Can your family afford snacking and random grazing?

[TransAdmiralsAreAdmirals]

DC are grumpy because we don't allow random grazing and ask that they let me know when they're planning to prepare food using high-value ingredients or ingredients which may reasonably form a central component of a family meal.

I buy enough packed lunch items to last them both for the week, and much prefer it if I don't have to buy replacements if someone eats extra bags of crisps or snacks on extra packets of raisins or grain bars or similar.

Ditto preparing snacks between mealtimes: making toast, or bowls of pasta or cereal, or making fruit smoothies, or baking cupcakes.
Mine will get bowls of frozen peas or sweetcorn to snack on, so I often open the freezer to find empty bags.

Or unlimited condiments, for that matter -oodles of ketchup, sweet chilli sauce or mayo etc.

Or raiding the fruit bowl; there's enough fruit for everyone to have a couple of pieces per day but not to eat 3 bananas in a day, for instance.

We eat 3 square meals a day; quality home-cooked / prepared food and always have fruit available, so they're not going hungry. DC1 in particular insists that all their friends have free reins in the kitchen and that their cupboards are stuffed to the gunnels with snacky foods to which they help themselves with gay abandon, citing fridge raids of quantities of items I could never sustain in our home on our budget: I literally couldn't afford to stock lots of grazing foods in case someone feels a bit bored or peckish.

Can you, and do you, keep plentiful reserves of snacks which your DC are allowed to help themselves to?

I’m going against the grain here. We are a no snack household but not because of any resson other than we just…don’t, I suppose. I just never think of food between meals and I guess that just kind of got passed on.

As babies, my kids would not each much of their main meals if they snacked in between. I didn’t have snacks growing up either. So it’s just not a habit we got into.

If my kids asked for snacks I’d buy them but I guess just because of the way things have always be done they just don’t and I don’t really think about it.

Our main meals are pretty substantial though so if you’re not into snacks maybe ramp up the portion sizes?

Oh and just read an update - my kids know to put things on the list if they finish something. We have a whiteboard grocery list on the fridge. That solves the frustration of going for cereal or whatever and finding none left.

Surely an AI written post, for clicks…

We don't snack at home either but Ditto preparing snacks between mealtimes: making toast, or bowls of pasta or cereal, or making fruit smoothies, or baking cupcakes.
Mine will get bowls of frozen peas or sweetcorn to snack on, so I often open the freezer to find empty bags.

I have only ever allowed one of a kind a day anyway. So if you have crisps or a cereal bar in your lunch, you can't have another one that day.
So each one of crisps, cereal/cake bar, yoghurt, apple, orange, pear, banana etc. After that you're done.

Toast and cereal were staples in our house for snacks if all the other stuff has been eaten.

I make energy balls. Out of crunchy peanuts, oats a few choc chips and corn flakes.

This thread is absolutely ludicrous

If you tell teenagers they can't eat whatever they want - whenever they want - with no limit - they will be bulimic, stressed, starving

Do people know that the UK has one of the highest child obesity rates in THE WORLD?

A third of 11 year olds in the Uk are seriously overweight - this happens over the time they are in primary school.

We have a global epidemic of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, tooth decay - because we eat more than ever with no limit.

i dont think you're unreasonable to not want them eating a key ingredient for a future meal :) ...I would either label such things very clearly, or have diffferent sections of fridge/freezer that are "off-limits"

Then maybe have a few more top-up foods around for them, be it toast / fruit / things to bake with etc :)

how about leaving large packs of hard boiled eggs in the fridge. they’re healthy and filling.

Can you make some tray bakes with DC? Things like flap jacks. A fridge jar full of chia pudding? Why not have a fridge shelf for food to help themselves to. Or a fridge shelf for ingredients earmarked for meals.

well said!

this country is so messed up when it comes
to food.

giving kids endless junk leads to disordered eating not setting limits and insisting on healthy food.

My kids just help themselves when they are hungry. I don't have tonnes of packaged snacks. We have yogurt to have with fruit to make it more filling. There are wraps and crumpets ect.
On a normal school day they would come home from school and have a snack and then sometimes after dinner around 8pm. I dont control it at all.
I do a weekly meal plan which is on the wall in the kitchen so they have an idea of what is for dinners.
My oldest usually comes with me on the food shop so will pick up some bits she likes but it also helps her think about food for the week.

We don’t really snack in our house. We do have crisps but they usually go with a sandwich for lunch. I serve 3 meals a day, sometimes dd1 (21) misses breakfast so she might have a small snack but rarely. It’s not that we can’t afford it, there are things in the house that could be used as snacks but we just don’t snack.

My DC never had unlimited snack cupboards when growing up as I would have scoffed them all tbf

I think there's a line. Cooking up a whole pack of halloumi for a snack they should ask first as it's expensive. But I wouldn't begrudge children making toast or eating bananas

Of course that’s not a good idea either but if an actually hungry child is desperate enough to eat frozen veggies straight from the freezer then surely there’s something in between ‘shaming hungry children’ and ‘force feeding sweets’ that’s a reasonable place to end up.

I didn’t grow up with treats and snacks and it’s not worked well for me as an adult as I have no background of being reasonable. So many rules, so many restrictions. My parents are great parents who wanted the best for me, but restricted access to food can be damaging too.

You’re assuming the snacks are ‘junk’. I have snacks in my house. I don’t have junk food in my house.

You don't need to be desperate to eat frozen peas, they are legitimately tasty. Not everyone views veggies as a last resort snack.

My kids and DH can eat absolutely whatever they want. They have, however, been raised to be considerate and polite so simply ask ‘what are the plans for dinner tonight?’ and ‘so does that mean this ready meal/cake/these eggs etc are fair game?’

It’s not really.a big issue.

And yes, teens in particular, often need more calories and more regular fuel stops than their post menopausal weight-challenged mum, so the cupboard has plenty of savoury and sweet snacks for them and their friends.

When I was young there was a shelf in the fridge, the cupboard and the freezer that was not to be touched where things that Mum had plans for lived and everything else was available to eat.

Are you sure your main meals are teenager size? It does seem odd to be eating frozen veg as a snack.

It would seem that keeping in a lot of snacks such as crisps and chocolate bars, are now seen as more or less ‘essentials’.

I hope I’m not the only one whose DM never provided such things. If I wanted a snack for break time at school (I always did) I made myself a Marmite sandwich.

I was going to say you were wrong. Then I googled it and you are in fact right. Damn! 😆

I have 4 teens, 3 boys and 1 girl and they love food. Once my eldest 2 reached teen years our food bill went up massively. Something that sticks out to me is that a lot of the avaliable foods you have are sugar based like fruit (yes I know sugar is not the devil) which is good in the moment but does not keep them full for long. My DC love fruit too and as they got older I encouraged them to add things like peanut butter or cottage cheese to help keep them full and balance out the sugar.
Something I have noticed withing my teens and their peers is the amount of noodles and potato based lroduxts that are eaten. Noodles of any sort are a particular favourite and are often enjoyed as a group at. Clubs ect. At home we keep a stock of store brand noodles and each week I buy 1 pack of chicken based frozen food like nuggets and 1 bag or box of potato based frozen food like waffles. 1 of my teens enjoys baked potatoes and I did start buying frozen. Ones for them but they are very expensive. So we now cook extra and freeze them.

To help with the cost of food we buy a big sack of potatoes and we try and buy in bulk when things are on offer. I know buying in bulk is not something everyone has the luxury of.

One of my DC has an eating disorder and something we have found very successful is allowing the DC to each pick the snacks and food items for their lunch and these are stored in a small tub with their name on it. Items that need to be stored differently we will let everyone know that is is not for them. The best thing we ever did was allow the DC more input into the food we eat.

I had a childhood with little to no access to snacks or any say in the food I ate and this resulted in me having very disordered eating and subsequently becoming overweight as an adult. I have become better over the years and I do not binge as often as I once did but I still struggle with an addiction to fizzy drinks as this was something I was never allowed.

Mine are older but still, we have a certain amount of snacking food built into our food shopping. My youngest loves cucumber and tuna salad and will make that as her go-to snack - happy to facilitate. We always have apples and peanut butter, cheap super noodles, ingredients to bake cookies, greek yoghurt etc. My older two have part time jobs so will regularly just go and get their own food if they don't fancy what we have

Three square meals and fruit might be fine for you but would leave most teenagers hungry.
Have you asked them if they're hungry? Why do you think they want snacks?

As for oodles of condiments, tomato ketchup and mayo can be a pound a bottle, buy cheaper brands and let them enjoy food prep and eating, it's part of life.