does the 'there's nothing to eat' phase last?

[Boxjumpers918]

DS is 13. He's just declared (for the 3rd time this week) that there's nothing to eat in the house (ravenous after school, tea is at 6.30). I've pointed out the:

-Greek yoghurt
-Crisps
-eggs
-cheese and cracker
-pepperami sticks
-mini pork pies
-houmous
-fruit bowl
-3 types of cereal
-porridge
-toast
-brioche
-biscuits
-mini cheddar

I mean wtf else does he expect us to have?!!

Dd18 said this very thing today! Pointed out the bread, butter, bacon, cheese, hummus, yogurt, tins in cupboard, fruit, salad, avocados, pasta and noodles to no avail.

I could see myself saying that with those available: I'm after a small, savoury meal. Some super noodles or something would be what I was after

after years of this I have discovered pot noodles and frozen mini pizzas are what they want

My mam would always say "you can't be that hungry then "

The options were usually more limited in them days - bread and jam or toast and butter

Microwave ready meals of their choosing, teach them how cook things/snacks they like

I cook every night but when he got home from school it's like feeding starving wolves!
So he's out of this phase now but here are the highlights of his culinary skills from 13-16

So quesadillas, noodles fried egg on top, toast, tomato soup and garlic. Bread, wraps with left over anything and cheese.
Ready meals : Mac n cheese, tomato bacon pasta, pizza

Sometimes he may have eaten all of these in one day. My food shopping was ridiculous
He's 19 now works and goes to college and eats out a lot phew!!!!

I would simply tell mine to wait for dinner! Ok I have 2 girls but they knew the only snack available was fruit (or a raw carrot perhaps )

Once you allow snacking they demand more and more. 3 meals a day is plenty of calories

At that age them mean they want ‘rubbish’ chocolate, cake, biscuits not Greek yoghurt or fruit. You could ask your son to write down three things he wants to give you a helping hand when shopping.

At last! At last! An upside to picky eaters!

kiddo, there are nine things you will eat. They’re all in stock, knock yourself out!

(In reality, she still doesn’t knew what she actually wants a lot of the time. I made a list with columns for appropriate meals. When I get ‘I don’t know’ I direct her to the list and tell her to give me a shout when she’s figured it out, she has x minutes left in the window of my availability to provide the meal in question. I am 100 percent over endlessly reiterating the pool of available acceptable options and windows of opportunity for meeting other people’s physical needs on a rolling basis!)

Thing is, when they say that, and you ask them what they would like - they don’t know. Because we’ve always had the option of “walk 5 minutes to the shop and purchase the thing you want to eat” and that never helped.

My answer is “oh, shame, come here and load the dishwasher while you’re thinking about what you want to eat”.

I’m 34, I do all the food shopping and the cooking, I’m currently hangry because there isn’t anything to eat that I actually fancy.

motogirl

Once you allow snacking they demand more and more. 3 meals a day is plenty of calories

You'd think wouldn't you! In an average day he eats:

Breakfast:croissant, strawberries, an apple, slice of cheese. Half an avocado blended with milk, 2 eggs scrambled with chopped spinach and a couple of bacon rashers.

Snack:oat bar and banana

Lunch:hot meal from school

Snack when he gets home ravenous (see OP for food options!)

Evening meal: usual type of thing curry, shepherds pie, roast, lasagne etc.

Supper: usually 2 weetabix or Greek yoghurt.

He's lean, not an ounce of fat on him! Me on the other hand would be the size of a house!

@Boxjumpers918 when they have to do the food shop! If I do the weekly shop, there's never anything to eat apparently, even for meals! We can have mountains of different meats and sides but DH will declare there's nothing in! So I told him one week he had to do it! 3 days after it should have been done, when he realised I wasn't kidding, he did it and bought pretty much exactly what I usually buy, but never moaned! He did the next week when I did it again 🤦‍♀️

So he is unable to construct a balanced diet for himself? He needs help then, to be a functional adult.

@Simonjt has it. DS means ' the thing that I fancy at this particular moment isn't available'.I must admit that I never tended to have a lot of snacks around apart from satsumas or apples.my friend provided shredded wheat for the occasion if overly hungry teenagers.