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 think it's fine to set some things as out of bounds but you need to provide something it's okay to snack on - whether that's porridge or toast or whatever. Growing teens can need an awful lot of food. That doesn't need to be exciting food and it shouldn't mess up your meal planning but I don't think it's right to limit the food overall.

Children resorting to frozen corn must be very hungry. They sound like they aren’t getting enough to eat.

@SpiritAdder it is rein, as in a horse’s reins not reign. Same with rein in over reign in.

I honestly believe the majority of snacking is habit or boredom and not a general hunger thing. I remember feeling the same as a teenager in the 80s, coming home from school apparently "starving". My mum used to say if I was genuinely hungry I could cook myself some plain pasta to last me until tea time. I soon learnt that I could wait until teatime!!

My dc got home at 5 and we had dinner at 5:45. We had a pasta bake with bacon in it. It’s my easy easy dinner. Tin of tomatos, cooked onion and garlic, herbs, and cream…Blitz the sauce in the food processor and cook it up. Add it to the pasta add cooked bacon and cheese on top. They had a snack at 7:45ish DS10 had bread sticks and a pear. Dd12 had a yogurt and some bread sticks.

Mine snack quite a lot but it’s a habit I hate (in a very hypocritical way!) because actually if they just ate their meals they wouldn’t need to snack. I think it is just habit and boredom. You should feel hungry between meals IMO.

😂

no…

It’s also not great for teeth which is on my mind a lot too.

If you have teenage boys they may genuinely be very hungry even if they eat properly at meal times.

My DS did daily sports training during his teenage growth spurt years and he was pretty much always hungry.

We encouraged him to make porridge, eggs, soup, toast etc rather than snacking on rubbish.

We’d quite regularly find him making food at midnight, it calmed down as his growth slowed but he was very hard to keep fed for a number of years.

Porridge with frozen fruit is filling, healthy and not too expensive.

It’s free rein.

Surely you don't monitor every item of food that they eat? I didn't do this when mine were little- I just think it might set them up for issues when they're older.

Yes.

I grew up in a house where I was always hungry and there was very limited food.

It’s been an interesting experience doing things differently with my own family as DC have had absolutely free access to “treats” as well as completely unlimited fruit (apples, bananas, grapes and berries every day) and prefer fruit to the chocolate biscuits and crisps that they can help themselves to. I offer pudding after dinner every night and sometimes they turn it down. Both very lean with bmi 20.

I and my siblings have had a lifetime strugggle maintaining a healthy weight and succumbing to binges of “bad” food.

Genuinely, if you’re going to correct people’s spelling or grammar etc (which I think is SUCH an unnecessary and dickish move, you know what they mean and who are you benefiting?) then you can at least get it right. Embarrassing.

I think it’s tricky with teens and food and would always try not to impose limits or be strict or controlling around food. Obviously this is easier with a healthy budget but I make sure to have semi healthy snacks available at key times when they’re likely to be hungry eg straight after school, post sport at weekends. They’re growing so naturally feel more hungry.

We don't buy snacks, never have.
The teenagers never mention it, but do get excessively excited if we have a large bag of crisps to share with drinks late afternoon on a Saturday 😂

I’ve always given DD free rein of the kitchen, she actually has her own fridge. Shes always has plenty of her favourite chocolate bars, smoothies, juice cartons, cheese portions, milkshakes, there’s crisps, popcorn, Pringles etc

She will have ramen, a sandwich or home made sushi for supper.

The reason I’ve always done it this way is I’ve found kids who have food restricted over eat when they are exposed to it. DD will eat 1 sugary treat per night, she doesn’t like sweets and only likes 3 types of chocolate bars.

when her friends who have food restricted like at your house come they grab everything and I have to control what they eat and it makes me sad.

It does sound harsh to not be able to just help
yourself to food at your home, can you make some “help yourself” snacks available at all times to suit your budget?

No way do my children have free choice in the kitchen cupboards. It isnt setting them up for disordered eating. It is teaching them that life involves routines like eating as a family and eating proper healthy meals. They can ask for and be granted a snack or fruit etc but they aren't exactly going to die if they dont havd the option to eat unlimited bags of crisps.

Parents scared to parent on this thread.

This is me! I have 3 teens who are constantly growing!! Their appetites go up and down due to this and their activity levels vary too!

We have some granola bars but that's about it in the snack department. But there's always bread in the cupboard, fresh fruit, peanut butter, jam, eggs, cheese and homemade waffles in the freezer.
DS1 is 18 and gets hungry about 9pm despite eating a proper evening meal. As long as he tidies up that's fine.

Lmao if you're going to be an insufferable pendant at least make sure you're right first 🤣 Google is free!

(P.S. yes OP I always have snacks in, I grew up in a household where food was strictly regimented and snacking was absolutely forbidden and three out of five siblings ended up with eating disorders)

Yes we can afford it and yes we do have lots of snack options available, I would hate my DCs to go without. They are too young to help themselves yet but they will be able to when older, and for now I just make sure there’s a selection of good snacks like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango, bananas, cheese and crackers, breadsticks and hummus, and biscuits for treats.

Nah. I had very restricted food as a child and then disordered eating until my 30s. My house is well stocked with food. No one ever needs to be hungry; in turn they rarely over eat or over think food.

My mother was restrictive with food and it's led to a lifetime of overeating (I do realise there is an element of personal responsibility etc). I never restrict the amount my kids eat, we don't have loads of random crap in the house (obviously sometimes we have treats in) but toast and fruit is unlimited.

Frozen sweetcorn and peas sounds grim!

All the snacks in our house - they still eat their x3 meals a day. They’re growing kids and sometimes (like adults) ‘fancy’ something. They’re not greedy or overweight, just normal growing kids. Your children raiding the freezer for frozen peas is crazy IMO.

I don’t buy crisps or biscuits but there is fruit available, but once it’s gone, it’s gone. I can’t afford to top up in the week. We have 3 decent meals a day, which are all planned, I only buy what we need. No one goes hungry. I don’t understand the obsession with snacking.