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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Bloody scavenging children!

54 replies

StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 19/04/2011 12:29

I was going to have left-over pasta bake for my lunch - there was one portion left, and as I don't make this particular pasta bake very often, I was looking forward to my lunch - but one of the bloody children has had most of it for their breakfast!!! We have a cupboard full of cereals, a bowl full of fruit and plenty of bread to make toast, and tasty things to put on toast. Plus, they have £2.50 dinner money from us, and their own money, and are going to get a proper dinner tonight.

So - am I being unreasonable to think that whichever child it was could have left me these leftovers for my lunch? They didn't need them for their breakfast.

I tend to make a bit extra of some meals, on the basis that the leftovers will do me for lunch the next day - otherwise I tend not to plan anything for my lunches, and end up having to scrabble round for something to eat - and the dses know this. And they've been told that, generally speaking, leftovers are not for anyone's breakfast.

But still the one thieving little what-not has eaten MY lunch - and now I am going to be stuck with cheese on toast.

OP posts:
SafeAndHappyNow · 19/04/2011 12:32

It's the same in this house.

If it's not nailed down it gets scoffed.

Our motto is

YOU SNOOZE YOU LOSE

Goblinchild · 19/04/2011 12:33

Put a label on it saying Do Not Eat.
Otherwise it's all fair game.

cory · 19/04/2011 12:33

I would consider having your pasta baked booby trapped next time.

Goblinchild · 19/04/2011 12:34

Next time.
I realise that it would be a bit tricky labelling it now.

heliumballoons · 19/04/2011 12:37

We have that problem here with left over chicken chow mein. Not thieving as DS is 6yo so can't get top shelf yet Wink but more his pleading eyes wanting it far more than I do - so I have to share.

Original poster
StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 19/04/2011 12:41

I did actually think about labelling it last night, goblinchild, but decided that the boys should know the rules by this time.

I now realise how stupid and pathetically naive this was.

OP posts:
Original poster
StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 19/04/2011 12:42

Helium - left over chow mein is the food of the gods. I order an extra portion of plain chow mein whenever we have a chinese, to have for lunch the next day - and woe betide any child who even looks at it!

Actually - that reminds me - they manage to remember not to eat my chow mein - so why oh why violate my pasta bake???

OP posts:
Megatron · 19/04/2011 12:43

YANBU. I have been looking forward to the last scone with a cuppa at lunchtime. It has GONE! DS and DD both deny the crime but DS is looking very shifty.

Shodan · 19/04/2011 12:48

Am I the only one to be sniggering childishly at cory's pasta baked booby?

dementedma · 19/04/2011 13:00

one of the DCs did this with my frozen Mars Bar, stashed in the depths of the freezer under the veg FFS, and they still sniffed it out.
Haven't identified the culprit yet - have clapped the 3 of them in irons until one of the bastards confesses!

TheOriginalFAB · 19/04/2011 13:02

DD ate my pear yesterday and DH said she could Angry.

throckenholt · 19/04/2011 13:08

funny how they can spot the bit that you were saving for yourself but totally miss the bits specially bought for them on the front of the shelf - not that I feel your pain or anything ...

NotActuallyAMum · 19/04/2011 13:23

Blimey, when we were kids we weren't allowed to eat anything without asking first. I'm amazed so many of you regularly have things 'disappearing'

squeakytoy · 19/04/2011 13:25

Same here NotActuallyAMum.. helping yourself to food was a bollocking offence and we just did not do it..

NotActuallyAMum · 19/04/2011 13:27

Ditto squeakytoy, we wouldn't have dared!

kenobi · 19/04/2011 13:29

oh I hate it when you have promised your tummy something and it doesn't get it. Even if you have something equally yummy my tummy goes around all day going, 'but I wanted pasta bake! You promised me pasta bake!'

Original poster
StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 19/04/2011 13:29

I just don't have the standard of high-velocity, weapons-grade, kill-at-a-thousand-paces glare that my mum had. I have a look, but it's not the same.

I blame myself.

OP posts:
GloriaSmut · 19/04/2011 13:34

There was one unbreakable rule in our house - don't eat other people's fucking lunches for breakfast!! Or indeed anything clearly intended to be, or already, a meal. In practice, this meant that if my dcs cruised past the fridge on one of their many daily inspections during holiday time and found what was clearly a portion of proper grub in the fridge you always asked if you could eat it before troughing someone else's lunch or evening meal.

When they were 16 and 15, DS2 had a friend who was particularly evil in this respect and once managed to consume the entire makings of our evening meal, bit by bit, across an afternoon. I was not pleasant when I came home from work so I commiserate, OP.

darleneconnor · 19/04/2011 13:36

Cheese on toast sounds much better than leftovers to me.

Its a bit weird for them to have eaten it for breakfast.

I used to eat loads of fruit before dcs but now they scoff it before i get a look in.

squeakytoy · 19/04/2011 13:37

That is even worse! I would never have even opened the fridge or cupboard door in anyone elses house, and at the age of 42, I still wouldnt do so.

We lived with my husbands parents for 2 years before we got married, and even then I never helped myself, I always asked first.

When I used to go back to my mums house, I would always ask.

Mack3 · 19/04/2011 13:38

...... Being new here (1st day) ... I may be out of turn here, however with 2 kids in the house DS14 and DD9. The same rules apply to them as they did to us while growing up, I am 35 and do believe that the kitchen is not a go and help yourselves area. It's not easy espacially with the "but all my friends .....blah blah blah" but I feel it is important in terms of keeping a balanced diet by not allowing snacking whenever they feel like, but also for respect. If they feel the need for a snack they ask for it first..... politely :O
As a child we didn't have the variety nor amount of very tasty snacks that we have now, so it is a harder for kids now.

I will remain with my old fashioned priciples, as it seems to be doing good so far :)

blackeyedsusan · 19/04/2011 13:39

perhaps you can leave some booby trapped pasta bake next time. i am thinking black pepper and chilli powder.. though it does mean you don't get to eat it either...

it is most distressing.

riot act needs to be read. alternatively just as they are settling down for their next meal (a nice one preferably) whip it out from underneath their nose and scoff it. threaten you will do it everytime they eat your left overs...

ChippingInLovesEasterEggs · 19/04/2011 13:47

Make them all have cereal for dinner until one of them confesses!!

Old enough to help themselves = old enough to know the rules

Not old enough to follow the rules = not old enough to be allowed to help themselves

It amazes me though, if Mum was home we asked if we could have whatever, if she wasn't we helped ourselves - but we knew what was reasonable and what wasn't. We knew using 'proper to make dinner' food wasn't on, nor using the last of something she might need... or god forbid the last of the milk! Grin We had common sense... I worry about kids these days.

peggy0062 · 19/04/2011 13:54

I completely understands. DS 3 and 5. I now wait till after their bedtime before I have my dinner then at least I have one meal a day without them pestering for my food on my plate.

ifancyashandy · 19/04/2011 14:25

You see, you have to play the long game here....make the pasta bake. Put said leftover in fridge BUT accept you not going to get to eat it this time because you are going to cover it in chili / salt / raw garlic - basically any nasty that'll learn 'em leave them howling in pain / disgust.

Never again will the Fridge Raiders fridge raid.....And you will enjoy your leftovers in peace and joy!